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26 Golden Rules for Writing Well

September 16, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a checklist for professional writing skills

1. Don’t abbrev.

2. Check to see if you any words out.

3. Be carefully to use adjectives and adverbs correct.

4. About sentence fragments.

5. When dangling, don’t use participles.

6. Don’t use no double negatives.

7. Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.

8. Just between you and I, case is important.

9. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.

10. Don’t use commas, that aren’t necessary.

11. Its important to use apostrophe’s right.

12. It’s better not to unnecessarily split an infinitive.

13. Never leave a transitive verb just lay there without an object.

14. Only Proper Nouns should be capitalized. also a sentence should
begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop

15. Use hyphens in compound-words, not just in any two-word phrase.

16. In letters compositions reports and things like that we use commas
to keep a string of items apart.

17. Watch out for irregular verbs that have creeped into our language.

18. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

19. Avoid unnecessary redundancy.

20. A writer mustn’t shift your point of view.

21. Don’t write a run-on sentence you’ve got to punctuate it.

22. A preposition isn’t a good thing to end a sentence with.

23. Avoid cliches like the plague.

24. 1 final thing is to never start a sentence with a number.

25. Always check your work for accuracy and completeness.

[ANON.]

Writing well is often a matter of checking small details such as those illustrated by the notes above. Give yourself a bonus point if you spotted why the grammatically correct statement in number 25 is relevant. If you didn’t – look again at the page title.


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A Better Pencil

November 12, 2009 by Roy Johnson

Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution

A Better Pencil is a study that traces the relationships between writing and reading and the technology used as the medium of communication – from the invention of writing, the development of the printing press, then the typewriter, to the modern computer.

It’s a book about how the digital revolution is impacting our reading and writing practices, and how the latest technologies of the word differ from what came before.

A Better Pencil - book jacketIn this sense Dennis Baron has produced a similar work to that of his namesake Naomi Baron’s Alphabet to Email though his emphasis is less on historical development and more on exploring topics related to the issue. In fact I was rather glad he didn’t take a strictly chronological approach, which would have delayed annoyingly any revelations he might have about electronic writing. But the problem with his thematic structure is that many of his observations are made over and over again, each one of which he seems to imagine to be the first.

The one basic argument which he repeats is that each development in the technology of literacy was at first introduction regarded with suspicion. Even writing itself, which it was thought (by Plato) would lead to the decline of human memory. Then printing, which some people opposed on the grounds that it would lead to the dissemination of new ideas and the loss of respect for the authority of the church – and they were right.

What he’s doing in fact is looking at commonly held notions about computer technology and trying to dissipate widespread fears and misconceptions. Will computers lead to a decline in literacy. Answer – No. Will they rot our children’s brains – no. And so on.

The idea that some people are suspicious of technology is examined at some length by a study of the Unabomber – the technophobe terrorist who was ironically caught out only when he published his manifesto. The story is well told, and it’s entertaining enough – but it tells us almost nothing about writing or technology that we didn’t already know. However, this is a book that becomes more interesting as it goes on.

There’s quite a good chapter on the history of the pencil (much of it taken from the work of Henry Petrowski) that throws up quite a few interesting observations. He argues for instance that writing in pencil lacks status because the pencil post-dates the pen in historical development. Its traces can be wiped out of course, yet some pencils do not have erasers – for very good reasons. Joiners don’t want to leave graphite smears on their work, and golfers should not alter their scores.

It doesn’t take us much closer to electronic writing, but there’s a very amusing chapter on handwriting in which he exposes the bogus claims of graphologists (sloping left script = suicidal tendencies: that sort of rubbish). He makes the more serious point that people repeatedly claim current handwriting practice is a falling off in standards from some previous golden era in which everybody wrote in beautiful copperplate script. This too just isn’t true.

Once he gets to word-processors all his lines of argument begin to come together. Anyone who has followed the development of writing with a PC will be fondly reminded of the early frustrations as he describes his experiences using VAX, WordStar, and WordPerfect. As he rightly claims, all new developments in writing technology seem to slow down the writing process when they are first introduced.

He looks at the conventions, plus the advantages and disadvantages of all forms of on-screen writing – email, web pages, Instant Messaging, and blogs. Each of these has so rapidly replaced its predecessors that the conventions often change with the matter of a few years. Something hip with the kids one moment becomes old hat the next – particularly when adults get involved. That’s happening on Facebook and Twitter right now.

