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| The various activities of invention (gathering, researching); planning (shaping and organizing); drafting (setting down ideas in sentences and paragraphs to form a composition); editing (rethinking, checking for the best organization and clear, effective sentences, and correct grammar); revision (making needed changes); and proofing (polishing, checking the final draft of a paper to eliminate typographic, spelling, punctuation, and documentation errors). |
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| The person or persons for whom the writing is intended. A specific audience has considerable knowledge of the subject. A general (or diverse) audience consists of willing readers who are not experts on your topic. Good writers are always thinking of their readers |
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| A writer’s reason for writing. The purpose for nonfiction writing may be predominantly expressive, expository, or persuasive, though all three aims are likely to be present in some measure. Good writers are always mindful of their purpose. |
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| The art of using language to achieve its intended effect. Rhetoric involves considerations of the writer’s purpose and audience. Effective rhetoric in this class means that student writers are careful to use various strategies to affect their readers in the way intended. |
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| The specific, narrowed subject matter covered by a paper. (The topic of your observation essay is the place in which you took your observation notes and the objects, people, and/or activities you observed.) |
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| The message of an essay, paragraph, or a book. The theme is the message writers need to communicate to their readers concerning the topic. Unlike a formal thesis statement (see below), a theme can be implicit, not formally stated. (In this class, however, the observation essay must contain one sentence that clearly states the theme.) One can think of a theme as the moral of a story. (The theme of your observation essay is how you characterize the overall sense of being in the location you chose: a feeling, mood, thought, or idea.) |
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| A report of the exact words of a writer or speaker set off by quotation marks or block quotations (set off from the main text as a distinct paragraph—or block). |
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| The restatement of the words of a writer or speaker, using different words and no quotation marks. |
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| A concise restatement of the words of a writer or speaker briefer than the original using no quotation marks. |
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| The use of another writer’s words or ideas without acknowledging the source. Akin to theft, plagiarism has serious consequences and should always be avoided. To avoid |
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| A group of words that can stand by itself. An independent clause must contain a subject and a predicate; it makes sense by itself. |
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| The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing, having, or being something. The main part of the subject is a noun or pronoun. Example: Natalie dances. (“Natalie” is the subject.) Example: Natalie, the girl who lives next door and owns a small dog, dances. (“Natalie, the girl who lives next door and owns a small dog” is the extended subject.) |
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| The predicate tells something about the subject—what the subject is doing, having, or being. The main part of the predicate is the verb. Example: Natalie dances. (“dances” is the predicate.) Example: Natalie dances all night for her friends and family. (“dances all night for her friends and family” is the extended predicate. |
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| A group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period but that lacks a subject, a predicate, or both. Example: I need to find a new way to study. Because the one I use now isn't working out too well. (The second sentence is a fragment.) |
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| An ungrammatical sentence in which two or more independent clauses are conjoined without a conjunction. Unacceptable in college and professional writing. Example: Patricia went to the game her brother stayed home. |
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| A punctuation error in which two independent clauses are joined by a comma with no coordinating conjunction. Patricia went to the game, her brother stayed home. |
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| Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement |
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| A pronoun is a substitute for a noun. An antecedent is the noun that the pronoun is standing in for. The definition of pronoun-antecedent agreement is that the pronoun used must agree in number (singular, plural) and gender (male, female, neuter) with the noun antecedent. English instructor Jeff Sturges insists on proper use of pronouns in his English class. (The pronoun “his” agrees with the noun (antecedent) “Jeff Sturges”—one person, male.) |
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| A sentence with incompatible elements that begins with one type of structure and shifts to another type of structure. A mixed construction is formed when two or more parts of a sentence don’t match up grammatically or logically. Example: Since I have a hard life is why I can't do well in school. (Faulty combination of "Since I have a hard life" and "is why I can't do well in school" results in an unintentional shift.) |
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| The form of words and letters, such as capitals, italics, abbreviations, acronyms, and numbers. |
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| The process of finding and judging useful passages from source material. |
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| The citing of sources in a research paper to conform to a given style, such as MLA or APA. |
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| Critical Thinking/Reading/Writing |
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| The ability to analyze and synthesize ideas: to distinguish between fact and opinion, to recognize the importance of evidence and logic, to evaluate for credibility, and to avoid common fallacies. |
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| The sentence found at the beginning of a formal academic essay that states the central point or main idea of a formal academic essay. A specific, clearly focused thesis statement helps the writer make all the other elements of the essay work together to accomplish his or her purpose. (In this class, the research paper must contain a clearly written thesis statement found at the end of the first paragraph.) One can think of a thesis as the main argument of an academic essay. |
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| A statement of the central thought of a paragraph. It announces the main idea of the paragraph, and, in formal academic writing, is often expected to be the first sentence of all paragraphs making up the body of an essay. |
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| The elaboration of an idea through organized discussion filled with examples, details, and other information. (Think of Assert/Support and the P.I.E. formula.) |
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| All the elements in an essay contributing to developing a single idea or thesis. A paragraph is unified when each sentence contributes to developing a central thought. |
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| The principle that all the parts of a piece of writing should stick together, one sentence leading to the next, each idea evolving from the previous one. |
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| Words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs that relate ideas and provide coherence by linking sentences, paragraphs, and larger units of writing. Transitions may be expressions (words or phrases such as moreover, first, nevertheless, for example, and so on). |
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| A form of writing intended chiefly to change the reader’s opinions or attitudes or to arouse the reader to action |
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| A reader’s active engagement by the writer’s ideas and how those ideas are expressed, with attention to content and form |
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| The writer’s choice of exact, idiomatic, and fresh words, as well as appropriate levels of usage. |
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| Sentence structure; the grammatical arrangement of words, phrases, and clauses. |
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