Writing

1. مرکز مطالعات و توسعه آموزش علوم پزشکی Writing

2. 1. Why Write

3. 1.1. Writing to Work With computers now a part of almost every job, word processing and e-mailing are essential skills. Getting and keeping a job these days usually involves good writing skills. You will need writing in your job in these forms: • Letters of application and Resume • Memos and Reports (office works) • Letters • Records and Orders (health-care professional) • Legal Briefs (lawyer)

4. 1.2. Writing to Learn All the students need to know writing techniques to: • Take Notes • Write Essays & Reports • Answer Examination Questions • Be able to write letters & E-mails

5. 1.3. Writing to Communicate All of us need writing to be able to communicate using: • Email • Text Messages (SMS language or textese) • Personal Letter

6. 2. The Writing Process

7. No two writers approach writing in exactly the same way. But they do tend to follow a series of actions that look something like this: • Exploring Ideas • Prewriting • Organizing • Writing a First Draft • Revising the Draft • Producing the Final Copy

8. 2.1. Step 1: Exploring Ideas Remember that writing is like speech, and speaking includes discovering ideas as you say them. This is the first step of writing. SO Before you sit down to write, let your mind speak freely. When inspiration happens, capture it by writing on what ever you can: Napkins, Piece of paper, back of your hand.

9. In order to have your exploration systematic you need to bare three items in your mind: • Something to say • Reason for saying • Someone to say it to So Never forget the three fundamental questions: • What is my subject? • What is my purpose? • Who is my audience?

10. 2.1.1. Your Subject While choosing your subjects keep these issues in mind: • Choose the most interesting subjects to your audience • Choose the subjects about which you care • Choose the subjects about which you know You must select and then narrow your subject

11. Example: Suppose you are asked to describe a job you know well. Ask yourelfthgese questions: • What jobs have I done or do now? • What do I know about these jobs? • Which jobs (or parts of one job) do I feel strongly about? What do I hate? What parts make me angry or happy? • What tools or materials do I use in my job? • How do I perform each task? • Which tasks are most interesting or boring? • What examples or little stories best illustrate these points?

12. 2.1.2. Your Purpose What do you want to do with your writing? You can: • Inform (your classmates about some procedures at your job) • Persuade (your classmates that they should find or avoid a job like you) • Entertain ( your classmates with examples of odd incidents you have experienced at your job) • All these three

13. Exercise: Read each sentence and write the purpose of the paragraph. Then choose one of the sentences and revise it so that it begins a different paragraph. • Before November 18, 1883, when the railroads instituted the Standard Time and time zones, the time of day varied from city to city and town to town……………… • There must be better ways to resolve differences than going to war……............ • The history behind the naming of months of the calendar is fascinating…………. • The Roman emperors Julius and Augustus Caesar each added a month to the year, and named them ,of course, after themselves………………

14. 2.1.3. Your Audiance Who is your audience? The answer to this question may help you: • Determine the content of your writing • Determine the purpose of your writing • The amount of needed explanation • The amount of needed evidence to persuade

15. Exercise: For each of the following topic, list two or three points you would include if your were writing o a different audiences specified. • Example: Topic: The benefits of controlled diets Audience: Overweight adults: better health, better appearance, feeling of well being • Topic: The role of personal web sites on the internet like My Space Audience: People between the age of 12-30 Audience: People between the age of 40-70 2. Topic: The reasons for requiring helmets for motorcycle riders Audience: Riders of motorcycles Audience: Motor cycle manufacturers

16. Exercise: Read the text and answer questions

17. What’s the writer’s main purpose: to inform, persuade or entertain? Or is it a combination of these purposes? • Who’s the audience for this article? Would you expect to find it in a college textbook, a newspaper or a popular magazine? Write your reasons. • What point or points is the writer making? • What’s the writer’s attitude toward his son? Do • es he have more than one attitude? How do you know?

18. 2.2. Step 2: Prewriting The second step of writing process involves capturing your thoughts on a piece of paper or on the computer screen. This step is called prewriting in which you jot down whatever comes to your mind without any worrying about spelling or punctuation. There are three techniques regarding this step 1. Brainstorming 2. Clustering 3. Freewriting

19. 2.2.1. Brainstorming One way to capture your thoughts is by Brainstorming Or listing thoughts as they come to you Here is an example from a student who has been asked to describe a job:

20. 2.2.2. Clustering In this technique you put your topic in a circle in the middle of the page and them add related ideas as they occur to you. These related ideas are called Branches In the following example the topic is a job description my job delivering pizza

22. 2.2.3. Freewriting In this technique you simply start writing about your topic without worrying about sentence structure, spelling, logic, and grammar. Here the only difference is that your pieces of information is not in the form of single words but sentences. Use abbreviations and shortcuts so you can get your ideas down fast. Don’t think of your freewriting as disorganized. Just let your ideas flow. You can expand it, change it or omit some parts

23. Here we have the same example of a job description

24. 2.3. Step 3: Organizing Now that you captured your ideas you can select from and organize them: • Underline or highlight the most promising ideas in your brainstorming list. Then rewrite the list. You can add more ideas to your list. • Choose the part of clustering diagram that seems most promising. You can even do a second clustering diagram. • Highlight the most promising parts of your freewriting. You can narrow your subject or add more details.

