Expository Writing

1. Expository Writing Lesson Five Editing for grammar Dr. M. Connor

2. Process paper • This week I’m assigning you a process paper. • What does that mean?

3. Very simple • A) It means how to do something • instructions • this is the type I’ve selfishly assigned! • B) It means how one did something • a progress report • teachers and work supervisors will often ask for this type of writing

4. Now more on grammar • Don’t be afraid to seize whatever you have written and cut it to ribbons. It can always be restored to its original condition in the morning. • E.B. White • Especially if you have the right software. • Jan Venolia

5. Today’s lesson • Much of today’s lesson will be taken from Jan Venolia’s excellent book Rewrite Right! Your Guide to Perfectly Polished Prose, 2/e, Berkeley: Ten Speed P, 2000. • Available through Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1580082394/qid=1099687518/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-9428137-3451236?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

6. Valuable tools • Your word processing program contains two powerful tools to help your writing: • Spell check • Grammar check • Just be aware of their limitations

7. Spell check • A spell checker is a valuable tool for catching misspelled or unintentionally doubled words. BUT… • Documents may still include incorrect words. • A spell checker assumes a correctly spelled word is the right word. • If you write t-h-i-e-r house, it will catch it • If you write there house, it won’t!

8. Grammar check • Remember, this program is written by computer programmers, not English teachers! • They sometimes incorrectly flag text • They sometimes miss obvious errors. • They have trouble with things like who/whom, that/which, and the proper use of apostrophes.

9. Tracking revisions • I’ve shown you how to use this in peer editing, but it’s a good thing to use in your own editing as well. • You can delete your golden prose, but you don’t have to worry about it being permanently gone if you decide that you do like it after all. • This removes some of the pain of editing.

10. Getting started • No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft. • H.G. Wells • Ah-ha, this is probably why I teach writing! • Unless it’s the resistance to sitting down and editing your own. • Jan Venolia • Amen, says Dr. Connor!

11. Two level editing • Earlier in the course, I talked about the six step process. • Rewriting can also be called “first level editing” • Editing can also be called “second level editing”. • Today we’re looking at this level.

12. “Read” more than once • When editing a paper, your own or someone else’s, it’s always a good idea to read it through once to see what it’s about, but then skim it over several times, each time looking for something different. • You can catch the different types of error more easily if you’re specifically looking for them.

13. Second-level editing: a checklist • Punctuation • Do punctuation marks help readers grasp the meaning? • Is there any surplus punctuation? • Grammar • Do subjects and verbs agree? • Do pronouns and antecedents agree? • Are pronouns in their correct case? • who/whom, I/me/myself, etc

14. Checklist, continued • Grammar • Do pronouns refer clearly to their antecedents? • Did you remove dangling and misplaced modifiers? • Are the tense and the mood of the verbs consistent? • Are related parts of sentences parallel in form? • Are there fragments or run-ons?

15. More checklist • Mechanics • Are abbreviations kept to a minimum? Are they used correctly? • Is capitalization correct and consistent? • Are numbers below 10 spelled out? Are numbers above 10 written as figures? • Are words correctly spelled? • If your writing includes quoted materials, have the quotations been presented correctly?

16. Why worry about grammar? • Grammar, rhetoric, and logic enrich enormously the phenomenon of being alive. • George Santayana

17. Grammar helps the reader • Good grammar is transparent. Instead of getting in the way, it helps readers understand what is written. • Most native speakers use grammatical rules without being aware of it, but even we need to use a good grammar sometimes. • Non-native speakers also need to know how to use a grammar! If you don’t have one, get one soon!

18. Agreement • Every part of a sentence should agree with every related part. • In every day English, that means: • Use singular verbs with singular subjects and plural verbs with plural subjects. • Make a pronoun singular if its antecedent is singular and plural if the antecedent is plural.

19. Make the subject and verb agree in number • The wastepaper basketis a writers best friend. • Isaac Bashevis Singer • Basket is singular, is is singular.

20. And again... • Weare confronted with insurmountable opportunities. • Pogo (an American cartoon) • We is plural, are confronted is plural

21. A word about numbers • I’ve mentioned that we use words for one through 10, then switch to numerals. • There are some exceptions. • Of course!

22. Exceptions • Use words when a number starts a sentence: • Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong. • And if a related number appears in the sentence, write it as a word, too: • Twenty members voted yes; fifteen voted no. • One dollar out of every ten earned goes to health care.

23. And.. • Express large numbers in figures or in mixed figure-word form, but be consistent. • $10,000,000 or $10 million • 5.7 billion • 3 1/2 billion

24. Dates • Use figures for dates: • July 4, 1776 or 4 July, 1776 • 7/4/76 or 7/4/1776 (in the first we might assume you meant 1976) • Because Europe and America write dates differently (in US month is written first, in Europe, day), it is preferable that you use the word for the month. • July 4, 1776