CONTENT, style, and mechanics all play an important role in creating a strong essay, story, report, or article.
When we communicate on paper:
Our goal is to be thorough, accurate, concise, and concrete.
Our writing needs to flow well and make sense.
We have to guard against misspellings and sloppy grammar, which can distract the reader and dilute our message.
Writers have dozens—even hundreds—of tips and tools at their disposal to make this process easier and improve chances for success. From time to time, I pick different ones to help you or your students plan, write, or edit more effectively. Here are six tips to try out:
1. Brainstorm Before Writing
The purpose of brainstorming is to plan ideas and jot down details to jumpstart your writing. Brainstorming can take many forms, including clustering, mind-mapping, lists, grids, and formal graphic organizers.
Instead of writing full sentences, it’s better to make lists of words and short phrases. Later, as you refer to your brainstorming sheet during writing time, your list of concrete words and other details will jog your memory and keep your writing from taking tangents. Brainstorming keeps you on track.
2. Use Different Kinds of Sentences
Try a combination of simple, compound, and complex sentences to add variety and improve the style of your writing. Here’s a helpful quiz on sentence types.
3. Choose Strong Words
Vivid, active, colorful words have the power topaint clear mental pictures and stir the reader’s emotions. When dull, vague, or overly used words clutter up your writing, replace them with stronger, more precise ones.
Dull:Isabella made a nice dessert. Interesting:Isabella whipped up a rich chocolate mousse.
Watch out for boring words such as fine,nice, orgood. Is it a good book, good friend, or good weather? Then express it more specifically.
riveting book, faithful friend, balmy weather
Avoid vague verbs such as cried, said, or went in favor of concrete ones:
The orphan sobbed, wailed, or wept.
Dr. Cooper ordered, whispered, or agreed.
The horse galloped, trotted, or raced.
Check to see that you haven’t repeated main words too many times, using your thesaurus to find appropriate synonyms.
Finally, when picking the best words for saying what you mean, don’t choose them based on how long they are or how clever they make you sound. Otherwise, you run the risk of sounding pompous or stuffy.
4. Include Subordinating Conjunctions
Sentence variations can add interest and maturity to any piece of writing. Using subordinating conjunctions is just one way to vary sentence structure, often by combining sentences like these together:
I shop frugally. I save several hundred dollars each month.
Example 1:When the subordinating conjunction begins the sentence, a comma follows the dependent clause.
Because I shop frugally, I save several hundred dollars each month.
Example 2: When a dependent clause beginning with a subordinating conjunction comes at the end of the sentence, don’t separate the two clauses with a comma.
I save several hundred dollars each month because I shop frugally.
Either way, you can see how using because to combine two short sentences results in a single but more interesting sentence.
Avoid pesky misplaced modifiers—phrases or clauses placed near the wrong noun. Make sure to position a modifier close to the word or phrase it should modify to avoid confusion.
Incorrect:Hiking along the overgrown path, a tree stump tripped Fernie.
Why is this wrong? Because the sentence implies that the tree stump was hiking along the path!
Correct:Hiking along the overgrown path, Fernie tripped over a tree stump.
6. Revise Everything
Everyone’s writing improves with editing, so no matter how great you think your article or story is, let it breathe for a day and then scrutinize it for clarity, conciseness, concreteness, and errors.
Listen, we’re going to let you guys in on a little secret: You can really put your commas anywhere. Grammar’s all a big sham.
Intrigued? So was I!
My friend Mary Jo Tate pointed me in the direction of this amusing look at the evolution (and deterioration) of grammar and punctuation. Enjoy the chuckle!
Alexis Bonari is joining me today as a guest blogger here at In Our Write Minds. Alexis blogs for onlinedegrees.org. Today, Alexis shares some helpful tips on commonly confused—and misused—words.
It’s difficult for any teacher to contradict the overwhelming number of usage errors in everyday writing, but English students should be taught how to discern correct from incorrect word usage.
Errors from billboards, magazine articles, and even television captions can have a profound effect on a child’s understanding of the English language.
The following are some of the most common usage errors found in today’s written communication, so help your students identify the mistakes to keep them out of their own writing.
