Creating an Outline

Sometimes it helps to create an outline before you attempt to write as a template to your completed project. Resumes often work in that manner, and that method could very well help you with your writing needs.

One thing to consider is to look from the perspective of a finished project like what the teacher or editor would expect out of your work. Include anything defined by the assignment, and any expectations you have for yourself. You may be in the position to plan basic context (or answers to basic questions) and play around with how you intend on introducing the concepts.

The Beginning

The beginning of academic papers should have some eye catching, attention grabbing first line. It should then summarize the paper asking the research question(s) your paper intends to answer. In addition, this is a great place to include the relevance of the topic, the scope of your research, and any introductory information the reader should know before reading your paper.

For articles such as news articles and blogs, the beginning should answer all the questions of who, what, when, where, why, etc., in the first paragraph. In addition, the most important information should go first. Try to make it eye catching, awesome, fun read to engage interest, but that’s more important to do in the headline than your first paragraph.

The Middle

Information has to be organized in a way the reader can quickly, easily comprehend. Headings are a great way to organize information so that readers can find specifically what they are looking for, and it helps focus their mind on what to expect. In addition, paragraphs should be thought of as “Main Topic” followed by “Supporting Details.” You are free to decide where the main topic goes in the paragraph.

The End

Academic papers generally require a summary answering whatever research question was found in your introduction. Articles and blogs usually end with places to find more information.

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Commonly Misused Pronoun and Possession Homonyms

First Person: I am, We are

Second Person: You are

Third Person: (S)He is, It is, They are

Doesn’t matter the Person: Who is, There are

This is many different ways in which English uses the verb “to be.”  Some of this gets tricky enough to fool English speaking people into getting it wrong grammatically.

It’s vs. Its

It’s time to learn some grammar.  “It’s” is the proper way to conjugate the verb to be for the pronoun it. “It’s” can be interchangeably used with “It is.”

The dog kept chasing its tail. “Its” is one of the few possessive words (words that describe a noun) that doesn’t require an apostrophe.  “Its” is possessive because the tail belongs to the dog.

There vs. Their vs. They’re

There are many toys you can play with, like that monkey game over there.  “There” describes where something is (as in here and there). When that random place of “there” is the subject of the sentence, you would use “There are.”

The dogs kept chasing their tails. “Their” describes a possession, that the noun following it belongs to whoever “they” are.

They’re always late. “They’re” is a shorter way of saying “They are.”  It is the plural form for “He is, She is, and It is.”

Whose vs. Who’s

She loves her mother, whose picture is sitting on the mantel. “Whose” is a possessive as the mother’s picture is on the mantel.

Who’s the man responsible for breaking this record? “Who’s” can be interchangeable with “who is.”

One thing to consider, when deciding which way to go, if you can use it in the form such as “Who is” or “They are,” then you want the apostrophe. If it would not make sense to say, “Who is picture is sitting on the mantel,” then you know the apostrophe version isn’t the way to go.

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Ideas to Defeat Writers Block

A blank page can not only be very disturbing, but also very uninspiring. Instead of letting the blankness of the page intimidate you, opt for the attitude found in the Tao’s un-carved block. The sky is the limit to the creativity you can put on a blank page. It has no boundaries except for that which you give it. Many people have their own methods for defeating writers block, but here are some ideas if your methods fail you. Hopefully, you haven’t tried all these yet.

Just Write

Some people get started by just writing whatever pops in their mind. It helps to play some instrumental rap music to get some rhythm going as that’s how rap artists free flow, but if you are writing prose, you may find yourself writing in rhyme by accident. Your first statements might be things like, “blue, fly, annoying you know what annoys me is when the husband…” Eventually, you will start making some sense, hopefully, and you can run with an idea from that.

Assign Yourself an Exercise

You can search online for different exercises writers often assign themselves such as different forms of poetry, writing in a certain style, or adding to a famous quote.

Google

Sometimes the mind just goes blank on what to write about, and if you have a broad topic in mind, enter that or any specific topic that falls under that for which you don’t want to write about, and browse the web for inspiration. Sometimes, you can find inspiration in images, links, advertisements, etc.

Outline

Sometimes you know the narrowed topic which you want to write about, but you just don’t know where to start. This is where an outline might come in handy. Create headings for Beginning, Middle, and End, and outline what material you want (and expect). It helps to think from the view point of the finished product first and then work backwards.

Filed Under: Education, Writing Tagged With: , , , ,

Top 4 Misprints to Avoid in Writing

1.  Clichés

“Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, it was a dark and stormy night…to shed some light on the matter.” Readers crave originality, and clichés are not only far from original, but they often become an easy target for number 2 on this list (mixed metaphors). Of course, if you have a new way to use a cliché, then by all means break the rule; for instance, “Madame X has absolutely no sense of humor. That poor chicken will never cross the road on her watch.”

2.  Mixed Metaphors

“I am a dingy teddy bear who has been picked and poked, torn and re-stuffed…go ahead, stick a fork in me and pluck my feathers.” Mixed metaphors take away from the imagery you intended to create and only confuse the reader. Now, if “I am a dingy teddy bear dressed in a duck costume sitting on a silver platter on someone’s dinner table,” then you might have something.

