Lauren Scerbo - Writing Tips & Tricks

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Whether you are writing a report for school, need tips for writing essays for standardized tests, or want to improve reports and correspondence in your career, this guide will help you write clearly and effectively. This guide focuses on the writing process, with stepby- step instructions for effective writing, and highlights important English grammar, usage, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation rules. Checklists are included to ensure you are doing everything possible to make your writing the best it can be!

To Improve Your Writing

• Write more; your writing will improve with practice.
• Take time to plan before you begin to write your essay; planning will make writing the essay much easier.
• Use a graphic organizer or outline to plan essays.
• Dont worry about mistakes when writing your first draft; edit later.
• Read your rough draft out loud to yourself and listen for mistakes.
• Do not rely entirely on spell-check.
• Avoid wordiness; remove excess words as long as removing them doesnt change the meaning of the original sentence or paragraph.
• Avoid being too repetitive; vary your word choice.
• Vary sentence length and form.
• Avoid passive voice.
• Practice proper grammar, usage, and punctuation in emails, text messages, and other correspondence.

The Writing Process

The 5 Stages of theWriting Process
Prewriting & Planning
Drafting
Revising
Editing
Publishing

• When you look at a book or magazinearticle, you dont notice the writing process.Believe it or not, the author may haverewritten the book or article many times.
• Professional writers use the writing process.Follow the professionals lead, anduse the writing process to improve yourwriting.
• While the writing process may vary slightlydepending on the type of writing, it isrecommended that all writers use thisprocess to create a clear, well-organized,detailed piece of writing.
• For some writing assignments, you mayhave days, weeks, or even months tocomplete them; other writing assignments,such as test-based writing, require you to write within specific time constraints.

Timed Writing

Timed Writing, or Writing on Demand

1. Prewriting & Planning
2. Drafting, Revising & Editing

   As there is not enough time torewrite your essay, revise and editdirectly on your first draft.

3. Publish

   Submit for scoring.

• In timed writing (a.k.a. writing on demand),you are writing with time constraints;in other words, a timer is tickingaway!
• In most instances, your first draft is alsoyour final draft; therefore, you will nothave time to write a final copy after yourrough draft.
• It is essential to take a few minutes to brainstormand plan your essay. Having a clearidea about what you are going to write willmake writing the essay much easier.
• While content is most important in a timed essay, you still need to be conscious ofspelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage to avoid having too many errors.
• You should take a minute or two to reread your writing, look for any mistakes, andfix them.
• NOTE: The readers who will be evaluating and scoring your essay do take intoconsideration that the writing was timed.

Prewriting

Writing with NoTime Limit

1. Prewriting & Planning
2. Drafting
3. Revising
4. Editing

   After revising and editing, rewriteor retype your essay to make sureits ready for publishing.

5. Publish

   Submit for a grade or feedback.

• Brainstorm:
  • Take some time to think about thetopic before you begin writing.
  • Consider the given writing prompt tomake sure you are responding to thequestion.
  • Use this time to create a clear focusfor your essay.
  • Write down your thoughts usingshort words and phrases so that youcan use these ideas to help you createa writing plan.
• Create your thesis statement (a.k.a.topic sentence):
  • A thesis statement is one or two sentencesthat sum up your entire essay; it provides a road map for the rest of youressay.
  • Your thesis statement should appear somewhere in the introduction of your essay.
    • The thesis statement can be placed in the beginning, middle, or end of theintroductory paragraph, but it is essential that it appears in the very firstparagraph of your essay to give the reader a clear direction.
  • If you are given a writing prompt or question to address, create the thesis statementby clearly addressing the prompt or answering the question.
• Pay attention to the type of essay you are assigned; the requirements for various typesof writing may be different.
  • For example, in a persuasive essay, the writer is trying to convince the reader toaccept his/her opinion about a topic.

Sample Writing Prompts

• If you could travel to any city in the United States, where would you like to visit andwhy?
• Today more and more classes are being offered online. Is online education beneficial?

Sample Thesis Statements

• If I could travel to any city in the United States, I would like to visit New YorkCity.
• Some people dream of visiting Chicago, others would love to visit Los Angeles,but for me, no city would be better to visit than New York City.
• While online courses are certainly convenient, the drawbacks of online education faroutweigh the benefits.

Planning

• Create a writing plan to help generate ideas and organize your thoughts.
• Short phrases are best for the writing plan.
• There are many different types of writing plan templates; choose one that works bestfor you.
• By using a writing plan, your essay will be focused on your topic, well-organized,and detailed.
• Two common types of writing plans are graphic organizers and outlines.

Graphic Organizer

• A graphic organizer uses shapes (graphics) to sort information.
• Each shape has a specific purpose to encourage the writer to create an organized,detailed plan.
• To create a graphic organizer:
  1. Read the prompt, decide on a topic sentence, and write it in the large center circle.
     1. This gives your essay a clear focus.
     2. The topic sentence should appear in the introductory paragraph once youwrite the actual essay.
  2. Decide on two or more main ideas to support your topic, and add each mainidea to the medium-sized circles that branch out from the large center circle.
     1. Each main idea will serve as a new body paragraph.
     2. Remember, each main idea must relate to the topic.
     3. Ask yourself what you want the reader to know about the topic; each mainidea will serve as a focus for each body paragraph.
     4. To avoid redundancy in your writing, make sure the main ideas do notoverlap.

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