Admas University

Mekanisa Branch

Basic Writing Skills Handout and Individual Assignment

For (2DECS1)

Submission: June 2020

Submitted to: Edosa Yemane (Instructor)

May 2020

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Unit One: Writing Effective Sentences

Writing

Writing is a process of rewriting, rewriting, and rewriting.

People usually write in order to communicate facts, feelings, attitudes, and ideas clearly and
effectively. In fact, writing is a complex process that allows writers to explore thoughts and
ideas, and make them visible and concrete. It is also a powerful instrument of thinking because it
provides students with a way of gaining control over their thoughts (Cotton, 2001).
According to Hedge (1991:8), “Good writers should have a sense of audience, a sense of
direction in their writing”. Hedge, further notes that writing instruction should enable students to
write whole texts from connected, contextualized and appropriate pieces of communication in
order to make writing meaningful and enjoyable for all students.

Writing can be challenging whether it is in one’s native language or in a second language. It is a

difficult skill because writers must balance important issues such as content, organization and
grammar. It is especially difficult for second language learners because they are expected to
create written products that demonstrate mastery of the elements needed for writing in a foreign
language. As stated above, writing is a complex set of skills that requires continuous practice.

The English language is full of words, and no two words mean the exact same thing. To write
effectively, writers must consider the weight that each word carries and the subtle differences
between synonyms. This allows the writer to communicate more effectively while making the
writing more exciting.

THE WRITING PROCESS

Objectives: at the end of this unit you will be able to:
 Develop right attitude towards writing.
 Recognize writing as a process.
 Identify the steps in the writing process, and
 Realize the importance of purpose and audience in writing.
1.1 HAVING THE RIGHT ATTITUDE

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Activity 1: what are your attitudes towards writing and habits of writing? Answer the following
questions honestly to your instructor.

1. How would you describe your feelings about writing?

2. How do you feel when you sit down to write something?
3. How do you feel when you finish writing?
4. How would you describe your writing habits?
5. What do you do when you begin writing?
6. How do know when you finish writing?
7. To whom do you show your writing?
8. Do you think that you write well? Why or why not?
9. Do you think anyone can learn to write well? Why or why not?
10. Do you usually revise or edit your writing? Why or why not?

Remember!

One sure way to wreck your chances of learning how to write is to believe that writing is a
natural gift. People with this attitude think that they are the only ones writing is unbearably
difficult activity. They feel that everyone else finds writing easy or at least tolerable. Such
people typically say “I’m not any good at writing” or English is not one of my favorite
subjects.” They imply that they simply do not have a talent for writing, while others do. The
result of this attitude is that students do not do their best when they write, or even worse, that
hey hardly try it at all. Their self-defeating attitude becomes a reality; their writing fails
chiefly because they have brainwashed themselves into thinking that they do not have the
natural talent needed to write. Until their attitude is changed, they probably will not learn
how to write effectively.

A realistic attitude about writing, rather than the mistaken “natural gift” attitude, should build
on the following ideas.

1. Writing is a hard work for almost everyone. It is painful to do the intense and active
demands. It is scary to sit down before a blank sheet of paper and know that an hour later
nothing on it may be worth keeping. It is frustrating to discover how difficult it is to
transfer thoughts and feelings from one’s head on to a sheet of paper. It is upsetting to
find how an apparently simple writing subject often turns out to be complicated. but
writing is not an automatic process, we will not get something for nothing; and we
cannot expect something for nothing. Competent writing results only through plain hard
work: through determination, sweat, and head-on battle.

2. Writing is a skill. Writing is a skill like driving, typing, or even preparing a good meal.
Like any skill, it can be learned if you decide that you are going to learn and really work
at it.

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 Advanced Writing will give you the extensive practice needed to develop your writing
skills. In this unit you will approach writing as a process by avoiding some of your
misconceptions about writing.

1.2 The process(steps) in writing

Skilled writers spend a lot of time thinking before they write and then work through a
serious of steps while they are writing. The final product is often the result of several
careful revisions. It takes patience as well as skill to write well. You should think of
writing as a process involving the following steps.
Step one: prewriting
 Thinking about your topic

Step two: planning

 Organizing your material

Step three: Drafting

 Writing a first draft

Step four: revising

 Improving the focus, content, and organization

Step five: Editing

 Checking grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and word choices

Step six: publishing

PREWRITING STRATEGIES

The first step before writing is to generate ideas about your topic. If you are like many students,
you may have troubles at times getting started with your writing. A mental block may develop
when you sit down before a blank sheet of paper. Or after you have started a paper, you may hit
snags or moments of where to go next. There are four techniques that will help you think about
your topic and get words on paper. The techniques are often called pre-writing techniques,
because they come before the actual writing of a paper.
They are brainstorming, free writing, questioning, and clustering,
Brainstorming

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Brainstorming, also called listing, is a process of generating a lot of information within a short
time by building on the association of previous terms you have mentioned.

