How to Write an Essay Like the Pros (Infographic) Tone and Style. Lesson Objectives Distinguish between informal style and academic style Learn how to write clearly Diagnose and fix vague sentences Distinguish between denotative and connotative meanings Learn how to avoid gender bias Identify characters and actions in sentences Apply the old-before-new and short-to-long principles of style Learn when to use and not to use minimalizations and passive voice in sentences Learn how to write coherent and concise sentences Learn how to emphasize sentence elements Definition of Tone and Style Tone refers to the type of language writers use to address their audience.
When writing an email to a friend, for example, you may choose to use an informal or colloquial tone, whereas an essay for an English class requires an academic tone. Compare the two examples below: Example 1: The city should just start paying for our rides to school so we can use the bus money for other stuff. Style, on the other hand, involves more than just formality and informality. 1. 10 Easy Steps": A Step-by-Step Guide For Students Writing Essays, or For College Instructors Teaching Essay Writing.
First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind.
If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. The case against “good” and “bad” - Marlee Neel. Writers and speakers have given into the allure of the ease of using terms like good and bad in their works.
Find five examples from different works (plays, speeches, television commercials, etc.), in which good and/or bad have been used. Create a Prezi presentation that illustrates the examples you have found along with how you would revise these sentences to create greater clarity. Select a term that you feel should also be stricken from the English language. Formal and Informal Writing Examples. Formal vs.
Informal – Who’s It For? Often considered more engaging, informal writing figuratively loosens the author’s constricting tie to offer readers familiarity and character. Formal writing, on the other hand, is used to deliver information succinctly and factually. When determining which style is appropriate, consider how you approach your audience in a face-to-face conversation. For instance, how do you speak with your peers vs. your clients? In addition to your audience, consider your brand. Conciseness. Summary: This resource will help you write clearly by eliminating unnecessary words and rearranging your phrases.
Contributors:Ryan Weber, Nick HurmLast Edited: 2013-02-27 10:18:41 The goal of concise writing is to use the most effective words. Essay Writing Tips: Eliminate Wordiness. Writing, Briefly. March 2005 (In the process of answering an email, I accidentally wrote a tiny essay about writing.
I usually spend weeks on an essay. This one took 67 minutes—23 of writing, and 44 of rewriting.) The power of simple words - Terin Izil. Many people may be guilty of incomprehensible or overly-elaborate language on occasion—but who are the repeat offenders?
In small groups, see if you can identify one or two public figures or groups who fit the bill and draw up the charges. Make a “Wanted” poster that includes two or three examples, for each, of especially obscure communication. Also, offer your own explanation(s) for why this individual or group is so hooked on the $10 words. For inspiration, see how lawyers, medical professionals and federal workers are policing their own professions’ use of language: www.clarity-international.net (the lawyers) www.plainlanguage.gov (the feds) www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/pdf/Simply_Put.pdf (the meds) To become an American citizen, the U.S. government requires people to pass a test that includes several questions about the U.S.
Demos - Gone Google. Style Seminar Menu. Writing Style Seminar. Writing Style At its most basic, "style' in writing means two things: 1) the machinery of writing 2) the writer's voice.
The nuts and bolts of sentence structure, for instance, are part of the grammar boilerplate we all agree to work with (#1). But beyond that how each of us uses the hardware is what personalizes the writing (#2), or what E.B. Citing Sources - BHS Library. BHS English Department. Introducing Your Quotation A quotation should never be a sentence by itself.
Some options for introducing your quotation: 1. Tell the reader who is saying/writing the quotation. MLA Formatting and Style Guide. Summary: MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities.
This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page. Contributors:Tony Russell, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli, Russell Keck, Joshua M. Paiz, Purdue OWL StaffLast Edited: 2014-03-06 11:05:00. Citing Web Sources MLA Style. This article describes 2009 MLA Web citation style (MLA Handbook, 7th ed.).
The new seventh edition, released in March 2009 has instituted several significant changes over previous editions. Among the changes are these:
Glossary of Usage. Bob and Jack's Writing Blog › Armored Prose. Lesson Two: Armored Prose–The Polysyllabic Prison©2010 An Essay by Jack Remick and Robert Ray Armored prose is a metaphor for bad writing when you think you’re doing good writing. Armored prose comes from the intention of being proper on the page. Being proper and sounding educated, wise, smart, nice, non-threatening, safe, regular, normal (not crazy), even-tempered, and politically correct. Armored Prose smoothes things over. Armored prose is the bane, the death pill of poetry. Poetry is not just language broken into stanzas. Poetry keeps us alive. Here’s the recipe for writing armored prose– Bob and Jack's Writing Blog › Word Pictures from Nouns & Verbs.
©2010 by Robert J Ray and Jack Remick When I teach style in a writing workshop, I have the writers circle nouns and verbs. Concrete nouns and strong verbs build word-pictures. A good example is the opening to A Farewell to Arms (1929), where a stationary narrator checks out the terrain of story: “In the late summer of that year, we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains.”
There are two abstract nouns in this opening sentence – summer and year – and five concrete nouns: house, village, river, plain, mountains. Bob and Jack's Writing Blog › Syntactic Flex. ©2010 by Robert J Ray and Jack Remick The discipline of writing sometimes means you have to let go of what you know before you can discover the depth of the writing you seek. We have developed some techniques to take you deeper. Bob and Jack's Writing Blog › Verbs. ©2010 by Jack Remick and Robert J Ray Verbs do stuff. They do action. The boy whacks the ball. The boy whacks the tree. Www.uncg.edu/eng/writingcenter/handouts/STRONG_AND_WEAK_VERBS.pdf.
"To Be" Verbs: List of Strong Action Verbs and Eliminating 'To Be' Verbs in Students Vocaulary and Writing. Strategies for Eliminating Be Verbs 1) Change the be verb to a strong verb: Pump Up Your Writing: Using Strong Verbs. How to Ferret Out Strong Verbs and Other Good Words - Charlotte Rains Dixon. Big Word Hunting, Part One: What is a Strong Verb?
Using Verb Tenses. Welcome to HyperGrammar electronic grammar course at the University of Ottawa's Writing Centre. This course covers approximately the same ground as our English department's ENG 1320 Grammar course. The content of HyperGrammar is the result of the collaborative work of the four instructors who were teaching the course in Fall 1993: Heather MacFadyen, David Megginson, Frances Peck, and Dorothy Turner. Metaphor, Simile and Analogy: What’s the Difference? List of Feelings. List of Adjectives in American English. Cool Posters / Other ways to say... Tone Terms. Move Your Story Right Along: The Elements of Style Rap.