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ESCUELA: INGLS
BIMESTRE: I BIMESTRE
General objective
To write paragraphs and to understand how to write essays
Specific Objective
To learn all the steps that you need to know in order to write good
paragraphs and, to write Process, Cause/effect, Comparison/contrast
essays.
Chapter 1
The process of Academic Writing
Brainstorming techniques
You must think about a certain topic and generate many ideas as
possible.
Journal Writing
Listing
Frewriting
Clustering
Pre-writing strategies
The purpose of this step is to think about a certain topic and generate
as many ideas as possible. Don't worry about spelling, grammar, or
writing in complete sentences.
Pre-writing strategies
There are four techniques which help you to generate ideas, they are:
Journal Writing
The advantage of this technique is that you are writing only for
yourself. You can write down your thoughts and explore ideas
without worrying what other people will think.
Listing
In this technique, you think about your topic and quickly make a
list of whatever words or phrases come into your mind.
Pre-writing strategies
Frewriting
The most important aspect of frewriting is not to allow yourself to
stop. Just let your ideas and imagination flow.
Clustering
In this technique, in the center of your paper, write your topic and
draw a ballon around it.
Planning
Why create an outline?
Aids in the process of writing
Helps you organize your ideas
Presents your material in a logical form
Shows the relationships among ideas in your writing
Constructs an ordered overview of your writing
Defines boundaries and groups
Revising
You may start revising as soon as you finish writing. Read what you have
written, and ask yourself these questions: Have I said what I wanted to
say? and Have I made myself clear to the reader? These are
questions about the content of your writing.
Revising
Proofreading can be much easier when you know what you are
looking for.
Spelling
Do NOT rely on your computer's spellcheckit will not get
everything!
Examine each word in the paper individually by reading carefully.
Moving a pencil under each line of text helps you to see each word.
If necessary, check a dictionary to see that each word is spelled
correctly.
Be especially careful of words that are typical spelling nightmares,
like "ei/ie" words and homonyms like your/you're, to/too/two, and
there/their/they're.
Finding Common Errors
Left-out and doubled words
Reading the paper aloud (and slowly) can help you make sure you haven't
missed or repeated any words.
Fragment Sentences
Make sure each sentence has a subject. In the following sentence, the
subject is "students": The students looked at the OWL website.
Make sure each sentence has a complete verb. In the following sentence,
"were" is required to make a complete verb; "trying" alone would be
incomplete: They were trying to improve their writing skills.
If there are two main clauses, they should be connected with a comma
and a conjunction like and, but, for, or, so, yet.
Another option is to take out the comma and insert a semicolon instead.
Example: I would like to write my paper about basketball, it's a topic I can
talk about at length.
Edited version: I would like to write my paper about basketball, because
it's a topic I can talk about at length.
Edited version, using a semicolon: I would like to write my paper about
basketball; it's a topic I can talk about at length.
Finding Common Errors
Subject/Verb Agreement
Find the subject of each sentence.
The subject and verb should match in number, meaning that if the
subject is plural, the verb should be as well and vice versa.
Example: Students at the university level usually is very busy.
Edited version: Students at the university level usually are very busy.
Finding Common Errors
Mixed construction
Read through your sentences carefully to make sure that they do not
start with one sentence structure and shift to another. A sentence that
does this is called a mixed construction.
Parallelism
Look through your paper for series of items and make sure these items
are in parallel form.
Pronoun Reference/Agreement
Skim your paper, stopping only at those words which end in "s." If the
"s" is used to indicate possession, there should be an apostrophe, as
in Mary's book.
Look over the contractions, like you're for you are, it's for it is, etc.
Each of these should include an apostrophe.
Remember that apostrophes are not used to make words plural.
When making a word plural, only an "s" is added, not an apostrophe
and an "s."
Paragraph structure
The basic rule of thumb with paragraphing is to keep one idea to one
paragraph. If you begin to transition into a new idea, it belongs in a
new paragraph.
A topic sentence
In an easy way to make sure your reader understands the topic of the
paragraph is to put your topic sentence near the beginning of the
paragraph. (This is a good general rule for less experienced writers,
although it is not the only way to do it).
Supporting sentences
Unity
Coherence
Repetition of key nouns
key Noun Substitutes of Synomys
Transition signals
Coordinating conjunctions
Subordinating conjunction
Pronouns
Unity
Logical bridges
The same idea of a topic is carried over from sentence to sentence
Successive sentences can be constructed in parallel form
Verbal bridges
Key words can be repeated in several sentences
Synonymous words can be repeated in several sentences
Pronouns can refer to nouns in previous sentences
Transition words can be used to link ideas from different sentences
Transitions
Facts
Quotations
Statistics
FACTS, QUOTATIONS, AND STATISTICS
Some methods to make sure your paragraph is well-developed:
Always note down exactly the source of information when you are
making notes. The title, author, page number, publisher and date,
and place of publication should be clearly written at the top of your
page of notes.
