09/02/2010

Review of basic writing skills and writing in English

A. S. M. A. Haseeb

Reference The UVic Writer's Guide, University of Victoria http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/MasterToc.html

Brief outline

1. Planning, Organizing and Presenting Essays 2. Developing and Ordering Paragraphs 3. Writing Clear Sentences 4. Choosing and Using Words 5. Acknowledging Your Sources 6. Preparing Summaries 7. Presenting Arguments Logically 8. Knowing the Basics of Grammar

Planning, Organizing and Presenting Essays

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Writing As A Process requires thinking and rethinking, working and reworking complex process craft which requires a lot of practice a workable linear model:

Actual process far more complicated

Types of Essays

The Expository Essay Sample topic: "How to Tame a Dragon." - function is to explain, or to acquaint your reader with a body of knowledge The Persuasive Essay Sample topic: "Dragons Should Not Be Tamed" - must defend your side of an argument - no longer merely showing, you are convincing The Informal Essay Sample topic: "Me and My Dragon." - informal essay is written mainly for enjoyment

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The Review Sample title: "The Fire Inside: A Review of John Scale's Dragons." - may be either formal or informal - goal is to evaluate a work, which implies that the reviewer's personal opinion plays a significant role in the process The Research Essay Sample topic: "Dragons and Demons in Norse Mythology." - leads you into the works of others and asks you to compare their thoughts with your own The Literary Essay Sample topic: "The Characterization of Dragons in the Works of Tolkien" - you are exploring the meaning and construction of a piece of literature

Writing Your Essay: Getting Started

Narrowing Your Essay Topic - finding something to write about Brainstorming - writing all your ideas on paper everything which occurs to you, no matter how irrelevant or bizarre - next make connections between your ideas - group them into sub-topics, expanding those that you can explore in more detail -put the groups into logical order, discarding those that do turn out to be irrelevant or bizarre

The Thesis a thesis: the point you are arguing topic is your subject thesis defines your position on that subject Your essay will take a position and will provide convincing evidence to support that view develop a working thesis early thesis may evolve

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Writing Your Essay: Organizing It

Methods of Organizing Your Essay - careful structuring and organization - a beginning, a middle and an end - organizing before writing allows you to articulate, analyze, and clarify your thoughts - Organization (or reorganization) continuous process goes on simultaneously with other activities - some principles of organization: Chronological order Classification Increasing importance Cause and effect Comparison and contrast

The Essay Outline - range from a brief sketch of main points to a detailed point-by-point outline complete with paragraphs diagram of your thoughts

The Structure of The Essay Outline - Introduction containing your thesis statement - Conclusion the end -Middle or body of the essay contains the argument, supported by evidence or example - good outline will prevent irrelevant materials - Construct your outline by listing all the important points you want to cover in your essay - each point should connect with the next - each sub-category should be linked to the main category

Writing Your Essay: Getting It Down

Audience And Tone - thesis is a highly formal work - No slang and colloquialisms

The First Draft - Introduction sometimes the most challenging part and may prevent from starting - plunge directly into the body of your argument - no need to feel disappointed with a messy, even incoherent first draft

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Revising
Clarity first draft use first grammatical constructions that come to mind rewrite much of original work for the sake of clarity Repetitive or unwieldy sentences distract reader's attention vary sentence structure - Trim redundant phrases Watch for passive sentences - Do not try to be wordy Coherence Every sentence must follow from previous one paragraphs work toward the goal of developing and exploring thesis convincing requires logical, systematic presentation Unity everything must contributes to the essay strength of argument will be diluted by irrelevant digressions or redundancies Everything in your essay must be there for a reason

Introductions Often wise to write introduction after rough draft of body of paper Introduction makes a good impression, informing reader what is to come and encouraging to read further The Structure of An Introduction "You tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, you tell 'em, and then you tell 'em what you told 'em." more than merely summarizing the points of your essay find a way to open discussion of the topic Inverted triangle model begins with the general and moves toward the specific need not give away all your opinions and conclusions give your reader a clear idea of what you will be discussing The Length Of The Introduction should be brief relative to the rest of the essay

The Body Of The Essay Usually the easiest part of the essay to write Turn your notes into paragraphs to support your central argument one topic per paragraph, each topic suitably and sufficiently supported

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Conclusions "Telling 'em what you told 'em" can often be the hardest part of the essay Conclusion should match what you said when you introduced the essay Shows more fully and clearly what you have been arguing. Triangle of the introduction is inverted in the conclusion instead of narrowing, you expand Introduction is a forecast, Conclusion is a final analysis Never make a claim in your conclusion that is unsubstantiated or even unmentioned anywhere else

Proofreading look for careless mistakes Reread the essay make sure that it flows well and that it makes sense as a whole spelling errors Get a friend to read your paper, leave the paper for several days, then come back and read it carefully

