Ideas About Writing

Ideas about Writing

Merrill Glustrom Ph.D.

Preface and Introduction

Hi! I’m Dr. Glustrom, your writing instructor. When I’m not teaching, which I really enjoy, I like to hike both in the mountains and in the foothills of our beautiful state. I also like to bike, and I usually bike to the bus (about 15 minutes) and take the bus to work at Front Range Community College in Longmont, Colorado. I also like to jog. My entire family runs the Bolder Boulder each year. I have a daughter, Rachael, and a son, Eric. Rachael is a bilingual speech therapist with the St. Vrain School District in Longmont. Eric started a non-profit that helps with education of Ugandan refugees. Check out Educate!’s website at http://www.experienceeducate.org. My wife, Leslie, works with an environmental group called Clean Energy Action. They promote alternative energy like solar and wind and try to reduce our dependence on coal and oil.

At home, I like to read. Right now I’m reading a really neat book by Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University, who is autistic. That means she thinks best in pictures and not words, yet she has made her disability work for her in her job because she can understand how animals think better than almost any human. She is especially effective in helping farmers and ranchers take care of their animals. I also like watching Colorado sports including the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Rockies, the Denver Broncos, and the University of Colorado football, and CU women’s soccer and basketball!

Temple Grandin, Professor, Colorado State University

Here’s what I hope you will gain by completing the course and reading this book: I hope you will learn as much – and have as much fun – in taking this college writing class as I do in teaching it! I enjoy teaching and writing because the things I teach are in this book on writing, and you can use them in college and in your career. You’ll learn a practical approach to writing; it’s not just academic! The method we’ll be using for organizing, writing, and editing your essays can be applied to every essay you write in college and in your job.

So on the one hand, you’ll be getting a grade and checking off one more course on a long list that you’ll need to complete for your degree. That’s good. But more importantly, you’ll be learning skills that you’ll use and will help you for the rest of your life!

Good writing is essential to success. For example, you need to be a good writer to apply for a job. For good jobs, employers require a letter from each applicant that states his or her reasons for applying for the job, as well as what experiences and skills will make that applicant successful. Then once you have the job, writing becomes an essential skill for success in all professions. Consider the following:

Nursing

ü Nurses must write comprehensible summaries of how their patients are doing. This writing will be read by nurses and doctors who form a team in treating that patient.

Engineering

ü Engineers must write reports that clearly explain what the problem they are working on is and what action should be taken to correct it.

Police Work

ü A policeman must write case summaries that clearly explain each case, who is involved, what action was taken, and what the consequences of that action were.

Business

ü A business professional must write proposals and reports that summarize a series of business opportunities and explain the reasons for why the company should choose one course of action over another.

Auto Mechanics

ü An auto mechanic, so good at analyzing problems in three dimensions, now must also write summaries on the shop computer that put her analysis of car problems she found in writing and what she did to correct those problems.

The bottom line: There are very few, if any, jobs that do not require you to be a good writer – a writer who can communicate with others through the printed page.

· Six Ideas About Writing

Idea # 1:

ü You shouldn’t think of writing as something that “magically” emerges from the hands of people who have great talent. That might seem true of great fiction writers, like Shakespeare, but we are not talking about great writers. The method we’ll be learning will make you a good writer, a competent writer, a writer who can use the essay to communicate successfully in college, in work, and in life.
It was Thomas Alva Edison (an elementary-school dropout) who said, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration [great ideas], and 99 percent perspiration [hard work!].” All of us can write, provided we’re willing to keep working at it.
The first light bulb, invented by Edison / The first motion picture camera, invented by Edison

Idea # 2:

ü Writing, like talking, is a form of communication. Unlike a conversation, however, you cannot rely on what you see of, or questions from, the listener. We’ll be learning a writing method that puts the reader first; that makes sure the reader understands what’s being said. It’s all about the reader!

Idea # 3:

ü There is a commonly believed myth about writing that you put pen to paper, write your essay, and if it’s good you have talent and should continue writing; if it’s not so good, you don’t have talent and probably should write as little as possible. You may even have heard this myth from your 8th grade teacher!

Ms. Ratchet, our collective nightmare of an 8th Grade teacher!

This myth is doubly harmful. First, it will stop you from learning how to become a good writer, and second, since there are fewer and fewer jobs today where you can get away with not being a competent writer, you’ll miss out on all the advantages good writing will bring you. As for your 8th grade teacher, I heard she retired!

Idea # 4:

ü Keep it simple! Write without showing off and in your own voice. You do not need fancy 20 dollar words or long complicated sentences to be a good writer. In fact, they only get in the way of good writing. As E.B White, the most widely respected essayist of the 20th century said: “Writing should be like art or a well-tuned machine. There are no wasted lines or parts.”