Most of these are new opportunities for self-expression rather than new writing technologies – though he might have included text messaging as an almost coded form of communication. Wikis are also new in that they are anonymous user-generated writing in which individual contributors sacrifice notions of personal authorship for the sake of a common good.

He ends with a look at what he calls the ‘dark side of the web’ – the world of hate groups, email scams, and political censorship. I was glad he didn’t let the illustrious Google off the hook for the way in which they (and MSN) have capitulated to China, the world’s leader in state-sponsored cyber snooping (with an estimated 30,000 people employed in spying on their fellow citizens). And they’re not alone: Cuba, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Burma (Myanmar) are doing the same thing.

One of Baron’s other central arguments is that revolutions in our writing behaviour take place when the technology becomes cheap and ubiquitous enough to put new tools in everybody’s hands. Things are moving so fast in digital technology just at the moment that it’s hard to keep up or predict what might happen next. But this survey is an excellent account of the status quo at 2008/2009.

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© Roy Johnson 2009


Dennis Baron, A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp.259, ISBN: 0195388445


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A First Class Essay

September 28, 2009 by Roy Johnson

this shows what a first class essay looks like

This first class essay is piece of work was produced on a third-year undergraduate course which considers Modern Literature and Literary Theory. Students are required to examine texts from different genres in the light of critical theory. In this case it is theories about the relationship between literature and history. As in many questions set at this level, the student is being asked to respond to a quotation from citical commentary on the topic. The essay is in full copyright of its author, to whom thanks for permission to reproduce it here are due.


Question
‘The poetic act both anticipates the future and speeds its coming’ (Czeslaw Milosz, ‘On Hope’ The Witness of Poetry, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1983).

In what ways could texts which deal with the past be said to be anticipating a future? Discuss with reference to at least one poetry text, and one text from a different genre.


Every literary text is both written and received in a particular historical context. In this sense all literary texts are historical. However some texts deliberately foreground history by explicitly engaging with a given period, or by referring to specific historical events. Anna Akhmatova and J.G. Ballard are writers who have consciously chosen to address the past, and yet, in doing so, have also prefigured the future.

In ‘Requiem’ (1) Akhmatova expresses her need to preserve the memories of the horror of life during the Stalinist reign of terror, as a way of issuing a warning about the future. She herself lived through the events depicted, and the poem represents her personal testimony, ‘I stand as witness to the common lot, / survivor of that time, that place.’ (p.54) Akhmatova also makes clear the fact that she faced opposition from those in authority, who attempted, through censorship, to prevent such remembrance. However her determination to commemorate the suffering that she and others like her endured, is explicit in the Epilogue:

I want to name the names of all that host,
but they snatched up the list, and now it’s lost.
I’ve woven them a garment that’s prepared
out of poor words, those that I overheard,
and will hold fast to every word and glance
all of my days, (p.61).

Her feelings are shared by many writers who have witnessed or experienced traumatic circumstances and feel that drawing attention to them is a way of trying to prevent their reoccurrence. Dennis Walder, in a paraphrase of the writing of Gunter Grass, explains it as ‘an urgency to recall a specific past in order to say something to the present – and to the future’.(2)

‘Requiem’ is a group of poems written over a period of years in which Akhmatova highlights various periods in her life and in the life of her country. She compares her situation to that of ‘the wives of Peter’s troopers’ whose soldier husbands were executed in 1698. One effect of referring to a comparable event over two hundred years earlier, is to demonstrate that the ‘Yezhov terror’ is far from being Russia’s first experience of tyranny. The implication is that it may not be the last. As Joseph Brodsky states, ‘She sensed that history, like its objects has very limited options’.(3) Hence the sense of desperation in her wish to communicate the horror of an event which, in the words of Primo Levi, ‘happened, therefore it can happen again’.(4)

