Writing Guidelines #2 Points to Ponder

Some points to remember

Writing is a skill that people all walks of like must perform

Good writing requires:

        1. Good Grammar

        2. Good Organization

To write effectively

    1. Learn some strategies

    2. Practice them

Writing is a process

Overcome writer’s block by understanding the steps in the process.

Steps in the writing process

Pre-writing:

1. Know what to write (text type/genre)

    who reads it (style), and why you write it (mode and tone).

2. Chose and narrow a topic.

3. Generate ideas (listing, clustering, asking questions,

    brainstorming, free writing).

4. Collect data.

Outlining/Planning:

1. Group ideas : put similar ideas into a group, double ideas, and

       more ideas coming up during the grouping.

2. Make the ideas into an outline. (Simple paragraph and essay

       outlines).

       Outlining improve organization, speed and 

        grammar.

Draft→revising/editing →Final draft

PARAGRAPH

A Paragraph is a basic unit of organization in which a group of related sentences develops one main idea.

A good paragraph consists of:

        1. topic sentence

        2. supporting sentences

        3. concluding sentence(s)

● An effective paragraph must be:

        1. unified

        2. coherent

        3. adequately developed

Unity

To make a paragraph unified, we should have only one main idea.

Other supporting ideas must relate to and directly explain the main idea.

The main idea is expressed in the topic sentence.

The position of the topic sentence in the paragraph: beginning, end, beginning and end, middle, andimplied.

Writing a topic sentence

A topic sentence is a sentence.

It has a topic and a controlling idea.

●  A boss has good reasons for not  answering the phone directly.

● An average American teenager consumes enormous quantities

   of junk food.

●It is not too broad and not too specific.

▪ Padang food is delicious. (too broad)

▪ Padang food is has strong taste and greasy because the  

  Minangkabau use too many species and because everything is in

  oil . (too specific)

● It has too many ideas:

  Jakarta  is famous for its hot climate, heavy traffic, narrow streets 

  and less friendly people. (too many ideas)

●For a paragraph to be coherent, the sentence should be arranged 

  logically and flow smoothly from one to the next.

●Ways to achieve coherence:

        1. Arranged sentences in specific order.

                a. Time order

                b. Space order

                c. Order of climax

                d. General to particular

                e. Particular to general

● Ways to achieve coherence:

        2. Make the relationship among sentences clear.

a.  Maintain consistency in point of view.        

    (Eliminate shifts in person, number and tense)      

                b. Use a parallel construction

                c. Repeat the key word

d.Use transitional markers.

Note on Cohesion

●For a paragraph to be cohesive, use grammar devices to make 

  sentences flow smoothly.

●The house is surrounded by a large garden. There are many trees

  such as mango, guava and star fruit trees in the garden. Bamboo

  benches lie under the trees, purposely made to while away time in

  the cool shades…

●The house is surrounded by a large garden. In the garden there

  are many trees such as mango, guava and star fruit trees. Under

  the trees lie bamboo benches purposely made to while away time

  in the cool shades.

ADEQUATE DEVELOPMENT

●How much detail has to be provided to support the main idea?

●Is the detail sufficient/adequate?

The length of the paragraph depends on:

1. The type of the audience

2. The complexity of the subject matter

3. The construction of the topic sentence

4. The purpose of the paragraph

Methods of paragraph development:

        1. Detail

        2. Example

        3. Illustration

        4. Comparison and contrast

        5. Analogy

        6. Cause and effect

        7. Analysis

        8. Classification

        9. Definition

Points to remember

Information should be:

1. Relevant :  Air pollution in Jakarta.

2. Truthful   : She is very popular.

3. Accurate : He won many gold medals.

                            Elvys or Elvis Presley?

Arguments should be:

Be logically sound.

Be supported with facts/data/evidence from a reliable resource.

Fallacies (hasty generalization).

Distortion in language (negative: eg. radical, permissive, cover-

  up).

False issues (misleading information).

Discrediting to proponents (attacking a person’s character).



Credit to ESP Dept