Improving your Writing Skills

1
Improving your Writing Skills
2
Write down thoughts and ideas whenever and
wherever they occur
3
Getting started The paper topic

• Read the assignment and make sure your paper
  addresses it
• Find your focus
• Ask questions to guide you to form a tentative
  thesis
• Write down preliminary answers, but dont hold to
  them if your evidence proves otherwise

4

• Turn your ideas and thoughts into notes
• Sort them out and begin to organize
• Come up with an interesting title that captures
  your theme -- NOT History Paper

5

• WRITE!
• When to write an introduction
• To organize thoughts
• Start writing something
• Perhaps write last, but in any case revise
• DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

6

• Put it aside for a day or two, then read it aloud
• Begin revision
• Imagine you are the reader, not the writer
• Make sure your ideas are supported by evidence

7
Editing

• First, backup your work
• Ask yourself
• is this readable?
• persuasive?
• supported by facts and evidence?

8
Cross out excess words - concise and clear is
ALWAYS better Rewrite unclear sentences Correct
anything that bothers you - this might be some
fact you really like but that doesnt work in
the paper Get rid of repetitions and
redundancy of words or ideas
9
Edit for spelling, punctuation, grammar and
typos Make sure you use the ACTIVE voice and
forceful verbs as often as possible Make sure
you have used a consistent citation style for
footnotes Use Chicago Manual of Style footnotes
10
Examples First citation from a book Jane
Doe, A Brief History of the World (Chicago
University of Chicago Press, 2005), p.
1586. Second citation Doe, Brief History, p.
2431.
11
From an article John Doe, The Significance of
Lentils in the Agricultural Revolution,
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 26
(2003), p. 65. Second Doe, Significance, p.
72. From the web http//whatever.whatever WHEN
TO CITE MATERIAL Exact quotations or
paraphrases Original ideas
12
Make what you think will be the final copy
THEN PROOFREAD IT AGAIN and make final
revisions
13
(No Transcript)
14
The Introduction
Start out with a quotation that captures the
theme of the paper or an anecdote or vignette
from your sources that makes the reader
want more The introductory paragraph will set
the tone for the entire paper
15
Writing your introduction

• Capture readers attention
• Do NOT tell the reader what you are going to do -
  just start doing it
• Do not use I unless you cannot avoid it
• Present some background facts about the subject
  of the paper
• Its acceptable to ask some questions you hope to
  answer
• State thesis clearly
• An introductory paragraph should be roughly 2/3
  of a page in length

16
How not to start

• BAD
• The environment that surrounds a person from an
  early age tends to be a major factor in
  determining their character.
• This essay will study the satire of Monty
  Python.
• DUH! Do NOT use conjunctions in formal papers

17

• Paragraphs
• A good paragraph has
• Unity
• Organization
• Coherence
• Begin with a strong topic sentence that
• covers the theme and evidence of the
• paragraph

18
Conclusions Do not restate the introduction A
good conclusion rounds out the paper, beginning
with a few summary remarks Then it goes further
- with an inference or an idea or statement that
enriches what youve already said
19

• Some possible ways to conclude
• End with a quotation that amplifies your thesis
  or something stated in the introduction
• End with an idea or detail from the introduction
  and bring it full circle
• End with an allusion, putting topic in a larger
  framework
• THE GOAL Round out your paper

20
Revising for Conciseness
21
Extra words and empty words

• Eliminate extra words as well as vague or empty
  words or phrases
• EXAMPLE
• Wordy
• The economic situation of Miss Moody was also a
  crucial factor in the formation of her
  character.
• Concise (and stronger)
• Anne Moodys poverty formed her character.
• PRACTICE Print out an old essay and cross out
  every word that doesnt add anything

22
Reword the following

• The use of setting is also a major factor in
  conveying a terrifying type atmosphere.
• It creates a better motivation of learning when
  students can design their own programs involving
  education. This way students interests can be
  focused on.

23
Weak Intensifiers and Qualifiers

• At that time I was very idealistic.
• We found the proposal quite plausible.
• The remark, although unkind, was entirely
  accurate
• It was a rather fatuous statement.
• The scene was extremely typical.
• The death scene is truly grotesque.
• Etc.