As a poet, rather than a historian, Akhmatova is perhaps better able to express the suffering and emotions of her people, albeit subjectively. By concentrating on grief and affliction rather than clinical facts, she increases the memorability of her subject matter. As Joseph Brodsky states, ‘At certain periods in history it is only poetry that is capable of dealing with reality by condensing it into something graspable, something that otherwise couldn’t be retained by the mind’.(5) The poem’s imagery conveys the way in which suffering produces feelings of numbness. Its ability to ‘turn heart into a stone'(p.58), seems to be necessary for people to survive. The same imagery is used to portray the dehumanizing effect of oppression, with people metaphorically depicted as stone: ‘how suffering inscribes on cheeks / the hard lines of its cuneiform texts,'(p. 60). This theme continues in the epilogue when, in a proleptic reference, Akhmatova anticipates her own symbolical reification. She envisions a statue erected in her memory, ‘I should be proud to have my memory graced / but only if the monument be placed / …here, where I endured three hundred hours'(p.61). This prefiguration is also an anticipation of a possible end to the anguish, as symbolized by the image of ‘melting snow’.(p.61)

Despite the fact that the poem consists of a number of small segments, likened to the musical form of a requiem, the religious imagery forms a continuum. It also serves to set the poem in a wider context, and is another example of the way in which Akhmatova anticipates a better future. The section of the poem entitled ‘Crucifixion’, is particularly rich in religious imagery and contains a near quotation from the Russian Orthodox Easter service, ‘Do not weep for me, Mother, / When I am in my grave’ (p.59). Akhmatova’s direct comparison of her situation with the crucifixion and Easter, indirectly implies an anticipation of the resurrection, and thus expresses a glimmer of hope for the future. This is taken a step further with an apocalyptic prophesy ‘A choir of angels glorified the hour, / the vault of heaven was dissolved in fire.’ (p.59). As book of Revelation suggests that following the Apocalypse there will be no more suffering or death, the allusions to it are again a way of tentatively intimating a sense of optimism about the future. The poem ends with a reference to ‘a prison dove’, an image which fuses the Christian symbol of peace and freedom with persecution and imprisonment. This exemplifies the way in which, throughout the poem, Akhmatova balances the wish to commemorate horror, with a simultaneous attempt to anticipate peace.

Empire of the Sun is a novel based upon events in the past, witnessed by its author during his childhood. In the preface, Ballard explains the relationship between the narrative and known historical facts, ‘For the most part this novel is based on events I observed during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and within the camp at Lunghua’.(6)

Like Akhmatova, Ballard is concerned with memory, and how memories of the past can affect the present and the future. As such, Empire of the Sun contains his personal testimony. Despite the fact that the novel is clearly a work of fiction, there is an obvious autobiographical feel about it; the main protagonist shares the name of the author and there are frequent references to verifiable events. As Laurence Lerner explains, ‘The world of fiction is not purely imaginary, but overlaps with the world of history; in the case of realistic fiction, the overlap is especially large, and welcomed.’ (7) This ‘overlap’, caused by the inclusion of a wealth of legitimate facts, gives a sense of credibility to the fictional events that occur. This is exemplified by a sentence from the beginning of the novel in which fictional and verifiable events are juxtaposed, ‘After morning service on Sunday, 7 December, the eve of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the choirboys were…marched down to the crypt’ (p.11). The episode that the narrator relates may, or may not have actually happened, but is given an air of realism by its link with an established factual event.

In an interview, Ballard explained his gravitation towards the genre of science fiction, as being due to a desire to ‘write about the next five minutes and not the last thirty years’.(8) Empire of the Sun, is not a work of science fiction, and yet it is possible to see how, despite its engagement with the past, Ballard uses the narrative to speculate about the future. In particular the focus towards the end of the novel is concentrated on the possibility of a third world war. The narrative perspective of a young and somewhat traumatized boy, under the apprehension that the next war has already started, enables Ballard to heighten awareness of such a prospect. ‘If he saw his parents he would tell them that World War III had begun and they should return to their camp at Soochow’ (p.338).

Ballard’s preoccupation with the prospect of another war, reveals an ideology which relates to the prevailing political circumstances at the time in which the novel was written. The years preceding 1984 had been characterized by anxiety due to the events which surrounded the ‘Cold War’. Despite Jim’s limited perceptions and often simplistic interpretation of events, his prophetic remarks about future hostilities are lent credence by their feasibility and the conviction with which they are expressed, ‘these were trailers for a war that had already started. One day there would be no more newsreels.’ (p. 349); ‘One day China would punish the rest of the world, and take a frightening revenge’.(p.351) Although it is clear that these are Jim’s thoughts and opinions, they are reported by the narrator without elaboration or contradiction, which adds to their plausibility. Ballard’s choice of narrative mode, therefore contributes to the novel’s ability to arouse contemplation of future events.

