Nitty Gritty Writing

1. Nitty Gritty Writing rules to improve your efficaciousness

2. First, a review. Tell me about • Expletives • Clichés • Passive Voice • Noun-Heavy Style • Intensifiers • Fillers

3. More Review • What are modifiers? • What’s a “dangling modifier”? • After traveling all day, the hotel’s hot tub beckoned to the arriving sales rep. • As the sales reps arrived after traveling all day, the hotel’s hot tub beckoned to them. • What’s a “misplaced modifier”? • For more than four years, the two rovers have been exploring the surface of Mars that landed in January 2004. • For more than four years, the two rovers that landed in January 2004 have been exploring the surface of mars.

4. Something new • SQUINTING MODIFIERS Appear to modify both what precedes and follows it. For example, • People who study hard usually will get the best grades. • What does this mean? • That people who usually study get good grades or • That people who study usually get good grades • The math department just offers Calculus III at night on Thursdays.

5. Vroom Vroom...sputter. (faulty shifts) • We already know to not shift from one tense to another • We know to keep our tone consistent. • Now, BE CONSISTENT IN NUMBER AND PERSON • When a person witnesses a crime, they should report it to the police. • To train your dog properly, people need plenty of time, patience, and treats.

6. Pronounce References… Really, most of you are “pretty” good at this (I’m being vague on purpose). But….we’ll cover it just in case. Are these correct or incorrect? • Asked who spilled the milk, my sister confessed that the guilty one was her. • My parents call my brothers and I every weekend. • Our avatars act vicariously in the game world on behalf of us gamers. • My father often gets me and my brother’s names confused.

7. More referencing • A few more complicated cases…fix these incorrect sentences. • Amy likes her new car more than I. (more than one answer) • Mario talked to his sisters Roberta about career plans Whose career plans are they? • Mario talked to Paul about his career plans. • Again, whose career plans? • Who owns Antarctica? Several countries, including Argentine, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, the UK and the U.S. all claim or reserve the right to claim all or part of he continent. This makes it difficult to answer.

8. Implied References PRONOUNS MUST HAVE CLEARLY IDENTIFIABLE ANTECEDANTS. • From her stories of her small-town childhood, they seem like a great place to grow up. • “They” should refer to small towns, but the antecedent is “stories.” • Her stories of her childhood make small towns seem like great places to grow up. • According to the researchers’ study, they found that access to high speed internet connections at home might reduce students’ test scores (Vigdor and Ladd1). • Again, who are “they”…because you’re saying that the researchers found other people who did this study. This makes no sense.

9. Avoid the indefinite use of they, it and you • AGAIN, PRONOUNS NEED PROPER, CLEAR ANTECEDANTS • At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they use owls, not texting, for sending messages. • In the beginning of the chapter, it compares pronouns to computer-game avatars. • Before computers and the internet, you got your news mostly from newspapers, radio and television.

10. EVERY WORD COUNTS • I once used “yield” instead of “wield” at the end of a paper, and it lowered me (from what I remember) a full letter grade. Think about what vague, wordy writing will do to you if you are not careful. Source: Howard, Rebecca Moore. Writing Matters: A Handbook for Writing and Research. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.