Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Today we examined sentences from essays to figure out what common writing errors are in need of review. I have pasted these below.

1. Don't use "you" in an essay (it can turn the reader off if not used correctly). Change the "you" to "one" or use "him/he or her/she", or “A person” to vary the pronouns.

2. Proof your work and get rid of fragments. If it doesn't make sense, then you are not being successful at communicating your message. Misplaced modifiers, like the ones above, lead to ambiguity.

3. Proof your work and get rid of run -ons. If a sentence, like the ones above, contains two complete thoughts, then it needs to either be broken into two sentences, joined by a semi-colon, or made clearer through the use of commas.

4. Check tenses (and re-read for spelling errors). In the case above, this person has used "can" in present tense and "would" which should be "will".

5. Spell it out. In an English composition, all numbers with two digits are to be spelled out. The only exception to this is if they are part of a name, address or a decimal. All digits that are more than two numbers do not have to be spelled out.


6. Check the location of modifiers and make sure all thoughts are single to avoid confusion. Make sure you define terms that might be unfamiliar to your reader.

7. Avoid repetition and shortcuts (such as…/ )

8. Check spelling and leave the slang out.

9. Leave out the obvious: Your goal is not to pad your paper with useless words. I don’t count letters, but ideas and successful argument of proof.

10. People… which of the 5 w’s refer to them? Not THAT, but WHO!!!! (use “Who” when referring to people)

11. Avoid passive sentences. They have less punch than you want
them to have. They almost take the emotional element away.

12. Make sure the terms you are using are explained.
"I thought about deacking but there was no way I could beat this
goalie. ')

13. Check for unintended puns: In order to get their attention, he wrote a satirical essay saying that they should eat the children so they are not put to waist.