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Essay on how to avoid plagiarism
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There are three writing principles from this chapter in which I would like to further expand my knowledge and improve my skills. They are the following writing principles: the utilization of active voice, utilizing short sentence length and being specific in my writing.
One of the areas in which I would like to expand my knowledge of my writing skills would be learning how to utilize an active voice in writing. As it stands, I utilize homework aids to guard against plagiarism, proofreading, and to critique my writing before submission. Unfortunately, the writing critiques usually note that I tend to write in a passive voice. This often confuses me because I don't readily see the difference. However, I think it is one of those situations of
3. Be careful with run-on sentences. Allow only one or two ideas in each sentence.
On the same note, “The Elements of Style” also entails rules, guidelines, and examples for the purpose of the writer’s improvement. However, the approach is entirely different. This little book entails several important topics including rules of usage, missed used words and expressions, principles of composition, and approaches to style. The advice in “Elements of Style” is simple, clear, and straight to the point. Rules are short, and boldface so they are easy to quickly look up if the writer is in need of a quick on the spot tutorial. Following the boldface rule are a few statements or paragraphs with an explanation. Examples are only found for some of the rules but the ones given are not as elaborate as in “Style.” This book allows for a quick read and refreshing of rules and guidelines that have been encountered throughout an individuals writing career.
The writing process is always taught as a set way of doing things when, in fact, it is a process that requires personal methods that work for each individual person. It is a necessary lesson to teach in school but there should not be so much emphasis on following the exact way that is taught. It is a contrived process that was probably created by a group of scholars who didn’t even follow these exact rules. If anything, they all did variations of the ideas and then met in the middle with what should be taught. I am in no way saying that the guidelines are wrong but they need to be exactly that, guidelines, instead of a rut that students get stuck in.
While there are people who love to read and write, there are others that do not. When a student is required to read a book for a class and that student does not enjoy reading, there are very few things they would rather do less. And when that book’s topic is about learning how to write that is the worst of it. When I was assigned to read Writing with Style by John R. Trimble, my immediate thought was that this book and assignment was going to be a struggle to get through. To my pleasant surprise, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Writing with Style provides the reader with a wide range of writing tips while being written in a fun, conversational style. This book provides easy to find writing tools that can be understood by people of varying
The Elements of Style, was written is such a way that it was easy to understand which helped me paint a picture of what writing with “style” is like. This book is a collection of numerous tips and ideas that help the reader to know what it is that they need to do in order to write with “style”. The information that I found to be most useful came in the chapter entitled An Approach to Style. In this chapter the authors lay out some practical guidelines to writing with style. Some headings from this chapter are “Place yourself in the background, Write in a way that comes naturally, Work from a suitable design” (76). After I read this chapter I felt that I had a better knowledge of what writing with “style” really was. I began to understand the more abstract concept of style, it became more than following a series of set rules.
Composition 1 taught me crucial writing skills and helped me grow as a writer. At the beginning of the semester, my papers utilized a considerable amount of passive voice, lacked transitional phrases, and the context was not always fully developed. But throughout the class, my writing became more clear, organized, and comprehensive. Passive voice allows the object of an action to be the subject of a sentence. In my first paper, the formal summary essay, I wrote, “The term describes situations, dating back to the 1980s, when excessive numbers of blacks were found to have been exposed to highly polluted areas.” The use of “were found” and “been exposed” distort the meaning of the sentence. Passive voice confuses the reader and makes comprehension
As the first semester of my sophomore year wraps up, I begin to realize that I have learned a lot in all of my classes. The class that I learned the most from has definitely been my English 111 course. This class have given me so many opportunities to improve my writing skills. With all of the success I’ve had in this class, I believe I will do just fine with writing later in my life.
As a second language learner I have never expected myself to be a perfect writer throughout the semester. Even If English was my first language still, I would not be a perfect writer. It is not about first or second language, it is about how well I understand the learning objectives. Then organizing and writing with my own ideas and putting them in my paper. I am going to be honest, I am not good at English subject and English subject is my strongest weakness than the other subjects. In this paper I will discuss and analyze my own writing, reflecting on the ways that my writing has improved throughout the semester.
Throughout this semester I have written several essays and journals using techniques both important and unfamiliar to me. This class helped me use these techniques and steps that are involved in creating and formalizing an essay. The writing process of an essay includes information gathering, creating ideas, and writing it on paper to create a cohesive and organized paper. In complete certainty I can say I lack many of the skills necessary to create such a paper, but during this course I have learned some writing methods which I believe have improved my essays. The essays and journals in this portfolio reveal both my strengths and weaknesses in my writing and how I have both continued to make the same errors and improved in other areas.
Despite the fact that, as Shakespeare said, "the pen is mightier than the sword," the pen itself is not enough to make an effective writer. Everyone writes differently, whether it’s with the way they punctuate, the way they take notes, their word choice, or just simply by their tone. Professional writes from all over that write about how to write must know something about it. In the four essays that we read as a class, they explained prewriting and planning, drafting, revising and editing (P.D.R.E), and how it is a good format for writers to follow when writing an essay.
When you read this letter, i want to remind you that, you must have more spirit, discipline and willing to learn more in order to get “A” in the subject English 4. I know you already have spirit to get better score and do all your best. But, you must keep maintain your efforts or even improve them. I know you can do it!
By using active voice, my writing became less wordy. In my Life of Pi essay, I edited out an “is” from my sentence, “With no human companions and only the company of a Bengal tiger, isolation constantly surrounds Pi in a shroud.” Before, I would’ve written, “Pi is constantly surrounded by isolation,” which would’ve made the sentence passive. By taking out the “is”, I’ve changed the sentence to active voice and therefore made my essay shorter. Additionally, in my Things Fall Apart essay, I used strong verbs such as in the sentence, “Religion constitutes a significant
The articles: Activity Theory; An Introduction for the Writing Classroom by Elizabeth Wardle and Donna Kain, Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A cognitivist Analysis of Writer’s Block by Mike Rose, Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers by Nancy Sommers, and Writing is a Social and Rhetorical Activity by Kevin Roozen, all contain similar concepts that are in relation to each other. These concepts are the crucial points that happen when writing a well-developed piece. The concepts that will be mentioned can either improve or hinder the piece of writing. The concepts of the linear structure, plans, feedback and the activity system are what make a piece of writing flow into its final stages.
Teaching passive voice is necessary. Although there is no absolutely relationship between passive voice and written texts, students are likely to drop passive voice when they want to write a narrative (Myhill, 2003), “To discuss ‘how passive voice is used and to which degree can students make use of it’ appears to be the reason why teachers should teach passive voice”. As a teacher, he not only gives new knowledge to students but also combines the ‘old’ (i.e. past participle, auxiliary) with ‘new’ knowledge together.
...I must make my students aware of these differences. Moreover, I want my student to understand both the active and the passive voice and be able to choose which voice to use in their writing.