By definition, the past is absent and yet language is able to make it accessible. Despite their differing emphasis and methodology, Akhmatova and Ballard have both produced texts which, in the words of Primo Levi ‘bear witness’.(9) In doing so they demonstrate the way in which recollections of specific past occurrences, can affect perceptions of the present and the future. In issuing warnings about the future and provoking its consideration, they are able, as Milozs suggests, to ‘anticipate the future’ and to ‘speed its coming’.(10)

Notes

1. Anna Akhmatova, ‘Requiem’, in The Poetry Anthology, The Open University (p.54). All subsequent references are to this edition.

2. Dennis Walder et al, Block 8 – Literature and History, The Open University (p.10).

3. Joseph Brodsky, ‘The Keening Muse’, Literature in the Modern World, The Open University (p.354). All subsequent references are to this edition.

4. Primo Levi, quoted by Dennis Walder, Block 8 – Literature and History, The Open University (p.10)

5. Joseph Brodsky (p.357).

6. J.G. Ballard, from the preface to Empire of the Sun, Flamingo (1994)
All subsequent references are to this edition.

7. Laurence Lerner, ‘History and Fiction’ from Literature in the Modern World, The Open University (p.337)

8. J.G. Ballard, taken from TV16, ‘The next five minutes : literature and history’, The Open University.

9. Primo Levi, quoted by Dennis Walder, Block 8 – Literature and History, The Open University (p.10)

10. Czeslaw Milosz, ‘On Hope’, Literature in the Modern World, The Open University (p.359.)

Bibliography

A319, Block 8 Literature and History.

A319, The Poetry Anthology.

TV16, ‘The Next Five Minutes: literature and history’.

Radio 16 ‘Poetry and History: Anna Akhmatova’.

Ballard J.G., Empire of the Sun, Flamingo (1994)

Copyright © Kathryn Smith


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A good essay

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

What makes a good essay?

1. Answers the question
No matter how interesting or well-written an essay, you will not be given any credit for your efforts unless it answers the question that was set. Your argument and evidence must be relevant to the question. This is the most important feature of what makes a good essay. It must deal with the subject or the topic(s) posed in the question rubric. Your answer should demonstrate that you have understood what the question is asking for, that you have grasped its key terms, and that you have followed all its instructions.

2. Clear structure
An essay should be like a good piece of architecture – built on firm foundations to carefully made plans. The points of your argument should be arranged in some structure which is logical and persuasive. If you are dealing with a number of issues, the relation between them should be clearly explained. The connections between each stage of your argument and the original question should be evident throughout the essay.

3. Appropriate style
For an academic essay the third person (‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’) rather than the first person (‘I’) is a more preferable style. Occasional use of ‘I’ may be acceptable if a personal opinion has been specifically requested. You should keep your audience in mind. Try to imagine that you are addressing someone who is intelligent and reasonably, but not necessarily well-informed in the subject. Remember that your writing should be grammatically accurate. Poor punctuation and weak sentence construction will create a bad impression. Mixed tenses and metaphors should be avoided. Spelling mistakes should be corrected.

4. Arguments supported by evidence
Essays should not be just a series of unsupported assertions. You need to provide some evidence to support them – either in the form of factual details, your own reasoning, or the arguments of others. In this latter case, you should always reveal the fact that you are using someone else’s ideas. Provide attribution by using a system of footnotes or endnotes and accurate referencing. Never try to pass off other people’s written words as your own. This is called plagiarism – a form of intellectual dishonesty which is severely frowned upon in academic circles.

5. Clarity of thought
One of the hallmarks of a good essay is that it demonstrates clarity of thought. This may be your ability to identify different issues and discuss them in a logical manner. It may mean organising materials into a coherent structure for the essay. It could be showing that you are able to make important distinctions and insights. This may not come easily at first, but with practice it should be possible to gain greater clarity through discipline, selection, and planning.

6. Evidence of wide reading and understanding
Essays are often set to encourage and direct your reading in a subject. If you show that you have read widely and thoroughly understood the subject you are discussing, you will be demonstrating your competence. The best essays are often produced by people who have taken the trouble to acquaint themselves both with the principal ‘set books’ and with secondary works of commentary and criticism as well. They will often show evidence of intellectual curiosity which has taken them beyond the bounds of what has been prescribed as a minimum.