Went vs. Gone
Many errors involving this pair of words include “have went,” which is incorrect. The word “went” should never be used in conjunction with “have.” If you need to communicate a past-tense version of “go” with the word “have,” the correct choice is the past participle: “have gone.”
Than vs. Then
When comparing two different things, people, or ideas, the word “than” is useful. For example, you could say, “Those apples are riper than the peaches.” A comparison should not involve the word “then,” which is used to specify time or sequence. A correct use of this word would be “She peeled the apples first, then the peaches.”
Have vs. Of
The phrases “should of,” “could of,” and “would of” are always incorrect. The word “of” is a preposition that often indicates the relationship of a part to a whole, as in “Grandma ate the last piece of pie.” In order to make the incorrect phrases above correct, the word “have” should be substituted for “of”: should have, could have, would have.
Loose vs. Lose
Learning the difference between these two words is relatively simple: “loose” is an adjective and “lose” is a verb. The former describes something, as in “He didn’t like to wear loose clothing when playing tennis.” The latter is used as a way to convey a sense of action, so you could say, “They always lose when they play Monopoly.”
Fewer vs. Less
One way to decide which of these words is appropriate is to figure out whether or not the items being described are countable. With tangible, countable items, the word “fewer” should be used, as in “There were fewer girls than boys at the party.” When describing a more abstract concept, use “less.” For example, “He was less apprehensive about his interview once he had taken a few deep breaths.”
Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education, researching various degree programs online. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.
A gaggle of geese. A school of fish. A flock of sheep. A nest of hornets.
These animal groupings are called collective nouns, and I’m sure they’re well known to you and your kids. But have you heard of any of these?
A murder of crows. A crash of rhinoceroses. An unkindliness of ravens. An exaltation of larks. An implausibility of gnus. A memory of elephants.
I love these! Could word usage be any more fun?
If you want to take a humorous trip down vocabulary lane, check out this link and learn all sorts of interesting collective nouns people have attributed to birds, fish, and mammals. From what I’ve gathered, some of the terms date back to the 1400s. Many may be archaic, but for the most part, they’re purely entertaining!
I think it would be great to encourage your children to write a poem using these unusual animal groupings. Maybe we could call our collection a ponderance of poems.
Do you have a few favorites from the collective animal nouns list? Share them in the comments. And while you’re at it, why not make up a new collective noun of your own? I think a ponderance of poems is a great place to start!
[Edited: Sherri alerted me to a wonderful song by Carrie Newcomer called A Crash of Rhinoceros, about how Adam named the animals. You just have to check out these fabulous lyrics!]
When your student begins to protest, “But I like it this way!” or “It looks okay to me,” it’s high time to introduce the concept of writingconventions.
Defining Conventions
We can define conventions as a set of generally accepted standards for written English. We use conventions to make our writing more readable. In other words, we do things in a certain way so the reader can figure out what we’re trying to say.
Conventions include spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and sentence structure. Students should:
Apply spelling rules correctly.
Use correct punctuation to smoothly guide the reader through the paper.
Use verb tenses correctly.
Write sentences that express complete thoughts.
Demonstrate paragraph organization and use smooth transitions.
In addition, each kind of writing has its own conventions. For instance:
Narrative writing must have characters, setting, and plot.
Descriptive writing must appeal to the senses through use of vivid, colorful, precise vocabulary.
Expository writing must inform, clarify, explain, define, or instruct.
Persuasive writing must present an argument based on facts and logic, and attempt to sway the reader’s opinion.
Teaching Conventions
As a rule, you probably won’t teach a lesson on “conventions,” per se. There are just too many conventions, so it’s better to deal with them independently. Besides, individual concepts stick better when students can apply them in a practical way.
For example, it’s just natural to introduce character, setting, plot, and conflict when you’re teaching your children to write a narrative. You wouldn’t teach these as isolated elements and not have your kids actually write a narrative; the instruction and application makes sense because they’re including these elements in their story.
Similarly, instead of teaching grammar in isolation, make sure you’re providing an immediate way for students to apply their grammar lessons to a writing assignment. If your grammar program is introducing appositives, let’s say, require your child to include an appositive in the history report he’s working on.