 Jot down all the possible terms that emerge from the general topic you are thinking about.
This procedure works especially well if you work in a team. All team members can
generate ideas, with one member acting as scribe. Don't worry about editing or throwing out
what might not be a good idea. Simply write down a lot of possibilities.
 Group the items that you have listed according to arrangements that make sense to you.
 Give each group a label. Now you have a topic with possible points of development.
 Write a sentence about the label you have given the group of ideas. Now you have a topic
sentence or possibly a thesis statement.
Clustering

Clustering is also called mind mapping or idea mapping. It is a strategy that allows you to
explore the relationships between ideas.

 Put the subject in the center of a page. Circle or underline it.

 As you think of other ideas, link the new ideas to the central circle with lines.
 As you think of ideas that relate to the new ideas, add to those in the same way.

The result will look like a web on your page. Locate clusters of interest to you, and use the terms
you attached to the key ideas as departure points for your paper.

Clustering is especially useful in determining the relationship between ideas. You will be able to
distinguish how the ideas fit together, especially where there is an abundance of ideas. Clustering
your ideas lets you see them visually in a different way, so that you can more readily understand
possible directions your paper may take.

Free writing

Free-writing is a process of generating a lot of information by writing non-stop. It allows you to

focus on a specific topic, but forces you to write so quickly that you are unable to edit any of
your ideas.

 Free-write on the assignment or general topic for several 5-10 minutes non-stop. Force
yourself to continue writing even if nothing specific comes to mind. This free-writing will
include many ideas; at this point, generating ideas is what is important, not the grammar or
the spelling.

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  After you've finished free-writing, look back over what you have written and highlight the
most prominent and interesting ideas; then you can begin all over again, with a tighter focus.
You will narrow your topic and, in the process, you will generate several relevant points
about the topic.
The Journalists' Questions

Journalists traditionally ask six questions when they are writing assignments, 5 W's and 1 H:
Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why?, How? You can use these questions to explore the topic
you are writing about for an assignment. A key to using the journalists' questions is to make
them flexible enough to account for the specific details of your topic. For instance, if your topic
is the rise and fall of the Puget Sound tides and its effect on salmon spawning, you may have
very little to say about Who? if your focus doesn't account for human involvement. On the other
hand, some topics may be heavy on the Who?, especially if human involvement is a crucial part
of the topic. Possible generic questions you can ask using the six journalists' questions follow:
 Who?:
     Who are the participants? Who is affected? Who are the primary actors? Who are the
secondary actors?
 What?:
     What is the topic? What is the significance of the topic? What is the basic problem?
What are the issues?
 Where?:
     Where does the activity take place? Where does the problem or issue have its source? At
what place is the cause or effect of the problem most visible?
 When?:
     When is the issue most apparent? (past? present? future?) When did the issue or problem
develop? What historical forces helped shape the problem or issue and at what point in time
will the problem or issue culminate in a crisis? When is action needed to address the issue or
problem?
 Why?:
     Why did the issue or problem arise? Why is it (your topic) an issue or problem at all?
Why did the issue or problem develop in the way that it did?
 How?:
     How is the issue or problem significant? How can it be addressed? How does it affect the
participants? How can the issue or problem be resolved?

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The journalists' questions are a powerful way to develop a great deal of information about a topic
very quickly. Learning to ask the appropriate questions about a topic takes practice, however. At
times during writing an assignment, you may wish to go back and ask the journalists' questions
again to clarify important points that may be getting lost in your planning and drafting.

Definition of a sentence

A sentence is usually defined as a grammatically independent unit made up of a word or group

of words so related as to convey a complete thought.

-A sentence is the basic unit of thought someone uses to express her/himself.

Constituent elements of a sentence

Every sentence, short or long, is made up of one or more units containing two main parts: subject
and predicate.

Subject is a part of a sentence about which a statement is made. It is a noun or pronoun, with
any of its modifiers.

Predicate is the statement made about the subject .It is a verb or verb phrase, with any modifiers
or words used to complete its meaning.

Example

Our soccer team won the state championship.

Our soccer team / won the state championship.

Subject Predicate

Types of sentences based on function

Based on their function/use, there are four types of sentences. These are:

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1. Declarative sentences

E.g. He is a student.

They are reading.

2. Interrogative sentences

E.g. is he a student?

Are they reading?

3. Imperative sentences

E.g. Go out.

Stand up.

4. Exclamatory sentences

E.g. Education for all!

5. Optative sentences

E.g. May God bless you all!