2. Developing and Ordering Paragraphs 2.1 Developing the paragraph 2.1.1 Paragraph Unity 2.1.2 The Topic Sentence 2.1.3 Developing Your Topic Sentence 2.2 The Functions of Paragraphs 2.2.1 Paragraphs That Analyze 2.2.2 Paragraphs That Contrast And Compare 2.2.3 Paragraphs That Define 2.2.4 Paragraphs That Make Claims 2.2.5 Paragraphs That Show Results 2.2.6 Paragraphs That Use Analogy

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2.3 Paragraph Order 2.3.1 Paragraph Order--An Introduction 2.3.2 Paragraphs That Build To A Climax 2.3.3 Paragraphs Order--Familiar To The Unfamiliar 2.3.4 Paragraph Order--General To Particular 2.3.5 Paragraph Order--Particular To General 2.3.6 Paragraph Order--Narration 2.3.7 Paragraph Order--Grinding It Out 2.3.8 Paragraph Order--Chronology 2.4 Paragraph Transitions

3. Writing Clear Sentences 3.1 Some Things To Do 3.1.1 The Need for Sentence Variation 3.1.2 Compound and Complex Sentences 3.1.3 Compound-Complex Sentences 3.1.4 Absolute Phrase 3.1.5 Parallelism 3.1.6 Subject/Verb Agreement 3.1.7 Pronoun Agreement 3.2 Using Capitals 3.3 Using Hyphens 3.3.1 Hyphens For Splitting Words At The End Of A Line 3.3.2 Words That Are Always Spelled With A Hyphen 3.4 Using Apostrophes 3.4.1 Using An Apostrophe To Show Possession 3.4.2 Don't Use An Apostrophe With Possessive Pronouns 3.4.3 Possessives of Inanimate Objects

3.5 Some Things to Avoid 3.5.1 Run-on Sentences 3.5.2 Fragments 3.5.3 Mistakes With Modifiers 3.5.3.1 Misplaced Modifiers 3.5.3.2 Dangling Modifier 3.5.3.3 Squinting Modifier 3.5.4 Wordiness 3.5.5 The Passive Voice 3.5.6 Other Common Errors 3.5.6.1 Mixed Metaphors 3.5.6.2 Sentences That Are Too Long or Too Loose 3.5.6.3 Repetition Within The Sentence

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3.6 A Summary of Common Errors 3.6.1 The Comma Splice 3.6.2 Run-on Sentences 3.6.3 Fragments 3.6.4 Wordiness 3.6.5 The Passive Voice 3.6.6 Parallelism 3.6.7 Subject/Verb Agreement 3.6.8 Pronoun Agreement 3.6.9 The Need for Sentence Variation 3.6.10 Misplaced Modifiers 3.6.11 Dangling Modifier 3.6.12 Squinting Modifier 3.6.13 Mixed Metaphors

4. Choosing and Using Words 4.1 Usage 4.1.1 Levels of Usage 4.1.2 Clichs 4.1.3 Jargon 4.1.4 Noun Strings A Dictionary of Usage 4.3 Gender Inclusive Language 4.3.1 The Generic Pronouns: He, His, And Him 4.3.2 A Note On Word Order and Gender 4.3.3 Generic Man 4.3.4 Titles 4.3.5 Direct Quotations and Gender

4.4 Spelling 4.4.1 Why Spelling Counts 4.4.2 A Historical Note About Spelling 4.4.3 What Does The Word Sound Like? 4.4.4 Unstressed Vowels 4.4.5 Homonyms 4.4.6 IE/EI 4.4.7 Final E 4.4.8 Final Y 4.4.9 Doubling Of Consonants 4.4.10. -Able & -Ible 4.4.11 Plurals 4.4.12 Canadian/English/American Spelling 4.4.13 Word Processors And Spelling Checkers 4.4.14 A List Of Words Commonly Misspelled 5. Acknowledging Your Sources Plagiarism

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5. Acknowledging Your Sources Plagiarism

Brief outline

1. Planning, Organizing and Presenting Essays 2. Developing and Ordering Paragraphs 3. Writing Clear Sentences 4. Choosing and Using Words 5. Acknowledging Your Sources 6. Preparing Summaries 7. Presenting Arguments Logically 8. Knowing the Basics of Grammar

6. Preparing Summaries
6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 How Writing Summaries Can Help You Grasp The Main Trend of Thought Reduce Explanation Use The Most Economical Wording Possible A Sample Passage To Summarize The Textbook's Version The Student's Version

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Brief outline

1. Planning, Organizing and Presenting Essays 2. Developing and Ordering Paragraphs 3. Writing Clear Sentences 4. Choosing and Using Words 5. Acknowledging Your Sources 6. Preparing Summaries 7. Presenting Arguments Logically 8. Knowing the Basics of Grammar

8. Knowing The Basics of Grammar

8.1 Forethoughts About Grammar 8.2 The Sentence 8.3 Phrases 8.4 Clauses 8.5 Pronouns 8.6 Agreement 8.7 The Subject (Subjective, Nominative) Case 8.8 The Object (Objective, Accusative) Case 8.9 Verb Agreement 8.10 Punctuation 8.11 Colons, Semi-Colons, Parentheses and Dashes 8.12 Colons 8.13 Semi-colons 8.14 Parentheses 8.15 Dashes

A simple example

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