Ways to improve your writing

1. Ways to improve your writing Aim: To look at different ways to improve our writing

2. Improving your writing through effective use of punctuation

3. Using a semi-colon in your writing can help to raise your grade. When / how do we use semi-colons? • To indicate a small pause longer than a comma • To separate 2 clauses of a sentence that are closely related • To separate items in a list when the items are longer than one word

4. Look at these examples • The grey buildings tower over the streets; they blot out any hope of light. • These men were not just soldiers, they were the lovers of young women; the fathers of innocent children; the sons of grieving mothers.

5. The sentence before the semi colon must make sense by itself! So this would be wrong! The grey; buildings tower over the streets they blot out any hope of light.

6. Where could you put in a semi-colon? The man in the blue and white shirt wiped the sweat from his forehead he crossed his heart for good luck. Cautiously, he dropped to knee for his last minute preparations, taking a deep breath eyeing up the goalie saying a final prayer.

7. Improving your writing through varied sentence openings.

8. How can we start sentences in interesting ways? • Adverbs - Cautiously • Prepositions – In, over, under • Similes - Like a falling leaf…. • Verbs - Striding down the street

9. Re-write these sentences so they do not start with BORING I. You might need to add a word to the beginning. • I ran my hand down the side of it, it was smooth as silk and cold as death itself. • I raise my hand to move the Ivy so that I can read what is engraved. • I lean closer in the hope that I can make out it says. • I heard a loud crunch and looked around me, hoping that nothing was behind me,

10. Proof Reading • You can improve your mark by carefully by proof reading your work. • Look for spelling mistakes (especially homophones) • Missing words • Missing or incorrect punctuation.

11. Proof read this text, correct the mistakes • Proof read this passage. • Swirling arond the forsaken landscape, the wind unnerves its way threw the trees and skims over the surface of the water. As it whistels through the leaves, they; shudder like the tense fingers of passionate pianist holding the chords his first concerto. The wind sees all, fells all, hears all. Brushign across the blads of grass it begins to fathom the minute vibrations, and although seemingly rushing past the rest of creation it listens; it dose take these insignificant movements for granted.

12. Plan for purpose, audience and text type and task. Write a cover letter to send with your CV applying for a job at a local retail outlet. Write the opening of a horror novel for adults describing the setting and creating the atmosphere. Write an article for a local newspaper that explains your views on the plans for rebuilding Christchurch.

13. Plan your work You can ensure your work is well written by making a detailed plan. A description of a tense moment in sport. Football, Rugby, Basketball, Cricket, Tennis Surfing, Sailing, Boxing, Fishing, Parachuting, Golf, etc etc etc