3.  Redundancy

“The wolf said, ‘I’ll huff and puff and blow your house down,’ which would be bad because then there wouldn’t be a house standing.” A story, fiction or non-fiction, does not require final thoughts on the subject.

4.  Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

“Gaining a thunderous applause, the audience loved the opera. William B. Somename skillfully sang “Song of the Heart” on the illustrious stage charming the audience.” Modifiers describe nouns and verbs and generally should be located next to the word it describes. The first sentence displays a dangling modifier saying that the audience gained a thunderous applause when obviously the opera did. The second sentence displays a misplaced modifier stating that the stage is charming the audience when it was meant for William to charm the audience. Better said, “Applauding thunderously, the audience loved the opera. William B. Somename charmed the audience as he skillfully sang “Song of the Heart” on the illustrious stage.”

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Six Basic Writing Tips

Show, Don’t Tell

Use actions and research to make your point. What you stand for should speak for itself.

Utilize all Five Senses

Many stories are based on observations made from sight; however, a blind man’s version of the same story will be very different. Do not use all 5 senses to describe one thing as that would be overly descriptive.

Use an Active Voice

An active voice is when the subject is accomplishing the verb “The three types of conflict are…,” or “The bear ate the food.” On the contrary, a passive voice is when the subject is not directly performing the verb like “There are three types of conflict…” or “The food was eaten by the bear….” It’s okay to use a passive voice, especially when the subject is unknown, but many times it’s wordy and less emphasizing. Did you notice the previous sentence was passive?

Provide Conflict or Contrast

When placed next to each other, contrasting colors stand out. Writing and ideas are no different. In fiction, conflict makes the plot a little more exciting and gives it more purpose. The three main categories of conflict are man vs. himself, man vs. God, and man vs. man. In non-fiction, contrasting ideas sometimes make for a great means to remove bias and get to the truth in addition to creating a compelling masterpiece.

Focus on your Nouns and Verbs

Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly. Instead, find a better noun or verb to describe what the adjectives and adverbs are modifying. For instance, replace “loudly walk” with a “stomp” or “tap dance.”

Use Proper Grammar

Some rules of grammar are meant to be broken, but the more you allow yourself to get into the habit of breaking all the rules like you are texting, the harder it’s going to be on you when it comes time to write on a professional level, whether it be for school or for work.

Filed Under: Academic writing, Writing Tagged With: , , ,

Effective Visual Aids for your Research Paper

Teachers are not always boring people and often do appreciate a little extra visual oomph to a research paper. Here are some college-friendly, effective visual aids.

Headings

Give the reader’s mind a break by chunking and organizing some of the information for them with headings and subheadings. Keep your headings short and to the point.

Font

Avoid using strange fonts and colors. Use a font and size that is easy to read. Some of the more decorative fonts strain the eye. Generally, a 12 point basic font like Arial and Times New Roman are best. Use black ink because color would take away from your colorful vocabulary and articulate nature. In addition, you rarely see books or magazine articles printed in color fonts.

Photographs and Pictures

All people love pictures, but teachers are not always excited about seeing them within the body of a research paper, so get the teacher’s permission first before doing so. Also consider providing this kind of visual aid in an appendix, and refer to it throughout the paper when relevant.

Graphs, Tables, and Charts

Sometimes, the easiest way to display a lot of data is with graphs, tables, and charts. Generally, these can be placed within the body of the paper, but if a teacher is extra persnickety about that, provide an appendix. Not only is this especially useful for statistics, but you can easily summarize empirical evidence, theories, definitions, lists, etc. with graphs and tables.

Multi-media

If you are computer inclined, you can create a multi-media supplement to your research paper such as a video, slide show, flash media, or a web based model, and either provide a web address in your paper or a CD/DVD. It should be relevant, but not required. For instance, a paper about television advertisements might provide a story board of a certain advertisement in the appendix in addition to the actual video on a DVD.

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Create Fascinating Characters

Humans are designed to socially connect with each other, and some of your best loved works resulted from most loved characters. Who are the Muppets without Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy? Which Disney character is quick to act and lose his temper? “No one, but Donald Duck.” Not only do we humans enjoy falling in love with characters, but we equally enjoy hating characters and psychoanalyzing characters.  Here are some basic tips for creating those fascinating characters you love and hate.

Avoid Overly Describing Your Characters

Leave some of the description to the reader’s imagination. Many times, they may see a character to resemble people they already know, which is an easy way for readers to feel that instant connection. In addition, most people do not want to read a bunch of paragraphs that sound like a social networking “about me” quiz. Only describe what is necessary to the story, and unfold details through action and dialogue.

Give Them Personality

Take a few personality tests in character. Write out some of the answers that you feel most compelled to bring out in the story. Of course, don’t exactly say, “Kari is your average introvert,” but something more like, “As Kari walked into the chaos of the large party, she kept her head low looking to the ground as she made her way to the shadows behind the punch bowl to stand alone and observe the Mad Hatters frolicking in their protective egos.”

