Writing Tips

Writing Tips/Practice

After reading your outlines, here are some tips that I felt would aid in your writing process. Please read through the following slides and answer the questions.

Citing Work

• Be sure to cite properly in MLA Format "_______"(Remarque 55). OR If only using one text the following is okay. "_______"(55).

• If you mention the novel, put it in italics. I.e All Quiet on the Western Front (AQOTWF). (I know I put them in "___" in thesis statements for some of you but that's because the comment section doesn't allow for italics.)

• If you are using an outside source, don't paste the link to the website, you can refer to the article title, or the author. Just be sure to include that source on a works cited page.

• All essays should have works cited page- even if it's only AQOTWF.

• Notice above I used the abbreviation I had mentioned earlier. This is OK, as long as you spell it out fully at least once.

When to use Italics/Quotation Marks in writing.

Embedding Quotations

• Floating quotations are quotations which seem to have been thrown into a paragraph randomly, without any explanation.

• EXAMPLE OF FLOATING QUOTE: Petrarch notices how quickly time goes by; therefore it makes him question why he waited so long to change his ways to reach eternity in heaven. “Long since I should have opened mine eyes…and true it is that I have delayed too long.”

• Floating quotations in writing are sometimes confusing to the reader (that’s me) because no explanation of the quote or why the quote was used is given by the writer (that’s you). In your essays, always try to use quotations as evidence to support your thesis statement and your assertions.

Embedding Quotes Continued...

• Introduce your quotes by identifying the speaker or source/context of the quote.

• Momaday states: “A word has power in and of itself. It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; its gives origin to all things. By means of words can a man deal with the world on equal terms. And the word is sacred.”

• Odysseus realizes that by saying his name, he would be in more trouble than he would like to. Instead, he says, “My name is Nobody. That is what I am by my mother and father and by all my friends.”

• If you need further assistance with embedding quotes, refer to the attached PDF document on classroom, this will give you more examples to incorporate in your essay.

Quotations

• Choose quotes that support your thesis.

• Quotes should not be longer than 4-5 lines, I want to hear YOUR voice... with a sprinkling of support from the text. You can break down a long quote by using an ellipsis. (Example on next page)

Quotations

• If you CAN NOT break down your quote to eliminate unnecessary clutter, indent your quote within the paragraph. This is called "block quoting".

• This must be used sparingly, and appropriately. No more than once in a paper.

• Example of block quoting on next slide.

Quote Analysis

• Choose quotations that help to strengthen your argument. They should support your thesis statement, hypothesis, or other assertions you have made. 

•  Include the analysis that the selected quotation demonstrates or supports. ----- The argument seems to end when the main character, Tom, asks, " 'Do you feel better?'"

• You should indicate what you think the quotation means rather than restating the quote in your own words. Use a quotation and then state it's importance in proving your argument. Or you could explain the point you are analyzing and then provide evidence in the form of a quotation. Don't assume that your quotations will speak for themselves without explanation.

Quote Analysis

• Your analysis should be longer than the quote itself.

• Use the quote to support YOUR voice and YOUR assertions of the topic.

• Stay away from "this quote shows" or "this shows" use stronger vocabulary.

Editing Paper

• There should be no use of pronouns in first person, I, we, you/your (extending to me, my, us).

• If you did this, I only deleted the first couple. To edit your paper, to delete these (or any word you have repeated multiple times etc.) Use CONTROL -SHIFT- H or EDIT - FIND AND REPLACE. This will help you scour your paper for unwanted words. (I recommend reading each sentence and editing appropriately rather than bulk editing with one word).

• I did not make comments in every part of your outline that needed to be edited. It is your job, to incorporate that advice and apply it throughout your paper. If you did not analyze a quote, and simply restated/summarized it. I didn't repeat the same comments throughout your paper.

Multiple Choice

The proper way to fix this quote..... Cheating is a problem in schools nowadays, because schools themselves seem to support the attitude that it is not so bad to cheat as to fail. “This attitude will not stop in the classroom, but will carry on into the business world.” (Wenke) Something needs to be done to stop it.

