Online Writing Lab - Pages on writing a thesis statement, writing an outline, paragraphing and proofreading.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Oops, I Plagiarized! How to avoid plagiarism

http://www.how-to-study.com/

Anyone who is serious about writing effectively should read the essay Politics and the English Language by George Orwell. No writer has ever made a better case for the importance of clear, straightforward prose.

Things to remember before you get started:

Writing should be seen as a process that involves several stages, from formulating your ideas through planning, drafting, redrafting and proofreading. An in depth guide to process writing is available at: Rhetoric and Composition Wikibook. The focus in this wikibook is on practical exercises to provide students with opportunities to apply the writing skills that they can learn about by following this and other links in the book.

Format

Be aware of the layout which you are expected to use when writing for different purposes. The layout of a formal letter to a newspaper will be very different from that of a postcard to your best friend.

Audience and Purpose

Make sure you have a good idea of who you are writing to/for and why. Are you trying to persuade, argue, inform, advise, or narrate a story? Are you writing to someone you know well or someone you have never met? Are you writing to someone in a position of authority, or as someone in a position of authority? To one person or many?

Plan

Plan. Decide on the main ideas that you want to include and the order in which they should be included. This can be done in the form of a list, but a mind-map may be more helpful.

More about mind maps: Wikipedia MInd Map Article

Tony Buzan discusses mindmaps

Draft

Write a rough draft. Get your ideas down on paper (or onto your computer) as quickly as possible. Remember, at this stage your writing doesn't have to be perfect - so don't get stuck on how to form the ideal phrase.


It helps at this stage if you remember the golden rule of writing: KISS: "Keep it simple, stupid!"
The following guide is very useful for helping you to keep your writing clear, simple and to-the-point:

Plain English Guide

Review

Read through your work. Underline places where grammar or phrasing seems awkward, where you feel you could add more detail or description, or where you feel it would be more effective if you were more concise. While doing this, try to imagine that you are the person for whom the writing is intended. If you received this piece of writing in the post, saw it in a newspaper, or had to hear it being delivered as a speech, would it make sense to you? Would you respond positively to it?
Do you overuse any particular words or sentence patterns? Using a variety of linking phrases and sentence structures - i.e. simple, compound and complex sentences - will make your writing more varied and less boring.
These guides will help: Sentence Types Guide and Exercise
Sentence Types - Guide and Quiz
A thesaurus such as www.thesaurus.com can help you to avoid repeating words, but be careful that you are choosing alternative words that have the right tone and fit the context.

Organize

Ask yourself: is the writing coherent (does it make sense when you read it)? Does it have a beginning, a middle and a conclusion? Does each paragraph focus on one main idea, clearly marked by a topic sentence (the first sentence of the paragraph- it explains what the rest of the paragraph will be about) and the effective use of linking phrases? If it doesn't, fix it!

Redraft

Go through the parts of your work that you have underlined and rewrite them. You should do this as often as possible.

Proofread

Check for grammar and spelling mistakes. Sometimes it helps if you do this by working backwards from the bottom of your composition. That way, your attention on proofreading is less likely to be distracted by the flow of ideas.