Do you care about your writing? If so, read these words from masterful writers.
Then, refer to the following as a way to fix your own writing foibles.
Lastly, remember: write, revise, repeat.
Enjoy!
*********************************************************
The "No Excuses" Section - C.U.P.S., ROS, APOS, & FRAGs
*********************************************************
Capitalization (C)
Purdue OWL's A Little Help with Capitals site
Usage (U)
The Notorious Confusable from Capital Community College
Punctuation Issues (P)
See also: The Comma Queen (from The New Yorker)
See also: The Oatmeal's Semi-colon Infographic
Spelling (S)
Pro tip: check a dictionary or Google your squiggly word.
Run-On Sentences (ROS)
Sentence Fragments (FRAG)
apostrophe (apos)
Modals (MOD)
could of, should of, and would of don't exist... You must write / say could have, would have, should have.
*********************************************************
The "Mid-range" Section
*********************************************************
Subject-Verb Agreement (S-VA)
OWL's Subject-Verb Agreement page
Capital Community College's page - includes 3 interactive quizzes (prove you did these - earn extra credit! - print the score sheet or screen shot / PDF the final score)
Pronoun Consistency (PC)
Bedford/St. Martin's Everyday Writer
Correct Verb Tense (VT)
Bedford/St. Martin's Everyday Writer
Verb Tense Consistency exercises from OWL
Adjectives (adj) and Adverbs (adv)
Sentence Logic (LOG)
[For example, “The author wrote the story for the audience so they could see the story.”]!
Syntax (SYN)
Five Principles of Readability, from the OWL
Activity 2.24 in our Springboard books has a page that has to do with sentence types. So cool!
Most people avoid more complex sentences if they are uncertain of how to properly punctuate. Review the punctation page on OWL (just search for it...).
Diction (D)
Need to cut some wordiness fat from your writing?
UNLV's Writing Center's wordiness page
William Safire's Fumberrules - MY go-to, for decades now. :-)
Need to increase your diction? Refer to any vocabulary builders you can access, including my Logophilia site. Also, READ more (refer to my Just Read! site for some great sites to read to increase both your comprehension, but also your vernacular. Lastly, take risks with words. :)
Style (ST)
*********************************************************
The "New Territory" Section
*********************************************************
Parallel Construction (ParaC)
Semi-Colons (Semi), Colons (Col), and Quotation Marks (Q)
OWL's page
Lazy verbs (LAZY) / Lazy constructions / Flabby words
Avoid GET, GOT, GOTTEN.... They are intellectually lazy for times that your brain didn't want to think of a specific and "spicy" verb. Spicy verbs rock and make for better reading.
*********************************************************
The Essay Focus & Structure Section
*********************************************************
SOAPSTone / GAPS
Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Subject, Tone (SOAPSTone)
Genre, Audience, Purpose, Style (GAPS)
Focus (FOC)
If you find that your writing wanders off topic on a semi-regular basis, welcome to random or abstract thinking. The best way to stay focused is to fully deconstruct the prompt before beginning writing. Then, go through the following thought process:
This is the critical thinking algorithm I use on each and every essay I ever write / grade / comment on.
1) What is the most focused question (or set of questions) that this essay is asking me to prove I know and understand?
> Either write the question(s) down or keep them in your mind.
2) Does the combination of my thesis and my body paragraphs adequately answer the question(s) posed by the prompt?
> Ruthlessly read each and every part of your thesis, your topic sentences, and your evidence. If any of it seems "off" to you, it will be really hard to understand for
your reader.
3) Assuming that the questions have been answered, your thesis/body paragraphs structure is relevant to the prompt, and your writing is free of glaring spelling/usage/grammar/punctuation errors, go read the essay **one more time** and make sure that you have written your transitions in such a way that you've literally bridged the ideas for your readers. In other words, you lead them from idea 1, to idea 2, to idea 3, and then to the conclusion.
Supports for specific types of essays
More specific essay type supports
Literary Analysis
A PDF that you can download and use - adopted and adapted from Rebecca Redlon and Jim Burke's work
Thesis Problem (TP)
Shmoop's Thesis vs. Topic Sentence Video
Topic Sentence Problem (TOPIC)
Shmoop's Thesis vs. Topic Sentence Video
Insufficient Evidence - chat with Mrs. Huish about her "Golden Nugget" lesson - YouTube video coming soon
Insufficient Transitions - Mrs. Huish has multiple transitions resources in the Peer Editing Tools box in 210
I.C.E. issues (ICE)
refer to the handout that I've provided to you on several occasions. If you don't have one, ask a classmate or email me. I may not post it, due to copyright issues.
MLA (MLA)