7. Originality
An essay will be rewarded with a good mark if it competently reviews all the well-known arguments in a subject and reaches a balanced conclusion. The highest grades however are often given – deservedly – to essays which display something extra. This may be a demonstration of original ideas or an unusual, imaginative approach. Such essays usually stand out because of their freshness and the sense of intellectual excitement they convey. But remember that you are not usually required to be original. Your tutor(s) will be perfectly satisfied if you simply answer their essay questions in a sensible and competent manner.

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© Roy Johnson 2003


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A Manual for Writers of Term Papers

July 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

best-selling guide for term papers and academic essays

A Manual for Writers of Term Papers is the more-or-less standard US guidebook on academic writing. It’s based on The Chicago Manual of Style, and offers a comprehensive and very detailed guide to the conventions of layout and presentation. In the last half century since it first appeared, this book has gone through six editions, and even though editorship has passed into other hands, the spirit of Kate Turabian’s original approach has been preserved.

A Manual for Writers of Term Papers It covers everything from spelling, punctuation, and abbreviations to quotation, referencing, and the use of tables and diagrams. And all guidance notes are illustrated with real-life (and up-to-date) examples. There’s a huge chapter dealing with every possible complication in showing reference notes, and even a section dealing with government documents.

The latest edition includes a useful useful chapter on sample pages. These show how to lay out text on a page, according to the conventions for academic documents – title page, list of contents, tables, maps, footnotes, and so on. There’s also a recent addition on computers and word-processing (which already needs updating) and an excellent index.

Even if you are working to UK rather than US conventions, this is a very useful reference. It sits on my reference shelf alongside the Concise OED and an old copy of Roget’s Thesaurus, and it gets used just as often. It gets more hits at this site than any other book, and it has sold more than five million copies. That’s quite some guarantee!

© Roy Johnson 2000

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Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, (6th edn) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, pp.300, ISBN: 0226823377


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A plan for writing essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Approach
Essays can be composed using a number of different writing strategies. Some people write directly from rough notes, whilst others prefer a ‘discovery’ method. If you are in any doubt at all, you should plan your work. The task of writing is usually much easier if you create an outline structure for your arguments, with brief details of the topics to be covered. The stages of this process are as follows.

2. Analyse the question
Make sure that you understand what an essay question is asking for. What is it giving you the chance to write about? What is its central issue? Note carefully any of its key terms and any instructions. Think about the question, turning it over in your mind. Discuss it if possible with your fellow students. If you are in any doubt, ask your tutor to explain what is required.

3. Generate ideas
Take a sheet of paper and make a brief note of any topics that might be used for an answer. These can be ideas, observations, or information from your study materials. These topics will be used to make a plan. Don’t copy out chunks of texts. Use brief notes or even single word triggers. Write down anything you think of at this stage. Your objective is to generate ideas, to assemble a stock of potential material from which you will pick out the most appropriate items.

4. Choose topics
Take another sheet of paper. Extract from your list all those topics and points of argument which are of greatest relevance to the question and its central issue. You are simply picking out the best material. If it is possible, put your ideas in any logical groups or categories. If anything strikes you as irrelevant to the subject in question, throw it out.

5. Reading and research
Whilst writing essays, you will probably be engaged in reading or research in the subject. This will help you to provide information for an answer. Your reading will be more carefully directed if you have narrowed down the topics you need to cover in your response to a question. This is why it is important to think about the issues involved as a form of preliminary work on the question.

6. Selection
Select items on the strength of their relevance to the question. This may not be an easy judgement to make. Keep asking yourself – “Is this directly related to the subject? Will it answer the question?” You might have three categories of selection. One is a definite “Yes – this relevant”. The second could be like a ‘Pending’ tray containing items which might be used later. The third is a dustbin into which the completely unrelated material is thrown for good.

7. Create order
Take yet another sheet of paper. Try to arrange your chosen topics and material in some sort of order. At this stage you should be starting to formulate your basic response to the question. Organise the points so that they form a persuasive and coherent pattern or argument. Some subjects will lend themselves more easily to the creation of this order than others. In some, such as appreciation of the arts, there may be no set pattern and one must be created. In some of the sciences, there may be a standard form of report which must be followed. This is probably the hardest part of essay planning at a conceptual level.

