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Writing for business includes multiple types of formats including, but not limited to, cover letters, resumes, memos, e-mails, letters, proposals, business plans, and formal reports. This section will focus on how to be a successful business writer. The main purpose of business writing is to…
Writing in the humanities includes posing questions dealing with human values. The ultimate goal in writing in the humanities is to explain/share the human experience, to use writing as a tool to reflect upon life, and to tell how life should, or should not, be lived. "Humanities" as a discipline…
Writing in the sciences fulfills one of two purposes: # Inform the reader of new discoveries # Assist the reader in clarifying the truth using new facts or perspectives A comparison: While writing in the humanities is used to explore the human condition, writing in the sciences is used to examine…
Upon successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to: * Demonstrate an understanding of the theoretical concepts that underlie academic writing. * Practice the techniques of written argumentation and persuasion. * Identify and practice developing the essential components of a…
Although grammatically correct, passive voice is a type of grammatical structure that, when overused, can contribute to wordiness, weak verbs, awkward phrasing, or ambiguity. The passive voice has some important stylistic functions and can be used to change the emphasis of a sentence, helping to…
The apostrophe (') is a punctuation mark with an unfortunate tendency to be misused. As it exists, there are three uses of the apostrophe in the modern English language. * The marking of the omission of one or more letters (as in the contraction of do not to don't). * The marking of possessive case…
The articles in English are the definite article 'the' and the indefinite articles 'a' and 'an' (and sometimes some). The rules of English grammar require that in most cases a noun, or more generally a noun phrase, must be "completed" with a determiner to clarify what is the referent of the noun…
Like passive verbs, forms of "to be" ("am," "is," "are," "was," "were," "be," and "been") are relatively weak verbs; they express a state of being instead of colorful action. "To be" seems to work in practically any sentence, but there are a variety of better, more interesting verbs that can take…
In English, there are three contexts for conditional sentences. The first context involves the possible outcome of an event that is likely to occur: :If + Present Simple/Present Progressive + Present Simple/Present Progressive/Future Simple/Future Progressive/Imperative :*If + I miss the bus, + I…
Conjunctions are words that connect two words, phrases, clauses or phrases together. Conjunctions can either be coordinating or subordinating. Coordinating conjunctions connect two equal words, clauses or sentences. Common coordinating conjunctions and their uses include: *For presents a reason "I…
In writing, as in the rest of life, context is everything. Just as you would never wear pajamas to a formal job interview, nor would you ever write a formal paper with casual language, slang, jargon, sloppy grammar, and other similar writing deficiencies. Knowing who you're writing for is as…
In rhetoric, ethos is one of the three artistic proofs (pistis (πίστις)) or modes of persuasion (other principles being logos and pathos ) discussed by Aristotle in 'Rhetoric' as a component of argument. Speakers must establish ethos from the start. This can involve "moral competence" only;…
"Cut out all those exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke"---F. Scott Fitzgerald An exclamation point (!) is a punctuation mark intended to emphasize strong feelings or high volume or delivery (as if one would shout this fact). Generally, in academic writing,…
No matter how strong the argument or style of writing, spelling mistakes are distracting and reflect poorly on the author (both as a writer and editor). Computer word processors are equipped with spell check but there remains a huge blind spot to these programs: homonyms. Homonyms are words that…
Compared to many other languages, English is relatively "ungendered". That is, for the most part nouns in English are not considered 'masculine' or 'feminine' and articles and pronouns do not vary a great deal as they do in other languages. The only truly gender-sensitive issues that occur in the…
Perfect use of grammar is never easy in the English language. The English language prides itself on its versatility and adaptability. Unlike other languages, there is no governing body that officially sets the rules of English grammar. Although there are certainly conventions that if deviated from…
One of the great misconceptions of writing that the end product is more important than the process by which that product is achieved. This is not necessarily true. A good writing 'product' will only be achieved through an adequate writing process. Writing as a product implies something very static.…
When you're writing, what do you do to emphasize a particularly important idea to your readers? It's sloppy writing to explicitly state that you're making a really important point. Additionally, you can't capitalize, bold or make your text larger to set it apart. The solution to show emphasis is to…
Dear Wikipedians, No doubt some of you are familiar with the free college courses available on Saylor.org. Much like the Wikimedia community, we are committed to providing free and accessible education for everyone with internet access. At Saylor, we combine some of our custom-created educational…
Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric (where it is considered one of the three modes of persuasion, alongside ethos and logos), and in literature, film and other narrative art. Emotional appeal can be accomplished in…
In simplest terms, plagiarism is the use of the work of someone else and claiming it to be yours. While this sounds like something you would obviously never do, there are many gray areas where people accidentally plagiarize when they don't mean to. Usually, this occurs when someone forgets to cite…
Quoting is a valuable tool when writing academic papers that allows an author to inject the voice or opinion or another into the writing to give another perspective. There are some important rules to keep in mind when you quote another. The most important thin, of course, is to cite the source of…
Upon successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to: * Describe writing as a means of communication. * Practice techniques for identifying and writing for specific audiences. * Describe writing as a process and explain how that process influences thinking. * Practice the stages of…
One might argue that reading and writing are two very different activities, that require two very different types of thinking. Yet, in many ways, reading and writing are actually quire complementary. Without a doubt, some of the best advice to become a better writer is simply to become a better…
When you write a sentence, make sure that your subject and verb agree. For example, do not use the plural first person conjugation of a verb when your subject is the singular first person. "I are" is wrong and it sounds wrong. Now, it's hopefully unlikely that you'd make such an obvious mistake,…
Upon successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to: * Demonstrate an understanding of and practice basic principles of incorporating outside sources into persuasive writing. * Practice techniques for using research to support various logical structures and rhetorical strategies,…
Sometimes just choosing the right words can make all the difference when writing a paper. Good word choice means knowing when to use certain words and when not to use them. Not all words are equal and part of recognizing the value of a word is understanding both denotation and connotation. A word's…
In short, the purpose of this course is to help you learn what distinguishes great writing from so-so writing from outright bad writing. One of the first things you should acknowledge if you want to learn how to be a good writer is that good writing isn't boring. You don't have to agree with its…
back to Technical Writing Level 1 __TOC__ #Identify the audience #List research items about the audience #Write a simple instruction set for a persona #Create a persona based on this research #Write an introduction to a product for your persona You'll need: *A photo *A product *A wiki page If you…
back to Technical Writing Level 1 Picture Copyright SitronicsTS 2007 text by kind permission of Sitronics TS Czech republic It is vital that you do not waste your reader's time. It is also important that you do not waste your own time by explaining things that the reader already knows. The reader…
