Writing Workshop I

Active Reading, Grammar, Punctuation, Outlines               10-24-07

 

Turn in one copy of the draft of paper for Thursday now.  Sort by seminar leader as you turn it in.

ACTIVE READING – like good writing, more important than the disciplinary material you learn in college

1.  Keep focused.  Center.  Quiet or soft music without lyrics.

2.  Use dictionary frequently.  Buy one and use OED.

3.  Use highlighters only on second reading.  Use a pen instead.

4.  Summarize often – at least every few pages. Ask “What was the author’s point (or at least topic)?" “What was her evidence supporting her point?” List.

5.  Know where you are in the book or article.  Know the section title and the chapter title.

6.  At the end of each section or chapter, write several lines of summary.

7.  Re-read the preface or introduction or epilogue several times as you read a book. 

Active reading requires much more time than passive reading, but you’ll understand and remember much more! 

**********************************************************************************************

Good writing skills are more important than all the disciplinary content you learn in college.  Writing skills are very wide ranging, so you learn good writing skills mostly on your own – by focus & perseverance  Use your writer’s guide & tutors often.

Dictionary:  OED – 20 volumes in library: definition, first uses, pronunciation & multimodal learning

Do not confuse the process of writing with the product of the finished composition.  The process of writing is rarely linear.  Start anywhere.  Do several drafts.  Before meeting with your group, you should do a second draft that carefully edits your grammar, punctuation, and word use.  Then, your peer reviewers can use most of their time to help you with the flow of the paper, clarity of your arguments, and the conciseness of your writing.  Bring a draft with your thesis sentences circled and your essay outlined.   Give a clean draft to your peer reviewers and see if their outline is similar and they can easily identify your thesis sentence and topic sentences in each paragraph. 

Purposes of nonfiction writing:  expressive, persuasive (argumentative), expository (informative).  Read pages 6 – 14.

Examples of informative writing: newspaper articles, the Scientific American article on music, & much of Levitan. 

Your essays are primarily informative (expository) writing.  Some of your writing may include persuasive writing.

Persuasive (argumentative) writing attempts to persuade the reader’s opinions or actions using evidence & logic.

Virtually all writing in college should be formal academic writing - including e-mail and process papers! (Exceptions include your lecture notes or lecture outlines.)

Good writing:  

(1) communicates clearly, concisely, completely 

(2) sounds good and feels right      (Languages are dynamic and conventions do change.)

(a)  proper word choice: conciseness p. 650 Exercise 1; avoid slang and colloquial words p. 651

(b)  “flow” of sentences makes paragraphs  rhythmic and cohesive  p. 483   (like music!)

Editing:  delete (p.696, p. 695), insert ( ^ ) , new paragraph ( ¶  ),  awk = awkward, move  (circle + arrow),  transpose

Grammar – read chapters 20 to 26 and do exercises!

English is a Subject-verb-object language   p.480   

Phrases: noun, verb, infinitive   p. 483     Split infinitives are often awkward.  See p. 488 green area

Clauses: independent and dependent      

Simple sentence = subject + predicate = a single independent clause   p. 501

Two independent clauses are linked by either a coordinating conjuction or a semicolon, but not a comma.

Mnemonic for coordinating conjunctions:  FANBOYS  = for   and   nor  but   or   yet   so    p. 471; p. 500   Exercise 3

Commas:       p. 687 Exercise 2

Semicolons:   See pages 698 & 699:  Exercises 1 and 2

Apostrophes:  See page 708.     Exercises 2 and 3

Verbs: Do you want to stress the actor or the action?      Active voice is usually preferable.      Verb tense.

Sentences:      Avoid mismatches.  See  p. 613.

Paragraph:     Identify topic sentence p. 68    In a unified paragraph every sentence relates to the main idea  p. 71

OUTLINE your paper for Thursday.  Easier to use a Topic outline first.  Then more detail with a Sentence outline.           

It’s often easier to make your topic outline after your first draft!   p. 44      Bring a draft with your …  see above.