8. Arrange evidence
Most of the major points in your argument will need to be supported by evidence. One purpose of the essay task is to show that you have read widely in your subject and considered the opinions of others. In some subjects you may actually need proof to support your arguments. During the process of study you have probably been assembling notes and references for just such a purpose. If not, this is the time to do so. On another sheet of paper you might compile a list of brief quotations from other sources (don’t forget the page references) which will be offered as your evidence.

9. Material
Don’t worry too much if you have surplus evidence after completing this stage. This is perfectly normal. You can pick out the best from what is available. If on the other hand you don’t have enough, you should do more background reading or engage with the subject once again. Take some more notes or generate new ideas as material to work on.

10. Make changes
Whilst you have been engaged in the first stages of planning, new ideas may have come to mind. Alternate sources of evidence may have occurred to you, or the line of your argument may have shifted somewhat. Be prepared at this stage to rearrange your plan so that it incorporates any new materials. Try out different arrangements of your topics until they form the most convincing and logical sequence.

11. Make plan
Most essay plans can be summarised in this form:

  • Introduction
  • Arguments
  • Conclusion

State your case as briefly and as directly as possible. Next, present your arguments and your evidence in the body of the essay, explaining their relevance to the original question. Finally, draw together the points of your arguments and try to lift them to a higher level in your conclusion. Your final plan may be something like a list of half a dozen to ten major points of argument. Each of these, together with their supporting evidence, will be expanded to a paragraph of something around 100-200 words. This is the heart of essay planning.

12. First draft
You are now ready to produce the first draft of the essay. Don’t imagine that you are supposed to produce an accomplished piece of writing at one sitting. These will be your first thoughts and your initial attempts at answering the question. Later drafts can be improved by re-writing. You will be matching your evidence to what is required. You do not necessarily need to start at the introduction and work systematically towards your conclusion: it may be better to start working where you feel most comfortable.

13. Relevance
At all stages of essay writing, you should keep the question in mind. Keep asking yourself “Is this evidence directly relevant to the topic I have been asked to discuss?” If necessary, be prepared to scrap your first attempts and formulate new arguments. This may seem painful, but it will be much easier than scrapping finished essays.

14. Paragraphs
A good tip on relevance is to check that the opening statement of each major paragraph is directly related to the question. The first sentence (which is sometimes called the topic sentence’) should be a direct response to what you have been asked. It might be an example to illustrate your answer, or a major point of your argument on the subject in question. If it is not, something may be wrong.

15. Revising the draft
Your first draft is the basic material from which you will be building the finished product. Be prepared to re-write it in whatever way is necessary. If it is too short, generate more arguments. If it is too long, cut out the less relevant parts. If it doesn’t seem convincing, consider putting its arguments in a different order. You might begin to tidy up the grammar and style at this stage.

16. Multiple drafts
The number of drafts you make will depend upon the time you have available (and possibly the importance of the piece of work). It is very useful to take your work through a number of drafts, re-writing where necessary. In the majority of cases, this will improve the quality of what you produce.

17. Editing
Before actually submitting the piece of work, you should take it through at least one stage of rigorous presentation of your work will enhance its effectiveness. Create a neat, legible text; double-space your paragraphs and leave wide margins to ‘frame’ what you have written. Take pride in the work you produce. Keep essays in a loose-leaf folder or a document wallet. Alternatively, use one of the plastic envelopes which are now increasingly popular. Remember that your essays will be of critical importance during the period of revising for examinations.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation

July 17, 2009 by Roy Johnson

pocket guide to the basics of English language

Most people are a bit frightened of grammar and punctuation – with some reason, because both can be very complex issues. Fortunately, anybody who can speak their own language is already in possession of all the tools they need for using it correctly. This isn’t to say that we don’t need a little help from time to time. And that’s where guides like this one come in useful. John Seely starts off with a brief overview of English sentence structure, and how the parts relate to each other. He explains all the main elements of speech, and uses everyday examples as illustrations. Then it’s on to the main substance of the book, which starts at abbreviations and runs via main clause to who’s/whose and will/shall. In between, he covers all the main issues which crop up time and again as problems for everyday users of English.

Grammar and PunctuationHow do you punctuate lists of terms? How can you avoid the split infinitive? What is the rule for using apostrophes? What is the difference between can and may? What’s the correct way to show speech in writing? Is between you and me correct English? Answer: yes it is.

He uses a minimum of jargon, and makes all his explanations as succinct as possible. I particularly liked one visual feature of this book. Longer topics, such as paragraphs and prefixes are given their own shaded boxes, and somehow this makes both the topic and its surrounding items easier to read.

