3. GENERAL WRITING TIPS

I. Short in class writing assignment

II. How to write

(A) The Writing Process in General

(1) Issue organization - Organize your thoughts: OUTLINE!

(2) Your "Shitty First Draft" (Anne Lamott)

(3) Writer's block: "Thinking outside the brick" (Robert Pirsig)

(4) Rewriting and revision: "My pencils outlast their erasers" (Vladamir Nabokov)

(B) Effective Paragraphs

(1) Topic sentence - definition - It's an organizing thing ...

(2) Varying sentence length - LINKY

(3) Paragraph transitions - It's a connections thing ...

(4) Coherence - Read Joseph Williams' "Style Toward Clarity and Grace"

(C) Sentence Structure

(1) Be concise: "In my personal opinion, we must listen to and think over in a

punctilious manner each and every suggestion that is offered to us."

(Joseph Williams, p. 115). Or, perhaps, "Ben Franklin's Hat ."

(3) Parallelism. There are basically five different parallelism issues.

a. Having finished the assignment, the TV was turned on by Jill.

b. Having arrived late for practice, a written excuse was needed.

c. Without knowing his name, it was difficult to introduce him.

d. To improve his results, the experiment was done again.

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MORE EXAMPLES OF DANGLING MODIFIERS

INCORRECT: After reading the original study, the article remains unconvincing.

REVISED: After reading the original study, I find the article unconvincing.

INCORRECT: Relieved of your responsibilities at your job, your home should be a place to relax.

REVISED: Relieved of your responsibilities at your job, you should be able to relax at home.

INCORRECT: The experiment was a failure, not having studied the lab manual carefully.

REVISED: They failed the experiment, not having studied the lab manual carefully.

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(5) Generally avoid jargon, quotes

III. Writing critique