In StageThree of the writing process, you work begins to assume its final form. Use your outline, or organization, as a guide in composing your paragraph or essay. For college work, your controlling should almost always be clearly stated early in the paper. The Roman – Numeral parts of the outline will provide the framwork for the main ideas in an essay. Supporting information – details, examples, quotations – is likely to be used in approximately the same order as it appers in the outline. Keep in mind that you should not be bound absolutely by the outline. Outlines often need to be redone.
Most writers do best when they go stright through their first draft without stopping to polish sentences or fix samll problems. Try that approach. Using the information in your outline and ideas as they occur to you, go ahead and simply write a paragraph or an essay. Do not be slowed down by possible misspelled words, flawed punctuation, or ungraceful sentences. You can repair those problems later.
Whether you write in lonehang or on a computer depends on what works best for you. Some writers perfer to do a first draft by hand, mark it up, and then go to the computer. Computers save your time in all aspects of your writing, espectially revision.
Revising
What you do beyond the first draft is revision and editing. Revision includes checking for organization, contet, and language effectiveness. Write and then revise your paragraph or essa as many as necessary for coherence, language (usage, tone, and divtion), unite, emphasis, support, and sentences (CLUESS)
Coherence
You can achieve effciently by using the following:
- Overall pattern
- Transitional Terms
- Repetion of key word and important ideas
- Pronouns
- Consistent point of view
Overall Pattern
Three basic pattern prevail: time (chronology), space (spatial arrangement), and emphasis (stree on ideas). Sometime you will combine patterns. The coherence of each can be strebgthened by using transitional words such as the following:
For a time pattern: first, then, soon, later, following, at the point
For a space pattern: up, down, right, left beyond, behind, above, below
For an emphasis pattern: first, second, third, most, more
Transitional terms
By using transitional terms, you can help your readers move easily from one idea to another.
Example:
First, I realized I had to get a job to stay in school.
At the same time, my track coach wanted the term to spend more hours working out.
We were, after all, the defending champions.
Finally, I dropped one of my courses.
Repetition of Key Words and Important Ideas
Repeat key words and phases to keep the main subject in the reader’s mind and to maintain the continuity necessary for a smooth flow of logical throught.
Pronouns
Pronouns, such as he, her, them, and it, provide natural connecting links in your writing. Why? Every pronounce refers to an earlier noun (called the antecedent of the problem) and thus carries the reader back to that earlier thought.
Example:
I tried to buy tickets for the concert, but they were all sold.
Assertive people tend to make decision quickly. However, they may not make the wisest decisions.
Roger painted a picture of his father’s pickup truck. It was so good that his professor asked him to enter it in an art show.
Consistent Point of View
Points of view shows the writer’s relationship to the material, the subject, and it usually does not change within a passage.
If you are conveying personal experience, the point of view will be first person, or I, which can be either involved (a participant) or detached (an observer).
The second person, you and your, is usually reserved for how –to writing in college assignments.
If you are presenting something from a distance, geographical or historical, the point of view will be third person, and the participants will be referred to as he, she, and they.
Along with the consistence of perspective, you should avoid shifts in number (she to they) and verb tense (is to was)
Being consistent in these matters will promote coherence.
Language
In the revision process, the word language takes on special meaning, referring to usage, tone, and diction. If you are writing with a computer, consider using the thesaurus feature, but keep in mind that no two words share precisely the same meaning.
Usage
Usage is the kind or general style of language we use. Usage is n important part of writing and revising. Judge what is appropriate for your audience and your purpose. What kind of language is expected? What kind of language is best suited for accomplishing your purpose.
Tone
Tone means that the sound of the speaker’s voice and maybe the language choices conveyed disrespect to the listener. The tone could have represented any number of felling about the subject matter and the audience. The tone can have as many variations as you can have feelings: it can, for example, be sarcastic, humorous, serious, cautionary, objective, groveling, angry, bitter, sentimental, enthusiastic, somber, outraged, or loving.
In speech, feeling and attitudes are represented by inflection, loudness, word choice, and language patterns. In writing, tone is conveyed mainly be word choice and order; it is closely related to style – the variations in the way you way you write, depending on your purpose. Your purpose is simply to present a particular idea in a particular context. The context implies the audience; it is important to use the tone appropriate to your audience.