This book will be ideal if you want a reference offering quick simple explanations, but you could also use it as an introduction to a more in-depth study of the subject.

This is a new series from OUP – a pocketbook guides on the basics of writing and language skills. They’re small, cheap, cheerful, and compact, yet authoritative – the sort of thing which I imagine would be ideal for students or the average person-in-the-street who wants to take on the first principles of improving their language skills.

© Roy Johnson 2009

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John Seely, Oxford A—Z of Grammar and Punctuation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd edition 2009, pp.192, ISBN: 0199564671


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Abbreviations in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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1. The following is a list of abbreviations in essays you will often come across – mainly in the text, the index, or the bibliography of books designed for serious readers.

2. They are nearly all brief or abbreviated forms of expressions in Latin.

3. Many people also make use of them when taking notes, and they are also used in the footnotes and endnotes of academic writing. Examples below.

4. Don’t use abbreviations in the main text of any formal writing. If you wish to use these terms, they should be written out in full.

5. That is, don’t put e.g., but write out for example.

6. Notice that a full stop is placed after an abbreviation, but not when the full word is used.

7. This is correct usage, but sometimes the full stop may be omitted in order to avoid double punctuation.

8. Note that these terms are often shown in italics.

9. You should never begin a sentence with an abbreviation.

Abbrev. Full term
app. appendix
b. born. For example, b.1939
c. (circa) about: usually with a date.
For example: c.1830.
cf. (confer) compare.
ch. chapter (plural chaps.)
col. column (plural cols.)
d. died. For example, d.1956
do. (ditto) the same.
e.g. (exempli gratia) for example.
ed. edition; edited by; editor (plural eds.)
esp. especially.
et al. (et alii, aliae, or alia) and others.
For example, Harkinson et. al.
et seq. (et sequens) and the following.
For example, p.36 et seq.
etc. (et cetera) and so forth. [An over-used term. Worth avoiding.]
fig. figure (plural figs.)
f./ff. following.
For example, 8ff. = page 8 and the following pages.
ibid. (ibidem) in the same place: from the source previously mentioned.
i.e. (id est) that is.
inf. (infra) below: refers to a section still to come.
l. line (plural ll.) [NB! easily mistaken for numbers ‘One’ and ‘Eleven’.]
loc. cit. (loco citato) at the place quoted: from the same place.
n. note, footnote (plural nn.)
n.d. no date given
op. cit. (opere citato) from the work already quoted.
p. page (plural pp.) For example, p.15 [Always precedes the number.]
para. paragraph (plural paras.)
passim in many places: too many references to list.
q.v. (quod vide) look up this point elsewhere.
For example, q.v. p.32.
sic thus. As printed or written in the original. usually in square brackets [sic].
supra above: in that part already dealt with.
trans. translator, translated by.
viz. (videlicet) namely, that is to say.
For example: Under certain conditions, viz…
vol. volume (plural, vols.)

Here’s the use of abbreviation in an academic footnote. The first reference used edn for edition and p for page. The second reference uses ibid for ‘in the same place’.

2. Judith Butcher, Copy Editing: the Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors, and Publishers, 3rd edn., Cambridge University Press, 1992, p.234.

3. Butcher, ibid., p.256

Here’s an example which uses the abbreviated names of two well-known organisations:

The BBC reported yesterday that the leaders of NATO had agreed to discuss the crisis as a matter of urgency.

Abbreviations are commonly used in displaying web site addresses:

http://www.bath.ac.uk/BUBL/home.html

Every term in this address, apart from the names ‘Bath’ and ‘home’, are abbreviations

http = hypertext transfer protocol

www = world wide web

ac = academic

uk = United Kingdom

html = hypertext markup language

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Acronyms

April 21, 2011 by Roy Johnson

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Acronyms – definition

Acronyms An acronym is an abbreviation created from the initial letters of a phrase or name.


Examples
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
IBM International Business Machines
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Use

Acronyms These acronyms are useful, because they save you the trouble of writing out the name in full every time you wish to refer to it.

Acronyms Some acronyms, like those above, are very well known, and can be used without too much problem in most written communication.

Acronyms However, any which are not so well know should always be named in full the first time they are used, and the acronym shown immediately afterwards in brackets. Here’s an example.