Types of sentences based on structure

There are four types of sentences based on structure or number of dependent and independent
clauses in it.

1. Simple Sentence
2. Compound Sentence
3. Complex Sentence
4. Compound-Complex Sentence
Simple Sentence is a sentence consisting of one subject and one predicate, either or both of
which may be compound. It, in other words, is one main clause.

Example

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 - The players arrived.
- The players and the judges arrived.
- The players arrived and reported.
- The players and the judges arrived and reported.
Compound Sentence is a sentence which consists of two or more independent clauses
connected by a coordinating conjunction, conjunctive adverbs or separated by a semi-colon.

Example:

- I have never played tennis, but I hope to start taking lessons next year.
- I steamed the carrots, and then I baked the potatoes.
- I ate everything on the tray; I was really hungry.
- I bought coca cola, and I drank it at once, for I was very thirsty.
3. Complex Sentence is a sentence, which consists of one main clause and one or more
Subordinate clauses.

Example
- He met a student who left school last year.
- After I took a nap, I felt better.
- If you come late, you will miss the bus.
-
Compound -Complex Sentence is a sentence which consists of two independent clauses with
one or more subordinate clauses.

Example
- Although I have never played tennis, I planned to start taking lessons next year; I really
need the aerobic exercise that tennis provides.
- Although I have never played tennis, I really need the exercise, so I planned to start
taking lessons next year.
- I bought coca cola, and I drank it at once because I was very thirsty.

Direction: Dear students, who offer this course on this program, the assignment’s content
covers almost unit-1. So, right after you read this coverage properly, do the questions given

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below individually. Submit both question and answer sheet with the University’s frame on
the right submission date.
I. Identify grammatically complete sentences’ and then underline the subject once and the
predicate twice.
1. In the university compound.
2. A right attitude and a winning personality should be your best principles to get a job.
3. The movement of the tropical fish and the bubbles from the filter fascinate the young cat.
4. The journalists arrived.
5. The improvement of the students’ performance.
6. Biologists worked on the project the whole day.

II. Identify the following as independent or dependent clauses.

1. I like to read. independent
2. When she goes to school. dependent
3. It was a very good year. independent
4. Unless we stay home. dependent
5. Come over tomorrow night. independent
III. Answer the following questions accordingly.
1. Write three sentences with a simple subject and predicate.
1. My name was written on the document in three places .
2. She will be going to the dentist's office later this afternoon.
3. the patient with the shattered skull survived the surgery.
2. Write three sentences with complete subject and predicate.
1. The blue and white t-shirt belonged to my father.
2. My sister’s friend Filmon, works at the shop.
3. We often watch Horror movie on television.

3. Is writing challenging in one’s native language or in a second language?

Explain.
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 ______________________________________________________________
4. Discuss the difference between Exclamatory and Imperative sentences, and demonstrate them
With some examples.
- The difference between imperative and exclamatory sentence is that
the imperative sentence is a sentence that gives a direct command whereas the
exclamatory sentence is a sentence that conveys strong emotion or excitement.
Example: Exclamatory sentences
Exclamatory sentences often begin with the word “what” or “how,” but that’s not
always the case.
Example: - How amazing!
- You’re the best!
- I can’t do this!
Example: Imperative sentences
Imperative sentences are used to give commands or make requests.
Example: - Don’t do that!
- Close the door.
- Leave the cat alone!

5. Define the term ‘statement’ and give three examples with it.
- Something that someone says or writes officially or an action done
to express an opinion.
Example: 1. He produced a signed statement from the prisoner.
2. Press conference statement
- This is heartbreaking, i apologize again. I would request that I am allowed
to finish my statement, please.
3. According to his statement he was in London on that day .

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6. Select two of sentence classification by structure and explain their difference. Write two
examples for each.

 Complex Sentence
A complex sentence consists of one independent clause and any number of dependent
clauses:
Example
First Second

Wherever Tefera went, | the lamb would go as well.

In this example the first clause is dependent and the second is independent.

 Compound-Complex Sentence
a compound-complex sentence consists of two independent clauses and any
number of dependent clauses deference between complex sentence is number of
dependent clause in complex sentence one independent on compound-complex
sentence two independent that is the difference between compound –complex
sentence and complex sentence .
Example
Compound-complex sentence
First
Although the children loved the lamb, | the teacher disapproved of lambs | so
Second
| she told Tefera to take it home.
Third

In this example, the first clause is dependent, whereas the last two are independent.

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IV. Writing Activity
You are going to write a well organized paragraph on a problem you faced in your
university compound. Think of the kind of problem and the steps in which you gave
solution for the problem.
You may use the following as drafts:
- The problem happened
- Factors considered to solve
- Steps taken
- Who made the decision

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