tips for writing

موضوع: tips for writing 22/08/10, 08:35 pm

Writing process

When you
write a paragraph, there are certain steps you have to consider in order to get
a perfect work. Good writing go
through six basic steps, each step can be repeated as many time as necessary,
and here they are.

Step 1: Assessing the Assignment:

It is
what you are going to write about, we take it from the title, it shows what are
the points that we going to deal with. It is important to know the sources of
writing like articles, internet, newspaper…etc.

Another
important point is to know the source of information that you may use. In
advanced writing classes and many content–based classes you will be expected to
do research. For other classes, you are going to use your own background
knowledge. This can include your feeling and opinions about topics.

Step 2: Generating Ideas:

After
making your opinion about the paragraph, you should start to write about the
main ideas after deciding the title of the paragraph. Then you write the main
ideas on the draft only, there is nothing fixed yet.

The
purpose of these steps is to think about a certain topics and generate as many
ideas as possible. We can generate ideas by: brainstorming and freewriting.

Brainstorming: is to think about and
write down a lot of ideas without worrying about what they are, how they
ordered, or whether you are going to use them or not.

Freewriting : you start with a word
or a phrase and write down anything you can think of that is related to the
topic. You try to write sentences in which one word can leads to the next. When
you get stuck, you just pick up one of the previous words and continue writing
about that.

Step 3: organizing your ideas:

Outline: One way to organize your
ideas is to outline the point you want to make. To write a topic outline, you
first have to decide what the main idea of the paragraph is. You should write
the idea as a sentence or just as a few Words on the top of your paper.

After
that you need to consider which points to include in order to best support your
main idea. You should pick the best ones from your brainstorming or freewriting
and list them on separate lines below your main point.

Look at
the following example:

*/ My
reasons for learning English

The outline: My reasons for learning English.

I-
Educational opportunities:

A- Going to
university

B- Get a
graduate degree abroad

II-
Professional opportunities:

A- A job in
a multi-national company

B- Advancing
to a higher position in the company

C- Dealing
with any company all over the world

Note: capitalization and alphabetical order are
important in outline so be careful.

Step 4; writing the first draft:

Once you
have your ideas generated and an organizational pattern to follow, you can
write your first draft. Good writers should make sure to read their writing
carefully in order to make changes and correction before they consider it
finished.

Step 5; Rewriting:

*/Revising:

It is the first part of rewriting. 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?"
Have I made myself clear to the reader?" These are questions about the
content of your writing. As you are revising, you also need to ask yourself
about the organization of your writing

*/Editing:

The other aspect of rewriting is editing, when
you edit, you check to make sure the spelling, capitalization, punctuation,
vocabulary, and grammar are correct.

Step 6/ writing the final draft:

Writing
the final draft is the final step in the writing process. Keep in mind that any
of the steps can be repeated at any time. This is especially true for steps
3,4, and 5. Do not forget to write your final draft using correct paragraph
format. Be sure to add the title.

-Basic organization:

Paragraphs
have a very specific organizational pattern. By this, we mean that all
paragraphs are put together in a similar way using the three basic parts:

Introduction
with a topic sentence, body, and concluding sentence. When you follow this
pattern your paragraph will be more convenient for your reader to understand.

Paragraphs
begin with a sentence which introduces the topic and the main idea of the paragraph.
It is called the topic sentence. The middle part of the paragraph is called the
body, and it consists of sentences that support the topic sentence. These
sentences are called supporting sentences. The last sentences are called the
concluding sentences, which finalize the paragraph by reminding the readers of
the main points of the paragraph.

Topic sentence:

It is
the most important sentence in the paragraph because it contains its main idea.
A good topic sentence has two parts: the topic and the controlling idea,
the topic is the subject of your paragraph. It is what you are writing about.
The controlling idea limits the topic of your
paragraph to the aspect of that topic that you want to explore in your
paragraph.

The topic sentence contains the opinion or
attitude of the writer.

A statement of fact is not an
effective topic sentence because there is nothing more to be said about it and
nothing to write in your paragraph.

Punctuation

The Punctuation Marks

1/ The Comma (,) 2/The Semi-Colon (
3/The Colon ( 4/The Full Stop or Period (.) 5 /The Mark of Interrogation (?) 6/The Mark of Exclamation (!)

The Comma

1/ between nouns or pronoun in apposition: John, the teacher, is here today.

2/ to
separate words of same part of speech :
he is nice, tall, smart, and good.

3/ after
the word yes or no in short answers : are you Nour ? Yes, I am .

4/ to
separate two compound sentences when we use conjunctions :

e.g./he
is strong enough to kill a man, but he cannot break the wall.

5/ after
phrases in general: in the morning, he will come.

6/ to
separate a series of words in pares ;

e.g./I
will stick to her in happiness and sadness, live and death.

7/
parenthesis: when we want to give an opinion ;

e.g./ Mark,
to say the truth, is a bad man.

8/ to
prevent the repetition of some words :

e.g./ I
am going to a party , and I will see her.

9/ in
conditional sentences : if I met him, I would tell him the truth.

10/ to
separate similar types of clauses:

e.g./ I
asked her why she is late, where does she lives ,what is her work…

The Colon

(a) To introduce
a Quotation:

e.g./He said: " It's not my fault that there is no ink.

(b) To introduce a detailed list:

e.g./This is what he
wanted : to have his tennis two or three times a week.

The Mark of Interrogation

The Mark of Interrogation
(or 'The Question Mark’) is used
after a Direct question. The following sentence must begin with a capital
letter :

He said : " When do
you expect him to return?" / Where are you going ?

- An Indirect question is never followed by a question mark:

He asked me when I expected him to return.

The Full Stop or period

(a) To end any complete sentence that
is not explanative, interrogative,
etc. The following sentence must begin with a capital letter : He came home
late.

(b) After Abbreviations. It is
sometimes omitted, if the abbreviation begins and
ends with the same letters as the original
word does :

B.A.,
M.A., Ph.D., A.D., B.C., i.e., viz., Mr.
(or Mr.), etc.

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