Plagiarism
If you are to claim that a piece of work is your own, then you must
acknowledge the source of any ideas that are not your own. You
must also show the source of any direct quotations these are words
for word quotations placed within parenthesis ( ). You must also
acknowledge the source of indirect quotations that is material that
you are quoting but which has been changed into your own words,
paraphrased, or summarized.
Plagiarism
Parts of an essay
The introductory paragraph
Funnel introduction of general to specific
Dramatic, interesting of funny story
Surprising statistics of Facts
Historical background
From Paragraph to Essay
The topic sentence of the paragraph becomes the thesis statement of the
essay which comes at the end of the introductory paragraph. The
supporting sentences of the original paragraph expand into three separate
body paragraphs in the essay. Finally, the concluding sentence is made
into a concluding paragraph.
Introductory paragraph
It begins with a general statement of the larger topic, and then each
sentence narrows it down until you get to the specific thesis
statement.
Ex:
Its difficult to grow up in this society. A teenager can get into all
kinds of trouble with school, smoking, drugs, and dating. One of the
worst kinds of trouble that a teenager can get into is getting involved
with a gang. Gang members commit crimes and get hurt or killed all
too often. Why do teenagers get involved in gangs? I think that
gangs are a direct result of the breakdown of the traditional family.
Dramatic, interesting or funny story
Its a brief story that illustrates your topic.
Ex:
My younger brother was a good student until our parents got
divorced. Then, while my parents lives became a war zone over
property and emotions, my brother withdrew into himself and felt
abandoned and unloved. He needed to feel that he was a part of
something. Thats when he got involved with a gang at his high
school. The gang he joined became his family and was more
important to him that anything. My parents didnt notice my
brother got badly hurt in a gang fight. I am convinced that gangs
are a direct result of the breakdown of the traditional family.
Surprising statistics of Facts
Ex:
It is estimated that there are nearly 5,000 gangs in the United States
with a total of almost 250,000 members. In fact, in inner cities,
where gangs are most common, 7 percent of all teenagers are gang
members. Why are all these young adults choosing to be gang
members? In my opinion, gangs are a direct result of the
breakdown of the traditional family.
Historical background
Ex:
Gangs have existed in the United States for at least 100 years. At the
turn of the twentieth century, there were many gangs in big East
Coast cities. These gangs were mostly made up of members of the
same ethnic group and primarily protected the neighborhood where
their families lived. Nowadays, however, gang members have little
to do with protecting their relatives. Its my belief that gangs are
direct result of the breakdown of the traditional family.
From Paragraph to Essay
Body paragraphs
This is the main component of your essay. The body must supply ample
evidence in support of your thesis. The correct format for presenting
your evidence is within body paragraphs, the fundamental units in
essay writing.
Each paragraph should represent and develop a single distinct idea.
Just as an essay, as a whole, needs clear and cohesive organization,
your paragraphs must also be organized around a central theme. This
theme is always stated in a topic sentence, which is most often the first
sentence in that paragraph.
Body Paragraphs
Keep in mind that your conclusion is the place where your writing
needs to be strongest, clearest, and most concise since it is the part
of the essay that a reader will read last and be most
remembered. Be persuasive! Ultimately, the quality of your essay is
measured by whether or not the reader is persuaded by your thesis
and how well you supported it.
Process Essay
A process essay may explain, for example:
* how to properly re-pot a plant;
* how an individual came to appreciate hard work.
It describes how something is done. It can explain in detail how to
accomplish a specific task, or it can show how an individual came to a
certain personal awareness.
The cause/effect essay explains why or how some event happened, and what
resulted from the event.
The essay could discuss both causes and effects. A cause essay discusses the
reasons why something happened. An effect essay discusses what happens
after a specific event or circumstance.
Cause/Effect Essays
How do I summarize?
Summary moves much farther than paraphrase away from point-by-
point translation. When you summarize a passage, you need first to
absorb the meaning of the passage and then to capture in your own
words the most important elements from the original passage. A
summary is necessarily shorter than a paraphrase.
Paraphrase and Summary
EX.:
Here is a summary of the passage from "An Anthropologist on
Mars":
In "An Anthropologist on Mars," Sacks notes that although there is
little disagreement on the chief characteristics of autism,
researchers have differed considerably on its causes. As he points
out, Asperger saw the condition as an innate defect in the child's
ability to connect with the external world, whereas Kanner regarded
it as a consequence of harmful childrearing practices (247-48).