25. 2.3.1. Selecting Now you have narrowed your focus And Generate more ideas The next step is to choose one of those ideas that fits your purpose and audience. Example: Your topic is the “pizza delivery as a job”. Your Purpose is toentertainwho have part time job and to show that your job is not that bad. So You willkeepthe most humorous information: Fuzzy Ms. Fritzy, Wobbly Wally, and the Fraternity boys You will omit the unimportant parts such as the ones about your cell phone, and working hours

26. 2.3.2. Outlining An outline is a great way to organize your thoughts and research if you’re preparing a speech, an essay, a novel, or even a study guide. To write an outline, follow these guidelines. • Choose a topic • Determine the larger purpose of your work • Gather supporting materials • Decide how to generally order your supporting evidence so that it supports your larger purpose • Decide whether to write a topic outline or a sentence outline. • Identify your main categories. • Think of at least two points for each category. • Expand upon your points with subpoints if necessary.

27. Example

28. After deciding on the focus of the customers, the pizza delivery writer can make a rough outline:

29. 2.4. Step 4: Writing a First Draft In the prewriting stage you have: • Select your best ideas • Arrange them in some reasonable order Now Begin writing your first draft and:

30. Don’t worry about writing something perfect. Write fast as if speaking your words aloud. Leave wide margins. If new ideas occur to you write them on the margin. Double-space so there will be enough room for changes Use only one side of the paper so you can cut and paste the changes. Tape or staple additions where you want them to go. Say something loud before you write it. Circle the words you think you misspelled or will want to change later

31. Example: Here is the example of description pizza delivery as job

32. 2.5. Step 5: Revising the Draft After completing your first draft, set it aside. Give yourself a chance to see it with fresh eyes later. It’s hard to think about changing and correcting your work immediately after you finish a draft. You tend to read what you think you said, not what’s actually on the paper.

33. 2.5.1. Reviewing Now go back to what you have written , read it carefully. • Study its organization, word choice, and details. • You will find something to cut and something to add. • Rearrange sections, rephrase sentences, and improve your word choice. • Look at the words you circle earlier and correct the misspellings. • Make notes in the margin and use arrows to show the place they will be added.

34. Example: Here is our old example’s reviewing

35. 2.5.2. Reading aloud • Now read your work aloud. Listen hard. You’ll probably hear mistakes to correct and discover improvements to make. • Then read your work again , perhaps to another person, and repeat the process until you’re satisfied that your writing is interesting and clear.

36. 2.5.3.Predicting Remember Readers don’t merely receive information; they actively attempt to find meaning for themselves. They predict what will follow from your opening sentences and then perhaps adjust their predictions as they read on. Here is how to do it: • Read the first sentence or two/ • Stop and think about what your readers would expect to follow. • Decide if the rest of the paragraph satisfies those predictions. • Make notes on what you add, remove, or shift to satisfy your reader’s expectations.

37. 2.6. Step 6: Producing the Final Copy Once you’re reasonably satisfied with you writing, you can begin the final copy. Prepare it according to the guidelines of your instructor. Before finishing pay attention to the details you have ignored

38. 2.6.1. Editing • Examine and look for your mistakes carefully. • Check the misspelled or repeated words. • Look for grammatical errors, missing word endings, incomplete sentences, and incorrect punctuation. • Read the pare more than once. • Copy it again and again including the new changes.

39. 2.6.2. Proofreading • Proofreading means carefully examining the last copy again, and comparing it with previous ones. • Read the paper slowly. • Place a ruler under each line to focus your eyes. • Read the paper aloud.

40. Example: Here is the pizza delivery example’s final copy.

41. 3.Sentence

42. 3.1. Building & Repairing Sentences3.1.1. What is a Sentence? A sentence is the basic unit of expression. Every sentence must make a complete statement.

43. Most often the subject comes first and the verb follows the subject. Examples: This group of words that can express a complete proposition is called a clause.

44. As you can see the subject and the verb of a sentence don’t complete the statement. That usually requires additional words that follow the verb: This combination of Subject + verb + completion of the statement is called an independent clause. An independent clause can stand as a complete sentence.

45. 3.1.1.1. Identifying Subjects The best way to identify the subject and verb is to look for both at the same time. The subject: • Tells who or what the clause makes a statement about. • Usually appears at the beginning of the statement before the verb. • Can be a proper noun, subject pronoun, common noun, or gerund.

46. Exercise: Underline the subjects in each sentence. • Tad Lincoln was only ten years old in 1863. • He adored the turkey and named it Jack. • The bird soon followed Tad around the White House grounds. • Tad and his father agreed not to kill the animal. • Pardoning the White House turkey has since become an annual tradition for presidents.

47. 3.1.1.2. Identifying Verbs The verb: • Says what the subject does or is. • Usually has a tense =, indicating if the verb discusses the pat, present, or future. • Usually follows the subject and begins a statement about the subject. • May contain more than one word.

48. Example: Circle the verbs in the following sentences. • Lincoln was controversial throughout his presidency. • By today’s standards, people might even consider Lincoln as racist. • Lincoln didn’t free the slaves at the beginning of the Civil War for a simple reason. • He wanted to bring the South back into the Union quickly. • However like other great presidents. He grew in office and took courageous positions. • In the fall of 1862, he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the areas still in rebellion as of January1, 1863.

49. 3.1.2. Coordination • If you want to keep your readers interested, you need to create some variety in your sentences. • Sentence variety comes largely from joining sentences. • One way to add sentences is to add words that join them. • A joining word is called conjunction. • Notice how conjunctions connect the following pairs of words:

50. One kind of conjunction is called coordinating conjunction. As you can see in these examples each pair of word is grammatically equalor coordinate. So Coordinating conjunctions are the ones that can join grammatically equal structures. The coordinating conjunctions are seven: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so