Transcript Lecture 2 a modified

EE 399
Lecture 2 (a)
Guidelines To Good Writing
Guidelines to Good Writing
Contents
Basic Steps Toward Good Writing.
Developing an Outline:
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Outline Benefits.
Initial Development.
Creating the outline.
Outline Style.
The Paragraph.
Factors of Adequate Development.
Transitional Words / “Devices”.
Textual Referencing to Numbers
Improving Your Style.
Guidelines to Good Writing
Basic Steps Toward Good Writing
For good writing, you have to understand:
subject – purpose – audience
Main steps:
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Planning: ends up with sound outlines
Drafting: ends up with 1st draft
Revising: checks ideas and sentences
Proofreading: checks for grammar, spelling, and
punctuation errors
Guidelines to Good Writing
Developing an outline
Outline Benefits
Reflects logical thinking and clear
classification about a topic
Helps to organize the ideas and presenting
them
Shows relationships among ideas
Defines boundaries and groups
Guidelines to Good Writing
Developing an outline
Initial Development
Brainstorm: get ideas
Organize: group ideas
Search: get material
Order: arrange material
Label: create headings and sub-headings
Guidelines to Good Writing
Developing an outline
Creating the Outline
Coordination: to indicate equal significance
Subordination: to indicate unequal levels of
significance
Division: use one basis for division and at
least two parts per division
Parallelism: parallel expressions for
coordination and subordination heads
nouns
|| nouns
verbs
|| verbs
adjectives || adjectives
Guidelines to Good Writing
Developing an outline
Outline Styles
First style:
I.
A.
B.
1.
2.
a.
b.
II.
Second style:
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.2.1
1.2.2
1.2.2.1
1.2.2.2
2.0
Guidelines to Good Writing
The Paragraph
It is a collection of related sentences dealing
with a single topic
Good paragraph has the following:
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Reasonable length (at least 3 sentences)
Short (or medium) sentences (avoid long ones!)
Topic sentence: introducing the main idea of the
sentence.
Unity: single focus
Coherence: e.g. use transition words.
Adequate development: the target idea should be
made understandable to the target reader
(next slide)
Guidelines to Good Writing
Adequate Development
means:
Use examples and illustrations
Cite data: Give references
(facts, statistics, evidence, …)
Define terms
Compare and contrast
Examine effects and consequences
Offer chronology (sequence) of an event
Guidelines to Good Writing
Transitional Words “Devices”: 1/2
Used to connect sentences in a
paragraph, or two paragraphs together
Examples:
Causality: accordingly, consequently, for this reason,
hence, therefore, thus
Intention: in order to do, to this end, with this in mind, for
this purpose
Location: beyond, here, nearby, there, opposite
Concession: at any rate, at least
Guidelines to Good Writing
Transitional Words “Devices”: 2/2
Emphasis: above all, certainly, clearly, indeed, in fact, in short,
of course, obviously
Closure: in conclusion, in sum, on the whole, to summarize
Similarity: likewise, similarly
Time: afterward, at the same time, before, earlier, in the
meantime, sometimes, later, next, simultaneously
Amplification: again, also, apparently, besides, equally
important, finally, further, in addition, moreover
Detail: especially, in particular, namely, specifically, to
enumerate
Contrast: however, in contrast, nevertheless, on the contrary,
on the other hand
Interpretation:
fortunately,
interestingly,
significantly,
surprisingly
Guidelines to Good Writing
Textual Referencing to
Numbers: 1/2
Numerals used for measured quantities:
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1.3 centimeters
US $ 25,000
Numbers of ten or less are written as words:
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Nine cars, NOT 9 cars.
If sentence begins with number, it should be
in words:
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Two NOT 2 students came late
Guidelines to Good Writing
Textual Referencing to
Numbers: 2/2
For consecutive numerical expressions:
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use words for the 1st, and
numerals for the second
Example: Five 3-people groups
NOT
5 3-people groups
Guidelines to Good Writing
Improving your Style: 1/3
Maintain subject / verb agreement:
Use words / verbs suitable to the subject.
Choose proper verb tense:
Past, present, present perfect, future, …
Exploit topic sentence (to introduce the
paragraph)
Use (suitable) verbs to describe phenomena:
Use suitable verbs to reduce wording.
Guidelines to Good Writing
Improving your Style: 2/3
Choose the suitable voice
(passive or active)
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Passive: avoiding “I” and “We” and
emphasizing issues (traditional English
technical writing).
Active: using “I”, “We” (in use in American
English technical writing)
Guidelines to Good Writing
Improving your Style: 3/3
Pay attention to special conventions such
as:
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Avoiding gender-specific language:
 Use “humans” instead of “man and woman”.
 Use “plural” nouns instead of “singular” nouns.
 Use “the author” instead of “he”.
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Avoiding contractions (contractible words):
 Use “can not” instead of “can’t”.
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Proper textual referencing to numbers
(next slide)
Punctuations
Training
Write paragraphs on different
topics: e.g. why technical writing is a
useful skill: Assignment 1
(Punctuation & Grammar)
Follow the basic steps in preparing
for a complete report: Starting from
Assignment 2 (Searching for Final
Paper Topic)
Guidelines to Good Writing
The END