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Chapter Five
The Fourth Step in Writing
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Step 4
Chapter 5
Write Clear, Error-Free Sentences
Strategies for revising sentences:
•
•
•
•
•
Use parallelism.
Use a consistent point of view.
Use specific words.
Use concise words.
Vary your sentences.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Use Parallelism
By balancing the items in a sentence,
you will make the sentence clearer
and easier to read.
Ex.: My job includes checking
inventory, initialing orders, and
to call the suppliers. Calling
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Use a Consistent Point of View:
Verbs
Do not shift verb tenses
unnecessarily.
Ex.: Jean punched down the risen dough.
dumped
Then she dumps it onto the worktable.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Use a Consistent Point of View:
Pronouns
Do not shift point of view
unnecessarily.
Ex.: One of the fringe benefits of
my job is that you I can use a
company credit card for gasoline.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Use Specific Words
To be an effective writer, you
must use specific words
rather than general words.
General: The dog ran down the street.
Specific: The mangy stray loped down
Broadway, dodging cars and startling
pedestrians.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Specific Sentences
1: Use exact names. (Not
“Vince.”)
2: Use lively verbs.
“slurped.”)
“the boy,” but
(Not “ate,” but
3: Use descriptive words. (Not
but “the rickety old Buick.”)
4: Use sense descriptions.
“the car,”
(“Vince slurped
his ice-cold chocolate milkshake while sitting on
the squeaking front seat of his rickety old
English Skills, 10e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Buick.”)
English Skills with Readings, 8e
Chapter 5
Use Concise Wording
Prefer concision.
Wordiness -- using more words than necessary -- is
often a sign of lazy or careless writing.
In this paper, I am planning to describe the
hobby that I enjoy of collecting old comic
books.
Revision: I enjoy collecting old comic books.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Vary Your Sentences
Effective writing is writing that is
varied and interesting.
Vary your sentences by:
• Adding a second complete thought.
• Adding a dependent thought.
• Beginning with an opening word or phrase.
• Placing adjectives or verbs in a series.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Adding a Second Complete Thought
Transform simple sentences (which
can be monotonous) --
Greg worked on the engine. The car
still wouldn’t start.
into compound sentences:
Greg worked on the engine, but the
car still wouldn’t start.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Adding a Dependent Thought
Transform simple sentences (which
can be monotonous) -The library was very quiet. I
couldn’t concentrate.
into complex sentences:
Although the library was very
quiet, I couldn’t concentrate.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Beginning with a Special Opening Word
or Phrase
...transforms simple sentences
(which can be monotonous) --
Paul was concerned about his daughter’s
fever. Paul called a doctor.
into varied sentences:
Concerned about his daughter’s fever,
Paul called a doctor.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Placing Adjectives or Verbs in a Series
...transforms simple sentences (which
can be monotonous) --
The truck bounced off a guardrail. It
sideswiped a tree. It plunged into the ditch.
into varied sentences:
The truck bounced off a guardrail,
sideswiped a tree, and plunged into the
ditch.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Editing Sentences
After revising, check for mistakes in
grammar, punctuation, mechanics,
usage, and spelling.
Edit according to the conventions of
written English, aka sentence skills.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Proofreading
Check the edited draft of
your paper for typos and
other other careless
errors.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 5
Activities – Work in Pairs
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•
•
•
Activity 1, page 110 (parallelism)
Activity 2, page 111 (verb tense)
Activity 3, page 113 (pronouns)
Activity 6, page 118 (concise word choice)
• Switch paragraphs from your activity on
page 108 & check your peer’s essay for
errors in parallelism, verb tense, pronoun
usage, and word choice.
English Skills, 10e
English Skills with Readings, 8e
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.