24
Circumlocutions

• I came to the realization that
• She is of the opinion that
• The question is supportive of
• Concerning the matter of
• During the course of
• For the period of a week
• In the event that
• Regardless of the fact that
• For the simple reason that
• If the case was such that
• At that point in time

25
Wordy Beginnings

• Reword
• By analyzing carefully the last lines in this
  stanza, you find the connections between the
  loose ends of the poem.
• Better The last lines of the stanza tie the
  poem together.
• What the cartoonist is illustrating and trying
  to get across is the greed of the oil producers.
• Better The cartoon illustrates the greed of
  the oil producers.

26
Empty Conclusions That Say Nothing

• Those Winter Sundays is composed so that the
  reader can feel what the poet was saying.
• Being the first in my family to go to college was
  quite a learning experience.

27
Wordy uses of to be, to have and to
make

• The rising price of oil is reflective of the
  spiraling cost of all goods.
• The rising price of oil reflects the spiraling
  costs of all goods.
• The stanzas make a vivid contrast between Heaven
  and Hell.
• The stanzas vividly contrast Heaven and Hell.
• The friar has knowledge that Juliet is alive.
• The friar knows Juliet is alive.

28
Instead of Use Is
taking Takes Are indications Indicate Are
suggestive Suggest Has drunk Drank Is
eating Eats NOW - Can you think of even
stronger verbs to use in some of these cases?
29
Examples Drank - compare different Meanings
of guzzled imbibed consumed sipped threw
back gulped Each implies something different
about your subject
30
Redundancy

• Unnecessary repetition in expression of ideas
• Example I have no justification with which to
  excuse myself.
• I have no excuse.

31

• Get rid of words in the following phrases
• Throughout the entire article
• A conservative type suit
• His own personal opinion
• Elements common to both of them
• Emotions and feelings
• Shared together
• Falsely padded expense accounts

32
Negative Constructions After reading the
second paragraph you arent left with an
immediate reaction as to how the story will
end. Housing for married students is not
unworthy of consideration. The second
sentence can work under certain circumstances --
say it out loud and you will see why.
33
Use of subordination

• WORDY
• The Book of Ruth was probably written in the
  fifth century BC. It was a time when women were
  considered the property of men.
• CONCISE
• The Book of Ruth was probably written in
• the fifth century BC, when women were considered
  the property of men.

34
WORDY The first group was the largest. This
group was seated in the center of the dining
hall. CONCISE The first group, the largest,
was seated in the center of the dining hall.
35
Revising for Clarity

• Good writing is clear, not because it presents
  simple ideas, but because it presents ideas in
  the simplest form the subject permits. A clear
  analysis doesnt falsely reduce a complex problem
  to a simple one it breaks down into its simple,
  comprehensible parts and discusses them, one by
  one, in a logical order.

36

• General Rules
• Use the simplest, most exact, most specific
  language your subject allows.
• Put together what belongs together, in the essay,
  in the paragraph, and in the sentence.
• Keep your reader in mind, particularly when you
  revise.

37
Using the Right Word

• Use the word with the right denotation (explicit
  meaning) Look at examples
• Friend, boyfriend, young man, lover
• Dine, eat
• Underdeveloped nations, developing nations,
  emerging nations
• Upbringing, conditioning, brainwashing
• Emigrate, defect, seek asylum
• Intelligence gathering, espionage, spying

38
Be specific

• VAGUEThe clowns part in Othello is very
  small.
• SPECIFIC
• The clown appears in only two scenes in O.
• The clown in O. speaks only thirty lines.

39
Passive vs. Active Voice

• Passive
• The student was kicked by Professor X.
• Active
• Professor X kicked the student.

40
Last but not least

• Dont use slang or colloquialisms
• Vary sentence structure
• Give appropriate and interesting quotations as
  evidence -- it is your proof
• Make sure paragraphs are neither too short or too
  long
• NEVER hand in a first draft - we know )

41
Quotations

• Use ample quotations from primary sources -- they
  provide evidence to prove your argument.

42
Grammar

• Who, whom
• That, which
• Commas
• Semicolons
• What makes up a sentence?