Tuesday Tutoring Tip for September 15, 2009
Subscriptions to certain services solidify sound structure and serve to stimulate strong syntax. Grammar Girl and the Word Guy offer free e-subscriptions. Word Guy sends his columns weekly, but Grammar Girl offers daily (Monday – Friday) supplemental material to her Quick and Dirty Tips pod cast (which is also excellent). All three are excellent for proactively making the reader aware of, and hopefully eliminating, common writing errors. They are all also usually quite funny, so this is a great way to improve writing skills while having a few laughs.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for September 8, 2009
Proper prior planning promotes punctual and proficient performance on papers. Thinking about writing before tackling any writing assignment is a great idea. It is extremely useful to plan by answering to the following questions:
1. Who is going to read this paper (audience)?
2. What do I want to convince this audience of (thesis)?
3. How can I convince them (arguments)?
4. How should I organize my arguments (outline)?
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for April 21, 2009
Confusing affect and effect can conceal, or constitute cause for contesting, a copywriter’s credibility. In general, affect is the verb and effect is the noun. My decision to throw my suitcase in the water affected my personal effects by saturating them. Also, when you affect a situation, you have an effect on it. The water’s effect on my suitcase was complete destruction. Effect can also, although less commonly, be a verb as in “I’m trying to effect a change in the way the library buys books.” It is also important to remember that a law that becomes effective, takes effect, not takes affect. For more practice, take the interactive quiz at the Purdue University OWL (Online Writing Lab).
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for April 14, 2009
Punctuating possessive pronouns produces perception problems; adding an apostrophe constructs a contraction. In pronouns, unlike nouns, the possessive is formed without the use of an apostrophe. This can be accomplished simply by adding s as in its or by adding more letters as in whose. In either case, adding an apostrophe changes the meaning completely. Its becomes it’s or it is, and whose becomes who’s or who is. Spell check will not find the error in sentences like “George W Bush, who’s family moved to Dallas recently, was the 43rd president,” and this reflects poorly on the writer.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for April 7, 2009
Too much use of “that” tends to test teachers’ tempers; however, technically, total termination of this troublesome term tends to tempt transgressions of tomfoolery and turmoil especially with the word “which.” Some people consider the two terms interchangeable, but hard core grammarians use “that” when defining something by distinguishing it from a larger group: “I chose the seats that were closest to the stage.” “Which” is appropriate when the object itself is more important than its relationship with or within a group: “He sat in his seat, which was obstructed view and had gum stuck on the bottom.” In simpler terms, if what is being discussed is apparent without the which or that clause, use “which”; if not, use “that”. Note that “which” is usually preceded by a comma, but “that” is commonly not.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for March 31, 2009
Always avoid the additional “and” or “also”. The rules of writing for regular readability require removal of redundancy. In the last few days I have read quite a few papers with sentences like, “the student studied for his math test and also finished his sculpture.” This is redundant. “And” and “also” serve the same purpose. Using them together is much like saying “but however.” In both cases, the skilled writer uses one or the other, not both. The sentence above can be accordingly improved by rewriting it as, “the student studied for his math test, and finished his sculpture,” or “the student who studied for his math test also finished his sculpture.” This rule is actually less work to follow than to break; just pick one.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for March 24, 2009
Successful sentences subdivide into symmetrical sections; specifically, a series of phrases positively and plausibly project professionalism when parallel. The preceding, alliterative sentence alludes to a common writing mistake: ignoring parallelism. Phrases in any series separated by commas or conjunctions must be all be parallel, in other words, have the same grammatical form. For example, “they loved weightlifting, to ride motorcycles, and basketball practice” should be made parallel like this: “they loved to lift weights, ride motorcycles, and practice basketball.” Committing this error can reduce the credibility of the perpetrating writer, especially on a resume. Click here for a more in depth look at parallelism in professional writing including a practice exercise.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for March 17, 2009
Proper procedures preclude placing apostrophes prior to the “s” in plurals, but proficient people use this punctuation primarily to populate possessives. When the “s” is added to a word simply to make it a plural, no apostrophe is used. The apostrophe is added when the “s” demonstrates possession as in, “Jim’s car,” or to signal that letters are missing in a contraction such as “don’t,” or “can’t.” It is also important to remember contractions are a form of informal writing, and should not be used in academic papers except for quotations. The following came from Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/apostrophe-1.aspx) and sums up the whole issue of apostrophe over-usage in musical form:
Apostrophe (Oh Christmas Tree)
By Eileen Thorpe
Apostrophe, apostrophe
You drive me oh so batty.
Apostrophe, apostrophe
Your overuse is a travesty.
