-found on http://99u.com/articles/7082/25-insights-on-becoming-a-better-writer
On just sitting down and doing it…
“Don’t just plan to write—write. It is only by writing, not dreaming about it, that we develop our own style.”
-PD James
Tag: writing tips
Style Manual Wars
[found on theonion.com]
“NEW YORK—Law enforcement officials confirmed Friday that four more copy editors were killed this week amid ongoing violence between two rival gangs divided by their loyalties to the The Associated Press Stylebook and The Chicago Manual Of Style. “At this time we have reason to believe the killings were gang-related and carried out by adherents of both the AP and Chicago styles, part of a vicious, bloody feud to establish control over the grammar and usage guidelines governing American English,” said FBI spokesman Paul Holstein, showing reporters graffiti tags in which the word “anti-social” had been corrected to read “antisocial.” “The deadly territory dispute between these two organizations, as well as the notorious MLA Handbook gang, has claimed the lives of more than 63 publishing professionals this year alone.” Officials also stated that an innocent 35-year-old passerby who found himself caught up in a long-winded dispute over use of the serial, or Oxford, comma had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.” *THIS IS FROM A COMEDY NEWS SOURCE, NOT REALITY[found on http://www.theonion.com/articles/4-copy-editors-killed-in-ongoing-ap-style-chicago,30806]
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Me, Myself, and I…No, REALLY.
[found on adulted.about.com]
Me and Tim, Tim and I
- Wrong: Me and Tim are going to a movie tonight.
- Right: Tim and I are going to a movie tonight.
Why?
- If you take Tim out of the sentence, “you” are the subject.
- You are going to a movie. When you’re going to a movie, what do you say?
- “I am going to a movie.”
- You wouldn’t say, “Me am going to a movie.”
- When you add Tim, the sentence construction remains the same.
- You’re simply adding Tim, and it’s correct to say the other person’s name first.
- “Tim and I are going to a movie.”
[found on http://adulted.about.com/od/howtos/tp/fivegrammartips.htm]
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If It’s Passive—Pass it…
[found on hamilton.edu]
- Passive voice produces a sentence in which the subject receives an action.
- In contrast, active voice produces a sentence in which the subject performs an action.
- Passive voice often produces unclear, wordy sentences,
- whereas active voice produces generally clearer, more concise sentences.
- To change a sentence from passive to active voice, determine who or what performs the action,
- and use that person or thing as the subject of the sentence.
- PASSIVE voice:
- “On April 19, 1775, arms were seized at Concord, precipitating the American Revolution.”
- ACTIVE voice:
- “On April 19, 1775, British soldiers seized arms at Concord, precipitating the American Revolution.”
[found on http://www.hamilton.edu/tip#Writing%20for%20Clarity]
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Pre – Positional Is Where a Preposition Lives
[found on grammar.about.com]
“Like adjectives and adverbs, prepositional phrases add meaning to the nouns and verbs in our sentences. There are two prepositional phrases in the following sentence:
The steamy air in the kitchen reeked of stale food.
The first prepositional phrase–in the kitchen–modifies the noun air; the second–of stale food–modifies the verb reeked. The two phrases provide information that helps us understand the sentence.
The Two Parts of a Prepositional Phrase
A prepositional phrase has two basic parts: a prepositionplus a noun or a pronoun that serves as the object of the preposition. A preposition is a word that shows howa noun or a pronoun is related to another word in a sentence. The common prepositions are listed in the table at the bottom of this page.
Building Sentences with Prepositional Phrases
Prepositional phrases often do more than just add minor details to a sentence: they may be needed for a sentence to make sense. Consider the vagueness of this sentence without prepositional phrases:
The workers gather a rich variety and distribute it.
Now see how the sentence comes into focus when we add prepositional phrases:
From many sources, the workers at the Community Food Bank gather a rich variety of surplus and unsalable food and distribute it to soup kitchens, day-care centers, and homes for the elderly.
Notice how these added prepositional phrases give us more information about certain nouns and verbs in the sentence:
- Which workers?
- The workers at the Community Food Bank.
- What did they gather?
- A rich variety of surplus and unsalable food.
- Where did they gather the food?
- From many sources.
- Who did they distribute it to?
- To soup kitchens, day-care centers, and homes for the elderly.
Like the other simple modifiers, prepositional phrases are not merely ornaments; they add details that can help us understand a sentence.
PRACTICE: Building with Simple Modifiers
Use adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases to expand the sentence below. Add details that answer the questions in parentheses and make the sentence more interesting and informative.
Jenny stood, raised her shotgun, aimed, and fired.
(Where did Jenny stand? How did she aim? What did she fire at?)
There are, of course, no single correct answers to the questions in parentheses. Sentence-expanding exercises such as this one encourage you to use your imagination to build original sentences.”
Common Prepositions
[found on: http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/prepphrases.htm]
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The Reality of Fantasy
“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”
― Lloyd Alexander
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Bitter writer? Or Better writer?
[found on goinswriter.com]
“Anyone who writes is a writer, but that doesn’t mean they’re a very good one. So let’s talk about how to become a better writer. We’ll begin with the basics — here are seven key lessons:
- Writing is simple, but not easy.
- Before you get a larger audience, you have to get better.
- Practice makes you better; it’s the repetitions that make it effortless.
- Until you put your work out there, you’re only screwing around. Write for real.
- You can’t practice without discipline. Keep showing up and persevering.
- There will always be resistance; type through it, anyway.
- Get over your excuses and do the work.”
[found on http://goinswriter.com/writing-tips]
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George Orwell Asks Before Writing…Do You?
[found on writingclasses.com]
“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:
- What am I trying to say?
- What words will express it?
- What image or idiom will make it clearer?
- Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
And he will probably ask himself two more:
- Could I put it more shortly?
- Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”
[found on http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/300]**
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Follow the Yellow Brain Road
[found on mindmapping.com]
“Mind mapping is a highly effective way of getting information in and out of your brain. Mind mapping is a creative and logical means of note-taking and note-making that literally “maps out” your ideas. All Mind Maps have some things in common. They have a natural organizational structure that radiates from the center and use lines, symbols, words, color and images according to simple, brain-friendly concepts. Mind mapping converts a long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable and highly organized diagram that works in line with your brain’s natural way of doing things. One simple way to understand a Mind Map is by comparing it to a map of a city. The city center represents the main idea; the main roads leading from the center represent the key thoughts in your thinking process; the secondary roads or branches represent your secondary thoughts, and so on. Special images or shapes can represent landmarks of interest or particularly relevant ideas. The Mind Map is the external mirror of your own radiant or natural thinking facilitated by a powerful graphic process, which provides the universal key to unlock the dynamic potential of the brain.*The five essential characteristics of Mind Mapping*:
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[*found on http://www.mindmapping.com]
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Show Not Tell
“If you take a course on writing or attend a writer’s conference, you’ll likely hear the phrase, “Show, don’t tell.” In other words, “show” your readers what is happening, don’t just tell them.
Don’t tell readers what you did; describe doing it. One of the reasons we tend to tell rather than show is that it’s easier and faster. Showing how to do something requires time and effort. In teaching, it’s easier to tell students what’s wrong with what they did than to show them how to do it right. The latter, however, is more effective.”
-found on Our Daily Bread [www.odb.org]
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