• Cheating is a problem in schools nowadays, because schools themselves seem to support the attitude that it is not so bad to cheat as to fail. As Coleen Wenke points out in her essay Too Much Pressure, this blasé attitude toward cheating “will not stop in the classroom, but will carry on into the business world” (567). Clearly, something needs to be done to stop it

• Cheating is a problem in schools nowadays, because schools themselves seem to support the attitude that it is not so bad to cheat as to fail. As Coleen Wenke points out in her essay Too Much Pressure, this blasé attitude toward cheating:

  
  

  “will not stop in the classroom, but will carry on into the business world” (567).

  
  

  Clearly, something needs to be done to stop it.

Multiple Choice

Choose the one that is cited properly.

• "I used purposeful sampling to ensure my participants were instructors most familiar with ELL strategies" (Smith, 2010).

• Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

• Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals (3)".

• Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." (Wordsworth, 263)

Multiple Choice

The following is an example of what... Cheating is a problem in schools nowadays, because schools themselves seem to support the attitude that it is not so bad to cheat as to fail. “This attitude will not stop in the classroom, but will carry on into the business world.” (Wenke) Something needs to be done to stop it.

• Embedded Quote

• Floating Quote

• MLA Format

• Block Quote

Open Ended

2-point practice exercise: introducing and blending sources. Imagine the sentence below came from your own writing.

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” Henry Ford

Multiple Choice

Listing two quotes one after another is also considered a "floating quote" choose the better example below to avoid this mistake.

• Cheating is a problem in schools nowadays, because schools themselves seem to support the attitude that it is not so bad to cheat as to fail. “This attitude will not stop in the classroom, but will carry on into the business world.” “Those who are cheating are the ones getting the grades and getting into the best schools.” (Wenke)

• Cheating is a problem in schools nowadays, because schools themselves seem to support the attitude that it is not so bad to cheat as to fail. As Coleen Wenke points out in her essay Too Much Pressure, this blasé attitude toward cheating “will not stop in the classroom, but will carry on into the business world” (567). She also notes that cheaters “are the ones getting the grades and getting into the best schools.” Clearly, something needs to be done to stop this widespread, relative indifference toward cheating.

Multiple Choice

According to MLA Format, Novels in an essay should be....

• Italicized

• In "quotations"

• IN ALL CAPS

• BOLDED

• Underlined

Open Ended

2-point practice exercise: introducing and blending sources. Imagine the sentence below came from your own writing.

Socrates says that the unexamined life is not worth living. Artibello says that we need to ask questions about our lives. It’s important to realize that we should not just be content to live in a materialistic way.

Multiple Choice

If a quote is more than 4 lines, you should do the following.

• Use an ellipsis to eliminate unnecessary words, than use block quote.

• Use block quote to keep everything I need.

• Embed the quote using the proper format.

• Use a dash to eliminate unnecessary words, or use block quote.

• Use an ellipsis to eliminate unnecessary words, if impossible use block quote.

Multiple Choice

The proper way to fix this quote..... Cheating is a problem in schools nowadays, because schools themselves seem to support the attitude that it is not so bad to cheat as to fail. “This attitude will not stop in the classroom, but will carry on into the business world.” (Wenke) Something needs to be done to stop it.

• Cheating is a problem in schools nowadays, because schools themselves seem to support the attitude that it is not so bad to cheat as to fail. As Coleen Wenke points out in her essay Too Much Pressure, this blasé attitude toward cheating “will not stop in the classroom, but will carry on into the business world” (567). Clearly, something needs to be done to stop it

• Cheating is a problem in schools nowadays, because schools themselves seem to support the attitude that it is not so bad to cheat as to fail. As Coleen Wenke points out in her essay Too Much Pressure, this blasé attitude toward cheating:

  
  

  “will not stop in the classroom, but will carry on into the business world” (567).

  
  

  Clearly, something needs to be done to stop it.

Open Ended

Identify a part of your essay/outline where you incorporate Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.