Diction
Diction is word choice. If you use good diction, you are finding the best words for a particular purpose in addressing a certain audience.
Another aspect of diction id freshness and originality of expression. To achieve those distinctions, you should avoid clichés, which are trite, familiar phrases. Good diction, however, reflects the writing as an individual and is fresh, original, and clear.
Unity
A controlling idea, stated or implied, establishes unity in every piece of good writing. Unit can be strengthened and made more apparent if you restate the topic sentence or thesis, and it should all be subordinate to the topic sentence and thesis at the end of the unit and if you repeat key words and phrases from time to time. Unity means staying on the topic.
Emphasis
Emphasis, a feature of most good writing, helps the reader focus on the main ideas by stressing what is important, it can be achieved in service ways but mainly through placement of key ideas and through repletion.
Placement of Ideas
The most emphasis part of any passage, whether a sentence or a book, is the last part, because we usually remember most easily what we read last. The second most emphasis part of a passage is the beginning, because our mind is relatively uncluttered when we read it. For those reasons, among others, the topic sentence or thesis is usually at the beginning of a piece, and it is often restated at the end in an echoing statement.
Repetition of Key Words and Important Ideas
Repetition is one of the simplest devices in your writer’s toolbox. The words repeated may be single words, phases slightly altered sentences, or synonyms. Repetition keeps the dominant subject in the reader’s mind and maintains the continuity necessary for a smooth flow of logical thought.
A word of warning: The effective use of word and phase repetition should not be confused with an irritating misuse of word repetition.
Support
A good developmental paragraph fulfills its function by developing the topic sentence. An essay is complete when it fulfills its function of developing a thesis. Obviously, you will have to judge what is complete. With some subjects, you will need little supporting and explanatory material. With others, you will need much more. Incompletion, not overdevelopment, is more common among beginning writers. Besides having enough support, be sure that the points of support are presented in the best possible sequence.
Sentences
In the revision process, the word sentences refer to the variety of sentence patterns and the correctness of sentence structure.
Variety of Sentences
A passage what offers a variety of simple and complicated sentences satisfies the reader, just as various simple and complicated foods go together in a good meal. The writer can introduce variety by including both short and long sentences, by using different sentence patterns, and by beginning sentences in different ways.
Length
In revising, examine your writing to make sure that sentences vary in length. A series of short sentences is likely to make the flow seem choppy and the thoughts disconnected. However, single short sentences often work very well. Because they are uncluttered with supporting points and qualifications, they are often direct and forceful. Consider using short sentences to emphasize points and to introduce ideas. Use longer sentences to provide details or show how ideas are related.
Variety of Sentence Patterns
Good writing includes a variety of sentence patterns. Although there is no limit to the number of sentences you can write, you may be pleased to discover that the conventional English sentence appears in only four basic patterns.
Each of the four sentence patterns listed has its own purposes and strengths. The simple sentence conveys a single idea. The compound sentence shows, by its structure, that who somewhat equal ideas are connected. The complex sentence shows that one idea is less important than another; that is, it is dependent on, or subordinate to, the idea in the main clause. The compound – complex sentence has the scope of both the compound sentence and the complex sentence.
Variety of Sentence Beginnings
Another way to provide sentence variety is to use different kinds of beginnings. A new beginning may or may not be accompanied by a changed sentence pattern. Among the most common beginnings, other than starting with the subject of the main clause, are those using a prepositional phrase, a dependent clause, or a conjunctive adverb such as therefore, however, or in fact.
Problems with Sentences
A complete sentence must generally include an independent clause, which is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb and can stand alone. Some groups of words may sound interesting, but they are not really sentences. Three common problem groupings are the fragment, the comma splice, and the run-on.
A sentence fragment is a word grouping that is structurally incomplete
A comma splice consists of two independent clauses with only a comma between them.
A run – on differs from the comma splice in only one way: It has no comma between the independent clauses,
Editing
Editing, the final stage of the writing process, involves a careful examination of your work. Look for problems with capitalization, omissions, punctuation, and spelling (COPS)
Source: Brandon, L. & Brandon, K. (2008). Paragraphs & Essays with Integrated Readings. Houghton Mifflin Company.
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