Basic Writing Skills Credit hrs 3

Course Objectives: Birhanu G

Upon completing this course, you should be able to:
 understand the nature and function of sentences;
 develop the skills of writing different error free sentences,
 apply appropriate mechanical devices of writing to develop texts,
 compose effective paragraphs using different techniques of paragraph development,
 write well organized essays of different types on various issues,
 understand the basic concepts and techniques of report writing,
 prepare academic and research reports using appropriate techniques.
Develop the habit of writing various texts.

Module Overview
Competence in writing is demanded in academic and business communication. Its role is tertiary
education system for example is pivotal. Basic written proficiency is required for learners to
accomplish various activities. Written Assignments, essay type questions, writing term papers
and reporting various projects works are quite common in the academic continuum. Hence
enhancing the writing ability of learners is the prior goal of the course basic writing skills. To
acquire the proficiency required, practicing on sentence, paragraph and essay writing tasks are
emphasized.

Learners at tertiary level specifically need to write and correspond with their academic and
professional clients around. To help you acquire these basic skills, practical activities ranging
from writing phrases and clauses, analyzing and writing different sentence types and correcting
faulty sentences are paramount. Following these, students will practice analyzing the structure
and organization of a paragraph which tend to lead them to the acquisition of the skill of writing
different types of paragraphs. Paragraph writing, being the building block practice to essay
writing, prepares the ground in such a way that the activities of writing well organized essays of
different types are also taken into account. The structure, organization and features of writing
different types of sentences, paragraphs and essays are the major areas addressed by this module.

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The approach in this course delivery and skill development is integrative. Both the principles of
learning writing through product approach (the importance of language inputs and providing
model texts) and process approaches of writing (the strategies of writing and composing process)
are considered. Model paragraphs and essays are used accordingly to clarify activities. Following
the controlled activities, guided and free writing activities will be presented so that tasks and
skills will be organized in simplistic, linear and recursive manner. Learners will be evaluated
through classroom activities and home take assignments, direct writing tests and final
examination.

Table of Contents

Module Overview....................................................................................................................................1

UNIT ONE...............................................................................................................................................3

SENTENCE WRITING SKILLS............................................................................................................3

1.1. Phrases and Clauses......................................................................................................................4

1.1.1 Phrases....................................................................................................................................4

1.2. A clause.........................................................................................................................................5

1.2.1. Types of Clauses....................................................................................................................5

Subordinate or dependent Clause........................................................................................................5

Types of Subordinate Clause...................................................................................................................6

1.2. Sentence........................................................................................................................................7

1.2.1. A simple sentence..................................................................................................................7

1.2.2. Compound sentence...............................................................................................................7

1.2.3. A complex sentence...............................................................................................................8

1.2.4. A compound-complex sentence.............................................................................................9

1.3. Faulty Sentences.........................................................................................................................12

1. 3.1. Fragments............................................................................................................................12

1.3.2. Run-on Sentences..............................................................................................................15

1.3.3. Faulty Parallelism.............................................................................................................16

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 1.3.4. Modifiers:.............................................................................................................................19

1.3.5. Subject-Verb-Agreement.....................................................................................................24

UNIT 2:..................................................................................................................................................28

PARAGRAPH WRITING SKILLS......................................................................................................28

2.1. What is a paragraph?...................................................................................................................28

2.2. Features of a Paragraph:.............................................................................................................29

2.3. Analysis of a paragraph..............................................................................................................35

2.5. Four Types of Paragraphs...........................................................................................................36

2.5.1. Descriptive...........................................................................................................................36

2.5.2. Narrative..............................................................................................................................39

2.5.3 Expository.............................................................................................................................40

2.5.4 Persuasive/ Argumentative...................................................................................................55

2.5.5. Mixed Patterns.....................................................................................................................57

UNIT 3: WRITING ESSAYS................................................................................................................62

3.1. What is an Essay?.......................................................................................................................63

3.2. Structure and Features of a Good Essay.....................................................................................65

3.2.1 Introductory part of the Essay..............................................................................................65

3.2.2. Body of the Essay................................................................................................................70

3.3. Transition Signals in an essay.....................................................................................................78

3.4. Essay Outlining...........................................................................................................................81

3.5. Types of Essays..........................................................................................................................83

3.5.1.Descriptive Essay..................................................................................................................83

3.5.2. Expository Essay..................................................................................................................86

3.5.3. Narrative Essay..............................................................................................................89

3.5.4. Argumentative essay............................................................................................................90

References..............................................................................................................................................93

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