Some people just can’t get enough
They must think you’re hot stuff
Apostrophe, apostrophe
Some rules to avoid catastrophe.
It’s hers and theirs and yours and its
When you want to possess a bit
And when you need to pluralize,
You don’t need to apostrophize.
And what of words that end in esess?
An apostrophe will only make a mess’s.
I wonder why you so confuse
I’m sure you’re tired of this abuse.
Apostrophe, apostrophe
You drive me oh so batty.
More details about correct apostrophe usage can be found here.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for March 10, 2009
Big, borrowed bank bailouts bail out and benefit blundering buffoons who blew billions. Since “bail out” and “bailout” are now more commonly used in American discourse and look like they will be for the foreseeable future, it is important to remember the difference between the two. The one-word “bailout” is the noun form as in, “A.I.G. will probably need another bailout soon.” The verb form is two words as in, “who is going to bail out the federal government,” and sometimes appears with a direct object between “bail” and “out” as in “somebody please bail me out.”
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for February 24, 2009
Certainly, cover letters can be constructive carriers of convincing criteria conducive to colossal compensation in a chosen career. Today’s tip touts the importance of formal writing skills, and how these skills are even more valuable after college. In today’s job market where electronic applications and resumes are the norm, a well-written cover letter can help a candidate stand out from the “U txt me” crowd, and land a desirable job. The New York Times’ “Career Couch” column recently extolled the virtues of the cover letter and offered advice about creating effective ones (free registration may be required).
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for February 17, 2009
Some students stressfully shun semicolons in spite of the simply stupendous and succinct status shown by sentences and statements surrounding semicolons. Many students unnecessarily omit semicolons from papers out of fear of misusing them, but the rules regarding their use are relatively simple. Don’t avoid semicolons; use them to join closely related complete sentences, sometimes with a conjunctive adverb and comma; or to separate items in a list of longer phrases or clauses, or items containing commas. More in-depth information about semicolon use can be found here.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for February 10, 2009
Continually correct comma and colon customs can create consistently cogent and clever constructions. Judging from the papers I’ve seen, Morningside students, for the most part, use commas correctly (for a quick review, click here), but they usually go out of their way to avoid using colons. A colon is most commonly used after a complete statement to link one or more directly related ideas. For example, the man ordered a complete meal online: house salad, lobster, and dessert. Colons are also less commonly used when expressing time (3:15 pm), or bible verses (John, 3:16). More examples and less common usages can be found here. It is also important not to confuse colons with semicolons, but that is next week’s topic.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for February 3, 2009
Proper proofreading promotes proficient paper performance. Upon completion of any writing project, it is best to consult a third party to find and fix grammatical and structural errors because writers have more difficulty catching their own mistakes. Even when it is full of errors, I know what I’m trying to say, so my brain will often overlook errors in my own writing. Unfortunately, other people are not always available or willing to help. When self-proofing becomes necessary, do something else first. That is, give your mind a rest from the paper; do not go right from writing to proofing. With a fresh mind, read your paper out loud and listen. If a word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph just does not sound right, there is probably an error somewhere. Again, it is much more effective to have someone else proofread your work, but taking a break and reading out loud can help make up some of the difference.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for January 27, 2009
Regular reading repairs remedial writing. One of the easiest ways to improve writing skills is to make reading a habit. All reading is beneficial, but there are also many books that specifically target writing skills. The best (and shortest) one of these I’ve encountered is The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White (also wrote Charlotte’s Web). This 92-page gem is really a concise list of rules for effective writing and can help anyone sharpen their skills. This book is widely available for less than ten dollars, and the Morningside College Library has two copies.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip – Presidential Inauguration Edition – January 20, 2009
Unfortunately, last week’s tip linked to last semester’s schedule. An updated, although not quite finalized tutoring schedule can be found here.
Sometimes the best writing takes place outside these scheduled hours, and it becomes necessary to seek help elsewhere. At times like these, ask the owl, not the one from the “Save the Raptors” printer cartridge campaign, but the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University. This useful and free website features MLA and APA style guides; help with grammar, spelling, punctuation, and creating thesis statements; guidelines and formats for resumes and professional letter-writing; and much, much more. Bookmark the OWL today.
Tuesday Tutoring Tip for January 13, 2009
Welcome to the Tuesday Tutoring Tip, a hopefully useful and once weekly message from the writing and math staff at the HJF Learning Center. This week’s tip is a simple one: use the tutors. Our services are free to students, and will more than likely improve grades. Tutors are available throughout the week. Sign up sheets for appointments are posted on the second floor of the HJF Learning Center, and tutors without appointments are happy to take “drop-ins.”
