Tips for Being a Better Writer
(and for improving your grade…)
by Mr. Ainsworth
Sources Include, but are not limited to:
1. Fulwiler, Hayakawa and Kupper. The College Writer’s Reference.
New Jersey: Prentice hall, 1996.
2. Hurford, James. Grammar, A Student’s Guide. Great Britain:
CambridgeUniversity Press, 1994.
Common Usage Goofs When Writing
1. A, An:
-Use “a” before words that begin with a consonant sound. Ex: a boy, a girl.
-Use “an” before words that begin with a vowel sound or “h”. Ex: an ant, an
umbrella.
2. Accept Vs. Except:
-Accept is a verb meaning “to receive” or “to approve.”
-Except is a verb meaning “to leave out” or “to exclude.”
3. Affect Vs. Effect:
-Affect is a verb that means “to influence” or “to produce an effect.”
Ex: That movie affected me deeply. As a noun, affect means “feeling or
“emotion.” Ex: A psychologist might say that a person has a ‘flat affect,’
meaning that they are showing no emotion.
-Effect is a verb that means “result.” Ex: a cause and effect relationship.
4. All Ready and Already:
-All ready means “fully prepared,” whereas already means “previously.”
5. All Together and Altogether:
-All together means “all gathered in one place,” whereas altogether means
“thoroughly” or “completely.” Ex: The barn was altogether too full of animals,
and as a result, we set them to pasture all together.
6. A lot:
-A lot is two separate words and means “many.” Many is a better word choice
to use when writing.
7. Anybody, Anyone, Any Body, Any One:
-Anybody and anyone are singular indefinite pronouns that refer to an
unspecified person. Ex: Anybody may apply for the scholarship.
-Any body and any one are noun phrases consisting of the adjective any and
the noun body/one. Any body and any one refers to a specific body or a single
person. Ex: Each student must do a report on any body of water in the world.
8. Capital VS. Capitol:
-Capital is an adjective meaning “punishable by death,” (I.E.: capital punishment),
or is used to differentiate between uppercase and lowercase letters. (I.E.: A, a.
-Capitol is a noun meaning “a city serving as the seat of government.”
Ex: Albany is the capitol of New York state.
9. Emigrate VS. Immigrate:
-Emigrate is a word used to describe “leaving one’s country to reside elsewhere.”
-Immigrate is a word used to describe “to enter a new country to take up
“residence.”
10. Leave VS. Let:
-Leave means “to depart.” Let means “to allow.”
11. Lie VS. Lay:
-Lie is a verb meaning “to recline.” Lay is a verb meaning “to set down.”
12. Who VS. Whom:
-Think of ‘who’ as action doer, (“Who called me?”) and whom as action receiver.
(“To whom does this go?”)
Usage to Avoid When Writing
1. Generalizations:
Generalizations are statements that are so broad and common that they are
obvious. For example: “There are many types of dogs.” (No kidding! I didn’t know that!). If you are planning to write about there being many types of dogs in the world you will find yourself with a very broad, very boring paper. The more general you make a paper, the more you will have to write in order to back up, or prove, what it is that you are saying. A better idea for this type of paper would be to narrow it down a bit: “Beagles are one of many types of hound dogs.” This would be a much more manageable paper, and much more enjoyable to read. When writing a paper around a thesis statement, or statement of controlling purpose, you want to make sure it is not a generalization. Statements of controlling purpose should be concise and manageable.
By the way, should you begin a paper with a generalization, I WILL RETURN THE PAPER UNGRADED.
2. Second person:
Nine times out of ten, the use of the word “you” is entirely unacceptable. Typically, your audience (i.e. me) has nothing to do with what you are discussing or what evidence you are suggesting in your essay. Unless you are truly addressing the reader, DO NOT USE “YOU”!!!
3. Cliches:
Cliches are phrases that are overused in everyday speech in order to offer a
metaphoric explanation of something else. For example, when referring to how my
grandmother runs, I might say that she is “as slow as molasses in January.” Or, when
referring to a late English paper, I might say it is “better late than never.”These both are poor ways of drawing a descriptive comparison between two things.When writing, you should avoid cliches at all times and try to come up with a differentway of saying what you want to say. My grandmother’s running ability could be morecreatively described by saying she is “so slow that I could crawl backwards to Texas and back before she made it around the block.”
Another problem with cliches, which can make them somewhat trickier than
originally thought, is that they also extend to other areas of writing. Attempts at descriptive writing phrasing must be carefully watched. For example, you see a girl frolicking in the neighbor’s field notice how blonde her hair looks in the sun. Impressed, you write that her hair “shone like the sun.” Boring! That is cliché and you can do better. Try comparing the shine in her hair to the “glimmer of a dragonfly’s wings.” (This shows much more creativity on your part, and would probably impress the girl more—unless she hates bugs).
