Advanced English Writing

Thanks for Dr. John Sandberg

Basic

Why take writing?

• Communicate ideas intelligently
• Properly apply the mechanics of language
• Learn the appropriate style for your audience
• Become a strategic writer
• Increase fluency with Quick Writes and Journals
• Become concise and precise through essays
• Improve collaboration with group projects

Format

MLA Format

• MLA Format is used for most formal writing
• Font: Times New Roman 12 pt.
• Left-align text or left justification
• Margins: 1 inch all sides
• Double space
  
  • No extra spaces between title and first paragraph
  • No extra spaces between paragraphs
• Indent paragraphs ½ inch (Use tab)
• Title:
  
  • Centered, Bold, 14 pt. (Sandberg)
  • Capitalize first letter of all words except articles (a, an, the) and prepositions unless they are the first word in the title.
  • Byline, author’s name, is centered directly under the title: 12 pt.

Block Format

• Block Format is used for most business letters and formal correspondence
• No indent
• One space between two paragraphs

Book Format

• Book Format is used for most books

Plagiarism

Types

1. Copying text “as is” without quotation marks and with no citation or source.
2. Reordering the elements of the source text without citation.
3. Copying pieces (sentences, key phrases) of the source text without citation.
4. Paraphrasing without citation.
5. Reproducing information that is not common knowledge without citation.
6. Incorporating an idea heard in conversation without citation.
7. Using your own past material or another student’s material as a new idea without citation.
8. Paying for another to contribute to your work without citation.
9. Using software or online translators to translate material without citation.
10. Paying someone else to do your work, purchasing material, or translating from someone else’s material (web-based or hard copy) without citation.

Taking the time to cite and to develop original material is important to the academic and the professional.

Four styles

• Descriptive
• Expository
• Narrative
• Persuasive

Seven traits of good writings

• Ideas
• Organization
• Voice
• Sentence Fluency
• Word Choice
• Conventions
• Presentation

Strategy

Paragraph Organization

• 1 major theme or topic in an essay
• An essay is a collection of paragraphs
• A single thought or idea in a paragraph
• Ideas fit together to explain the essay’s theme
• A paragraph directed or controlled by the topic sentence.
• Supporting sentences clarify the controlling idea.
• Sentences in a paragraph unified around a central idea.
• Detail included to support the controlling idea.
• Paragraphs close with a sentence that sums up the topic.
• Unity created between paragraphs.
• Transition words used.
• A Good Paragraph has:
  
  1. One Main Idea
  2. Topic Sentence
  3. Several Sentences
  4. Closing Sentence
  5. Proper indentation, spelling and punctuation

Strong Verbs

Verbs are central to all sentences!
sharpen an image, create action, show specific details, bring an inanimate object to life, substituted for those boring verbs,

Use your 5 senses

sight

smell

taste

hearing

touch

Use Similes, Metaphors, Personifications

• literary techniques to compare two things

Remove Empty, Unnecessary words

• Unneeded introductory words
• Flabby phrases:
  
  • all of → all
  • care about → value
  • In terms of → [delete]
  • in my opinion → [delete]
• Redundancies
  
  • Add up → Add
  • Ask the question → Ask
  • Blend together → Blend
  • Advance planning → planning
  • Every single person → Every person
  • close proximity → proximity
  • could possibly → could
• Empty and overused words
  
  • awesome
  • cool
  • rock star
  • it is
  • all things considered
  • as far as I’m concerned
  • for the most part
  • it seems
  • in a manner of speaking
  • the fact that
  • more or less
  • in my opinion
  • truly
• Inflated phrases
  
  • at the present time → now/currently
  • because of the fact → because
  • by means of → by
  • due to the fact that → because
  • for the reason that → because
  • in order to → to
• and
• unnecessary complex sentences

Strategy:
- Make words precise and concise.
- A rule of thumb: if you cover a word with your thumb and the sentence is still clear, leave it out.