Reinforcing Conventions
Diligently reinforce concepts by making sure your children are following conventions in their writing.
As they get older, there should be no more excuse for things like comma splices, incomplete sentences, and homophone confusion. These are the problems you must nip in the bud now, because they’re the very issues that will identify your students as poor writers later on—both in college and on the job. Therefore, give recurring problems focused attention.
1. Your kidding! The Panthers won the championship?
Since the speaker means “You are kidding,” the sentence should begin with You’re, not Your.
2. Emily’s dog had a thorn in it’s left paw.
In this sentence, it’s is incorrect. Emily’s dog didn’t have a thorn in “it is” paw, so the word should be possessive: its.
3. This is their first trip to California.
This sentence uses their correctly.
4. Our homeschool group went to the zoo, we had a great time.
This sentence has acomma splice, which can be fixed any of the following ways:
Our homeschool group went to the zoo. We had a great time.
Our homeschool group went to the zoo; we had a great time.
Our homeschool group went to the zoo, and we had a great time.
5. Last night, we went to the Franklin’s for dinner.
Franklin’s is incorrect. Since several Franklins live at this home, the sentence calls for a plural possessive: the Franklins’.
6. Amazingly, there wasn’t a scratch on its fender.
This sentence uses the possessive its correctly.
7. My friend Jason is a genius he won a math scholarship.
This is a run-on sentence, which can be fixed either of these ways:
My friend Jason is a genius. He won a math scholarship.
My friend Jason is a genius; he won a math scholarship.
8. We took it for granite that Grandpa would always be with us.
This is a commonhomophone error. The correct word is granted, not granite.
9. Aunt Lucy visited the museum with my family and me.
This sentence is correct. If you remove my family, the sentence still makes sense (Aunt Lucy visited the museum with me).
10. I shouldn’t of worn white slacks to the spaghetti dinner.
To make this sentence correct, we need to replace of with have: I shouldn’t have worn white slacks.
Did any of these questions give you trouble? If so, take time to review the rules and practice with some simple exercises. Both All About Homophones and The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation offer help with troubleshooting common errors of spelling, usage, and grammar. Take the time to learn (or re-learn) some of the basics. It will make a difference in your writing.
The tiny apostrophe can wield big power. Used incorrectly, it can affect an essay grade, a college application, or even a job promotion.
In truth, poor grammar skills can label you as uneducated or incompetent. You don’t have to be an English nerd, but it is important to use grammar and punctuation correctly—and to teach your children proper skills as well.
Take the quiz
Here’s a little quiz to help you identify whether you fall prey to some of the most common errors of grammar and punctuation. I’ll post the key tomorrow.
Directions: Read the following sentences. A sentence may be correct as is, or it may contain an error. (If you’re brave enough to take up the challenge, I hope you’ll share your answers in the comment section.)
Ready?
1. Your kidding! The Panthers won the championship?
2. Emily’s dog had a thorn in it’s left paw.
3. This is their first trip to California.
4. Our homeschool group went to the zoo, we had a great time.
5. Last night, we went to the Franklin’s for dinner.
6. Amazingly, there wasn’t a scratch on its fender.
7. My friend Jason is a genius he won a math scholarship.
8. We took it for granite that Grandpa would always be with us.
9. Aunt Lucy visited the museum with my family and me.
10. I shouldn’t of worn white slacks to the spaghetti dinner.
. . . . .
Have fun with this . . . and check back tomorrow to see how you did!
Hi, I'm Kim--curriculum author, speaker, retired homeschooler, and grandma to seven. Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere. My heart is to equip and inspire you to teach writing, even when it seems like it's always an uphill battle. I invite you to poke around the blog, where you'll find writing and poetry activities, grammar tips, and hope for reluctant writers. Thanks for stopping by!
The purpose of brainstorming is to plan ideas and jot down details to jumpstart your writing. Brainstorming can take many forms, including clustering, mind-mapping, lists, grids, and formal graphic organizers.
Check to see that you haven’t repeated main words too many times, using your thesaurus to find appropriate synonyms.
