English Writing — The Basics Every sentence needs a... subject: person or thing doing an action Eg. He/She/They/It/The car/Our house/The teacher verb: the action being taken Eg. to drive/to speak/to take/to give/to be/to do/to stand object: if the subject is doing an action directly affecting someone or something, the object is that thing. Examples: The house was a home to the family for 14 great years. The house: subject was: verb the family: object The father often comments to his daughter that she is smart. The father: subject comments: verb his daughter: object Spelling Basics Every syllable needs a vowel Eg. Beautiful/ Funny/ Momma “i” before “e”, except after “c” Eg. Piece vs. receive “C” sounds like “s” because of an “e” Eg. Cease/ Receipt Past tense verbs - except for irregular verbs - end with an “ed” Eg. based/ docked/ married/ walked Plural vs. Singular #1: the the count of a noun is more than one, the word usually just ends in “s” Eg. Ant/ants, fan/fans/ car/cars Plural vs. Singular #2: singular words ending in zz, sh, ch, x, and z, add an “es” Eg. buzz/ buzzes, fetch/ fetches, dish/ dishes, fix/ fixes Soft “G” when followed by a j,i, or y. Eg. imagine/ danger/ marriage/ gym Silent “E”: vowel “says” itself when an “e” is at the end Eg. Base/ Dole/ Late Silent “E”: a word cannot end in “U” or “V” - must be followed by an “E” Many words have other words that sound the same, but have different meanings Eg. peek/peak/ pique, to/ too/ two, male/ mail, right/ write, jeans/ genes Silent “gh”: apart from a few exceptions (ghost, ghoul) this two-letter combo is usually silent Eg. Through/ thorough/ thought Suffixes: when tense changes, so does the structure of the word, adding an “ing” or “ed.” A vowel followed by one consonant means a word must double the last letter (except for “x”) Eg. Lag/ lagged/ lagging, clip/ clipped/ clipping, sag/ sagged/ sagging Punctuation A key element in adding emphasis, showing finished thoughts, or pauses. Period: “.” Ends a complete sentence Eg. A finished house must always have a roof. Exclamation point: “!” Can be used as a substitute for a period, to show emphasis, like excitement Eg. I would love to fly an airplane! Question mark: “?” Used instead of a period at the end of a sentence that poses a question Eg. Would you like to dance with me? Comma: “,” Simply put, a comma illustrates a natural pause in a sentence, or after a prepositional phrase Eg. At the end of the day, the only wrestlers still standing were Jack Donahue and Xu Wen, who were both very determined competitors. Colon: “:” Used to indicate “as follows,” often prior to a list Eg. We pulled many objects out of the burnt wreckage: a camera, a suitcase, a novel, and a few items of clothing. Semi-colon: “;” Used to indicate a strong connection between two related thoughts, both complete sentences Eg. The dancers performed amazingly well; the best performance was by the Glitter Team. 3 common verbs and their conjugated forms: To be I am He/She/ It is They are We are To have I have She/He/It has They have We have To do I do She/He/It does They do We do Common contractions — used informally in conversation and writing I am I’m She/He is She’s/ He’s They are They’re They have They’ve Would not Wouldn’t Should not Shouldn’t Is not Isn’t Were not Weren’t He/she will He’ll/She’ll Will not Won’t Know your audience: Choosing informal vs. formal vocab Informal words Some formal options Get Acquire, attain Wants Desires, expects, anticipates, aims Says Claims, argues, contends, writes, indicates, concludes Kids Children, teenagers, youth A lot Many, multiple, various, several Pic/ t.v. Photograph/ television guy/girl/lady Man/child/woman Or better, use their title: Professor, researcher, writer, journalist Mixed up Confused Silly Unfounded, unsupportable, not credible The Writing Process: Checklist for a Formal Essay * Brainstorming session to determine topic, main ideas, potential argument * Outline with a clearer idea of a breakdown of sub-points or headings * 1st draft — free write by hand to sharpen use of vocabulary without use of spell check * 2nd draft — type out document and begin to sharpen ideas, reword sentences, check spelling * 3rd draft — insert research (if required), rework for logic, attempt to make sentences more complex and varied in length * Final polish — check formatting as assigned by instructor, proofread to make sure all work is unplagiarized (i.e. any research is documented appropriately), and for overall strength of the paper as a whole