4. Wordy Phrasing:
On the whole, we tend to write much more than we actually need to communicate our intended idea. By writing in a more concise manner you prove to your teachers that you have carefully considered what you are saying and how best to say it. Here are some examples of wordiness that teachers watch for:
Wordy Concise
1. most of the people1. most people
2. all of the work2. all the work
3. due to the fact 3. because, since
4. despite the fact 4. although
5. in most cases5. usually
5. Words from the Dept. of Redundancy Dept.:
Closely linked with wordiness, redundancy is the use of a word followed closely by its synonym. This is a very poor writing technique that, like wordy phrasing, takes up space. Here are some examples to watch for:
Redundant Phrasing:
1. first and foremost
2. full and complete
3. past history
4. round in shape
5. red in color
6. general consensus of opinion
7. old and outdated
8. a faulty miscalculation
9. refer back
10. basic fundamentals
11. initial preparation
12. terrible tragedy
13. final result
14. free gift
15. true facts
16. completely destroyed
17. my own/personal opinion
In addition to the above, the repetitive use of the same word is redundant. Strive for variety in your writing—vary your words and sentence structure—and your papers will become far more interesting and effective.
IMPORTANT!!! This selection is by no means an exhaustive list and is not intended to
replace the reading of your writer’s guides!!!!
The Writing Process
The Writing Process involves 5 steps:
1. Researching—determining your controlling purpose and gathering and
organizing your evidence to develop that purpose
2. Drafting—writing your initial draft.
3. Revising—reviewing and reorganizing what you have already said.
4. Editing—making all corrections that involve grammar, spelling, etc.
5. Submitting—print and submit your final draft.
3 ideas for researching:
1. Consider the assignment: to what degree does the assignment expect you to
employ textual or researched evidence?
2. If your evidence is textual, do you have enough evidence from each to fully
develop your controlling purpose?
3. Is your evidence useful? Is it relevant to your purpose? Is it valid?
Does it conform to the tone and style of your essay?
4 strategies for drafting the paper:
1. Analyze the assignment—pay attention to direction words from the
teacher. Does the assignment ask you to report, explain, define, describe,
analyze, argue, compare/contrast, or discuss?
2. Identify the audience—are you writing for the teacher, classmates, a
judge? If you are writing for a teacher, your language will be more formal than if you were writing for classmates.
3. Remember that your papers speak for you—how you write, your style,
will determine how you will be perceived by your audience. Use tone and structure to your advantage.
4. What voice to you plan to use?
a. First person: I went.
Third person: Mr. Ainsworth went.
b. Objective: think object, the focus is on the object of discussion. You
should be writing in the 3rd person, stating your thesis early and
supporting it with research.
c. Subjective: think subject, the focus of the paper should be based
around your personal experiences. You should be writing in the 1st
person andrevealing your theme by the end of the paper, using
both textual and personal examples for support.
10 Strategies for Revision:
1. Plan to revise—you cannot revise a paper you have yet to write. Be sure
to leave time for this; you need to have the paper completedbefore the day it is due.
2. Establish distance—let your first draft sit overnight. (I call this step
“aging.”) When you return to your paper the next day, you will see more
clearly what you have done well, or not so well.
3. “So What”—writing should teach the reader something. After rereading
your paper, ask yourself, “So, what did I learn?” If you have not learned
anything, you need to revise.
4. State the thesis, or statement of controlling purpose, clearly—most
teachers will require that you establishyour purpose within the first paragraph. If your purpose is not clear, the reader won’t be sure wherethe paper is going; therefore it is time to revise.
5. Evaluate the evidence—to convince readers that the claims you are
making are good claims, double check your facts and your examples.
a. What evidence supports your thesis, or statement of controlling
purpose? (If evidence doesn’t support the thesis, remove it.)
b. What questions might the reader raise about your research?
c. What additional evidence will answer those questions?
6. Reconsider everything—when you return to the draft after it has “aged,”
remember changing one part of the paper will probably affect another part
of the paper.
7. Listen for your voice—read your paper aloud. Does it sound like you
have written it, or does it sound like someone else has written it?
Always paraphrase words taken from others and properly document your source.
8. Title—a title should make the reader want to read your paper. A title
should also give the reader insight regarding the topic of the paper.
9. Seek a response—have others read your paper. These people should
be people who are not only credible, but trustworthy.
10. Edit and Finish it—once you think you’ve done all you can with your paper,
edit for mechanics, type the final copy, and then let it go. Don’t second guess yourself: you can always revise.
I EXPECT YOU TO GO THROUGH THIS BASIC PROCESS FOR EVERY DRAFT, NOT JUST YOUR FINAL DRAFT. THE MORE YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WITH THE FIRST DRAFT, THE LESS WORK REVISION WILL BE.