Test Them

Readers not only like to connect with the characters, but they also like to see what the characters are going to do when faced with moral and ethical concerns. What if Kari finds a wallet on the floor? What if the wallet belonged to a person she hates?

Give Them Easy Names

It’s difficult to connect to a character with a name you aren’t sure how to pronounce let alone remember when you walk away from the story.

Filed Under: Academic writing, Writing Tagged With: , , , ,

Give your Topic Depth for Academic Papers

In the world of fiction, the experts tell you that story matters over style, and the same holds true to an academic audience such as your teacher. The point of writing a paper is to show your teacher you learned something, but it shouldn’t have to be boring to read or write. Giving your paper an experimental quality to it creates a level of suspense and mystery to make nonfiction just as interesting as a fiction novel.

In the process of narrowing down your topic to fit the length of the paper, ask a research question and create a hypothesis. In science class, a science project usually consists of some sort of experiment whether it is creating a volcano or comparing the effectiveness of various antacids. No experiment would be complete without a paper that describes the hypothesis, research methods, observations, results and conclusion. This method is not reserved only for science. In fact, any field of research usually uses the same scientific thinking to make the conclusions you would cite from the bulk of your research.

The sky is the limit with what you can do with a research paper. Your experiment can be based on research already available, or it can be based on a project you do. Uncharted territory is usually a great place to visit because no rules are set, there is room for opinion, and you might actually provide your teacher with information he/she did not already know.

You still want to include research in your paper to include empirical evidence, existing theories, and expert opinion.

Some examples of not-so-boring topics include Joseph’s analysis of dreams in the Old Testament in comparison to modern dream dictionaries, the anti-war protests effects on the advertising campaigns during the Vietnam War, whether or not horoscopes accurately portray personality, and the relationship between crime and the economy during prohibition.

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Rhetorical Uses in Writing Persuasion

Rhetoric is the art of language where effective persuasion rests in catering to the three appeals of the audience:  Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. Popular with Aristotle and Plato, its primary goal is not to discover truth (like Socrates’ Dialectical Method), but to persuade people.

Logos

Logos is the logic and reason of the information. This is prevalent in the academic environment such as school papers, journal articles, and so forth. This would include inductive and deductive reasoning, research and citations, definitions, statistics, expert opinion, analogies, and relevance of facts.

Pathos

Pathos is the emotion of the information. Advertisers use this method primarily because logic is intended for argument whereas no one really argues emotion. Imagine a mother scolding her child for breaking into the cookie jar. If the child responds with logic, “but mom, you said I wasn’t allowed a cookie yesterday, but you didn’t say anything about today,” generally the mom is going to argue back.  However if the child responds with emotion, “sorry mom, I wanted a cookie to try to cheer me up,” mom most likely is going to feel a little sorry for and be a little easier on said child whether she gives in to the cookie wish or not. Ways to achieve pathos include emotional stories or examples, vivid descriptions, figurative language such as similes and metaphors, and tone. Pathos pushes people to not only read and comprehend, but to take action.

Ethos

Ethos is the credibility of the writer. Examples of ethos include doctors recommending a health product or a politician trying to destroy the credibility of an opponent. Students find it particularly difficult to achieve credibility when writing persuasive papers because their reputation isn’t always predefined at that moment, but you can still achieve ethos in other ways like using credible sources within research, properly using grammar and vocabulary, writing to the level of the intended audience, and removing bias.

Filed Under: Research, Writing Tagged With: , , ,

Joy to the World

Spaceship Earth (Epcot)
Image via Wikipedia

The shot of my two kids by the tree, the whole family in front of Spacehip Earth from this summers vacation to Disney or that cute shot of the kids with the dog at the beach? Which one should I use for my holiday card this year? And what do I write? How do I personalize them? How do I make every person on my list feel special without spending an eternity poring over each individual card?

Sending out holiday cards is the seasonal plague of veteran writers and stay at home moms alike. How does one outdo ones self year after year, especially as the kids get older and therefore less “cute”? And how does one even know which type of card is best to send? Do you send out seperate cards for all your friends who celebrate Hannukah, Christmas or Kwanzaa? Is a card fits all “Seasons Greetings” good enough or does it smack off political correctness and conformity.

Many online photography sites such as Snapfish and Kodak Photo Gallery offer photo templates in a variety of styles and colors. They have one that suits every holiday and occasion. Make each one of your children into a jingling bell, let every member of your family be a flame in the menorah or make your dog the star on the top of your Christmas tree. Luckily these websites offer many creative and artistic choices.

Unfortunately, none of them can come up with the text for you. How to wish uncle Mike a randy and rowdy Christmas without offending grandma? Aaah therein lies the rub. Whatever text you choose will be seen by all your friends and loved ones. Maybe next year one of these sites can offer an option where some of your holiday cards have generic messages and others have personalized ones. In the meantime, Seasons Greetings it is.

Filed Under: Academic writing, Writing Tagged With: , ,
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