Stuart Little by E.B White

Idea # 5:

ü For most people, it takes multiple drafts to bring a paper up to quality. The famous science fiction and science writer of the 20th century, Isaac Asimov could write a publishable 300 page book in only one month! His first draft of i,ROBOT (one of over 500 books Asimov wrote!) was good enough to be his final draft. Most of us are not Isaac Asimov! For us, good writing requires time and multiple drafts, and in the beginning at least, help from your instructor (that’s where I come in!).

i,ROBOT by Isaac Asimov, now a movie starring Will Smith

http://media.photobucket.com/image/i%20robot%20photos/brizeiz/i_robot.jpg

Look at it this way: If you only write one draft, you might expect to get a “D” or, if you’re lucky, a “C” for a grade. However, if you go through the steps, and work at it, a grade of a “B” or an “A” is likely, even with bad luck. It’s up to you!
Steps in Writing an Essay
Prewriting / planning then organizing your essay
Drafting / writing your essay according to your plan
Revising for
Revising for Organization / assuring that the organization of your essay is sound and meets the organizational pattern outlined in this text
Revising for Style / reviewing and revising your essay for the readability of the sentences – how they sound to the ear
Editing / making the grammar, spelling, and punctuation right

Idea # 6:

Here’s a secret: When you care about a topic, you’ll do a better job with your writing. It is much easier to write, and you write more effectively, when the subject is meaningful to you. For example, it’s much easier to write about buying a car if you are in the process of buying a car or have just bought one. It is much easier to write about the problems on Interstate 25, if you have to commute to Denver each day!
’65 Mustang / Traffic on I25

How this book is organized

Ideas about Writing is divided into three sections, each focused on a primary area of writing.

Section 1 . Essay Organization

Section 1 on essay organization has sections on prewriting, planning your essay, and the organizational pattern that you’ll learn for all essays you write. That organizational pattern includes:

The Organization of the Essay

1. Introduction
a. Get the readers’ interest
b. Set the background or context for your topic
2. Thesis Statement
3. Support Paragraphs
a. Topic Sentence
b. General Support
c. Specific Support
4. Conclusion
a. Restate Thesis in different words
b. Take the readers a step further

Section 2. Types of Essays

Section 2 on essay development has chapters and explores some of the primary types of essay development including:

Types of Essays
1. Narrative / essays that tell a story
2. Descriptive / essays that describe a scene using your senses
3. Illustration / essays that give examples
4. Persuasive / essays that convince
5. Process / essays that explain how to do something
6. Summary-Response / essays that summarize other writing and respond or evaluate that writing
7. Comparison-Contrast / essays that compare or contrast two people, places, products, events, or ideas

Section 3. The Process Approach to Writing

Writing is a process; it takes work, lots of work. The best way, and for most people the only way, to write an effective essay is to carefully follow a series of steps, producing multiple drafts that slowly builds quality. In Practice 6, you’ll be writing your own paragraph. In doing so, take it one step at a time, like following directions to a distant city or a recipe to make an excellent dinner. Here are the steps in writing a Paragraph-Essay:

1. Prewriting
2. Drafting
3. Revise for organization
(draft 2)
4. Revising for style
(draft 3)
5. Editing
(draft 4) / Choose a Topic for your essay – what you will be writing about.
Develop a Topic Sentence – what you will prove about the Topic.
Put together an Informal Outline containing your Thesis Statement and three main Support Points.
Following the “Organization of the Essay” write your first draft.
Review and revise your draft to make sure that the organization of your essay is sound and follows your Informal Outline
Revise your essay for the flow and readability of the sentences – (see Chapter 11 on Style)
Review and revise your essay to make sure you get the grammar and punctuation right.

In Section 3 on revision for sentence style (see Chapter 11), we learn about a too often overlooked part of the writing process. Once you have produced a draft of the essay and the organization is strong, you revise the essay for how effectively the sentences read. Included are eliminating unnecessary words, slang, and awkward expressions; overused phrases, and enhancing sentence variety and rhythm.

Section 4. Editing for Grammar

We approach grammar in this textbook as “writing on the sentence level,” and not as a course on grammar. When you need additional grammar resources, we will be using an excellent web link called, Guide to Grammar and Writing (http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/). It’s really helpful; check it out.

Rather than grammar as you studied it in high school, we are concerned with what’s important in the sentence – the Subject and Verb, which parallels what’s important in the essay – the Topic and Main Idea.

Similarly, we are concerned with Support on the Sentence level – Phrases and Clauses, which parallels the Support on the Essay level – General and Specific Support with examples).

Writing on the sentence level and writing on the essay level are alike! Both use the same organizational method, which you’ll learn in this book.

We include the following chapters on what we call “writing on the sentence level”:

1. Subject-Verb identification

2. Prepositional Phrases

3. Compound Sentences using Coordinate Conjunctions

4. Subordinate Clauses

5. (“ing”), (“ed”), and (“to +”) Verb Phrases

6. Fragments

7. Run-ons

8. Punctuation

9. Quotation and MLA Citation

If you’re thinking: “Oh no, not those crazy grammar terms again!” we have a basic principle: we promise to use as few grammar terms as we can get away with and still communicate to help you learn to write a good essay!

Section 5: How Learning Styles Affect Your Learning with this text, in this class, and in college.

Research has shown that we all have preferred ways of learning, and that we tend to be strong in some ways, weak in others. In taking this class, reading this textbook and making your way through college, it’s a good idea to find out your preferred learning styles and your areas of strengths and weaknesses. Take a few minutes, therefore, to complete the Learning Styles Inventory, developed by Barbara A. Soloman and Richard M. Felder of North Carolina State University, which appears as a link below.

(Click Here) to take the Learning Styles Inventory.

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

After completing the Inventory, you can interpret your scores based on the following explanation. A more comprehensive explanation can be found in Appendix 1 (Click Here).

Learning Style 1: Active vs. Reflective Learners

Put your score as an Active Learner here: _____

Put your score as a Reflective Learner here: _____

Active learners like to learn by doing; if they can get physically involved in their learning, even better. Active learners like to get involved with their hands, to take things apart and put them together in order to learn how they work.