The committee elected four new members to the Corporate Affairs Steering Group (CASG) who will report immediately before the annual general meeting (AGM) at the end of July.

Acronyms Some abbreviations are spoken as if they were complete words: for instance, NATO (“NayTow”). and International Criminal Police Organization (“Inter-Pol”)

Acronyms Others are spelled out. For instance Very Important Person is (VIP) usually spoken as three separate letters “Vee-Eye-Pea”.

Acronyms There is no need to put full stops between the letters of an acronym.

Acronyms The plural of an acronym is shown by adding the letter s – as in compact disks (CDs)

Acronyms There is no need to use an apostrophe, which should be reserved for cases showing possession – as in ‘the CD’s jewel case was broken’.

Acronyms Most acronyms are formed by the use of capital letters, but where a normally pronounceable word is formed, they often include lower case letters as well – as in (Radar) – radio detecting and ranging.

Acronyms Acronyms are particularly useful when taking notes, but you should remember to make a record of the full name of any new instances.

AIDS acquired immune deficiency syndrome
ASBO Anti-Social Behaviour Order
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
CD Compact Disc
FAQ frequently asked questions
Gestapo Geheime Staatspolizei (secret state police)
Interpol International Criminal Police Organization
Laser Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Radar radio detection and ranging
Scuba self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
SQL Structured Query Language
WHO World Health Organisation

Self-assessment quiz follows …

© Roy Johnson 2011


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An A-Z of Effective Vocabulary

January 17, 2010 by Roy Johnson

1001 words you need to know and use

I’m often amazed at the number of verbally articulate people who freeze up the minute the need to express themselves in writing.  They get a couple of words onto the page, and then seem to hit a blank wall. Alternatively, they might be asked to describe something they know perfectly well, and produce what looks like a note to the milkman. The unproven theory I offer to students to help them overcome this problem is that writing is like sport: you need to practice regularly to stay in shape. An A-Z of Effective Vocabulary is an antidote to this problem.

An A-Z of Effective VocabularyYou also need to have a vocabulary at your disposal that’s appropriate for the writing task at hand. That’s where this book is aiming to help. It’s a sort of specialist dictionary with extra supplements that act as guides for common writing tasks. The effective vocabulary items have been grouped for you in advance, according to your activity Here’s how it works.

You start from the point of having a common writing task. This could be any one of the following:

  • writing a report
  • drafting a business proposal
  • expressing your opinion
  • discussing a topic
  • describing an event
  • writing a CV and job application

First you consult the subject index, which lists the terms you might need according to your objective:

  • Application letters
  • Describing events
  • Essays and term papers
  • Evaluation reports
  • Funding bids
  • Interview techniques

and so on. Here you find listed a selection of vocabulary items which are likely to be effective. For instance, in the section for writing CVs, you are offered able, accomplish, accredited, accurate, achieve ,active, adapt and so on.

If you are writing a report, you will find a list of words you could use in your report, to help present your explanation or argument in a persuasive way. For example, you could choose accurate, compelling, enterprise or significant. By then turning to the main A-Z sequence you will find guidance on the meaning and use of these words.

This is, in one sense, the most important part of the book, where you are invited to learn the subtle shades of meaning which attach to words. You are also given examples of their use in different contexts to illustrate these distinctions.

objective adjective, noun
adjective not influenced by personal opinions or feelings, but considering only the facts: There’s little objective evidence to suggest that he is guilty • It’s hard for parents to be objective about their own children • noun something you are trying to achieve: What is the main objective of this project? • You must set realistic aims and objectives for yourself.
Usage objective, goal or target? See target. Usage The opposite of objective is subjective, ‘based on your own ideas or opinions rather than facts and therefore sometimes unfair’: a highly subjective point of view • Everyone’s opinion is bound to be subjective.
Word family objectively adverb Try to weigh up the issues as objectively as you can. objectivity noun: The survey’s claims to scientific objectivity are highly dubious.

Also included is a guide to pronunciation – which is particularly useful for words such as penchant which are of foreign origin. This is a curious book, but one which writers who need assurance might find helpful. It’s the latest addition to the popular mini-series that includes the Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation, the Oxford Guide to Plain English, and the Oxford A-Z of Better Spelling.

Effective Vocabulary   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Effective Vocabulary   Buy the book at Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2010


Martin H. Manser, An A-Z of Effective Vocabulary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp.166, ISBN: 0199560056


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