Developing Writing Skills - Part 5

​Developing Writing Skills:

Process-based Approach to Writing

• Revising and Editing

  • Content​

  • Language

  • Organisation

• Writing Conventions

  • ​Mechanics of writing

Editing the Language

Goal:

To correct mistakes in

• grammar

• punctuation

• mechanics

• usage

• spelling

​

Editing the Language

1. Get ready a good dictionary and a grammar handbook.

2. ​Use a sheet of paper to cover an essay so that you expose one sentence at a time. Look for errors in grammar, punctuation, mechanics, usage, and spelling.

3. ​Pay attention to the kinds of errors you tend to make. Be on special lookout for these errors.

4. ​Do not rely on grammar and spelling checkers.

Mechanics of Writing: Manuscript Form

• Font

• ​Spacing

• ​Margin

• ​Page number

• ​Title

• ​Indentation

• ​Avoid broken words at the end of the line

• ​Name, Date, Other Information

Mechanics of Writing: Capital Letters

• First word in a sentence or a direct quotation

• ​Names of persons and the word I

• ​Names of particular places and institutions

• ​Names of the days of the week, months, and holidays

• ​Names of commercial products

• Titles of books, magazines, newspapers, poems, songs, shows, movies, etc

• ​Names of companies, associations, organizations, etc​

Mechanics of Writing: Capital Letters

• ​Names that show family relationship, e.g. Mother, Grandma, Aunt Mary

• ​Titles of persons when used with their names, e.g. President Obama

• ​Specific school courses, e.g. Language Skills in Social Context

• ​Languages, e.g. English, Mandarin

• ​Historical periods and events, e.g. Middle Ages

• ​Races, nations, and nationalities, e.g. Asian, Malaysian, Malaysia

Open Ended

Correct the following sentence:

Minnesota is bordered by the Canadian Provinces of manitoba and ontario to the North , by Wisconsin to the East , and by North and South Dakota to the West.

Mechanics of Writing: Numbers (APA 7)

Spell out numbers:

• ​At the beginning of a sentence, title, or heading

• ​Expressing a common fraction, e.g. two thirds

• ​Numbers zero through nine

​

​Use the numerals:

• ​When they represent time, e.g. 3 years

• ​When they suggest specific place in a series, e.g. Chapter 2

• ​When they represent scores, e.g. 5 marks

• ​When they precede units of measurement, e.g. 34^oC

• ​When they represent a part of a mathematical expression, e.g. 5%

• ​When they represent exact sums of money, e.g. RM8

Mechanics of Writing: Abbreviations

• Include a period after abbreviations of title, e.g. Mr. George, Dr. Chandra

• ​Mention the full version the first time with the abbreviation in parentheses, e.g. Ministry of Education (MOE), (i.e., Ministry of Education [MOE])

• ​Do not need to mention the full version for:

  • ​abbreviations listed in the dictionary, e.g. Covid-19, IQ

  • ​measurement, e.g. cm

  • ​time used with numerals, e.g. 5 hr 30 min

  • ​Latin abbreviations. e.g., i.e.

  • ​statistical abbreviation, e.g. SD

Mechanics of Writing: Punctuations

' apostrophe:

• contraction, e.g. can't

• possession, e.g. James's book, brothers' house, father's car

​

​"..." quotation marks:

• ​exact words of a speaker/writer - comma and period inside the quotation mark, e.g. Einstein once said, "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

• ​titles of short works, e.g. the story "Cinderella"

• quotation within quotation - use single quotation marks, e.g. ​The teacher said, "Make sure you have read 'Captain Nobody' before the next class."

​

Open Ended

Correct the following sentence:

Nigerias chief export is oil, the earnings from which make the countrys economy one of the richest in Africa.

Open Ended

Correct the following sentence:

When we finally found a motel that had rooms available my wife shouted halleluiah! we won’t have to stay with your relatives again!

Mechanics of Writing: Punctuations

, comma:

• ​separate items in a series, e.g. tennis, badminton, and football

• ​to set off introductory phrase/clause, e.g. Whistling happily, the boy...

• ​on both sides of words that interrupt the flow of thought in a sentence, e.g. The leather jacket, sticky from the heat, clung to my skin.

• ​before the FANBOYS conjunction with two different subjects, e.g. Sam closed all the windows, but the unpredictable storm never arrived. Sam closed all the windows and locked all the doors. (no comma when there's only one subject)

• ​to set off a direct quotation from the rest of the sentence, "I'm sorry," the man said. / The main said, "I'm sorry."

• ​When addressing someone directly, e.g. Jane, please shut the windows.

Open Ended

Correct the following sentence:

cats and dogs like most animals love the taste of salt and will lick humans hands to get it

Mechanics of Writing: Punctuations

: colon

• ​list, e.g. The store will close at noon on the following dates: 26 November, 24 December, and 31 December.

• ​block quotation (refer APA 7)

• ​explanation, e.g. Here's a temporary solution to a dripping faucet: Tie a string to it, and...

​; semi-colon​

• ​to mark a break between two complete thoughts, e.g. Strange things happen at very low temperatures; a rose will shatter like glass.

• ​to mark off items in a series that contain comma, e.g. Their children are named Mei Li, which means "beautiful"; Shuai Ge, which means "handsome"; and Chong Ming, which means "clever."

Open Ended

Correct the following sentence:

there are 8 parts of speech noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and article

Mechanics of Writing: Punctuations

－ dash

• To signal a pause longer than a comma but not as complete as a period, e.g. He had many good qualities － sincerity, honesty, thoughtfulness － yet he had few friends

Open Ended

Correct the following sentence:

after nine days of hiking in the wilderness sleeping under the stars and

communing with nature I could think of only one thing a hot shower

Proofreading

= Closely checking the final edited draft for typos and other careless errors

1. Read the essay backwards to avoid getting caught in the flow of the essay and missing small mistakes.

2. ​Correct the errors.

3. ​Read your essay one final time to ensure that it is as error free as possible before submission.

Task

​Don't forget to:

1. ​Write your drafts for the Writing Portfolio. Due: 25 Nov (Thurs)

2. ​Revise your drafts for unity, support, coherence, and language.

3. Ask your peer(s) to revise your drafts and give you feedback. In exchange, ​help them to revise theirs and provide them with useful feedback. Due: 24 Nov (Wed)

4. ​Revise your drafts accordingly.

5. ​Edit your drafts to reduce errors in terms of grammar, punctuations, mechanics, usage, and spellings.

6. ​Proofread your drafts to ensure that it is as error free as possible. Due: 26 Nov (Thurs)