Talking While Writing

During the writing process, whether it is at the beginning, middle, or end, it may be helpful to talk out loud while you are writing. Talking out your ideas can help you to generate thesis statements, ideas for research papers, or rewording what you already have written down.

Abbreviated additions, e.g., “i.e.” and “e.g.”

By I.E. we don't mean internet explorer.

Two or three little letters can give you a great opportunity to add more to your argument, or in the same breath make your writing look bad. These abbreviations for latin words are commonly used, and commonly misused. Read on after the jump to dip your toes in the mind butter.

Asking Questions Before Diving In

Too often I just want to help students to identify grammatical issues in their papers. During a tutoring session today when I saw unnecessary commas all over the page, I zoomed in and wanted to edit. However, I took a step back and just listened to him tell me the reasons for his punctuation and grammatical choices Understanding the moves that he made helped me to clarify what I was seeing. Listening is something I need to do more often. I need to shut up sometimes and allow the student to do the talking.

Chart a Course

From "Hyperbole and a Half"

Sometimes what needs to be said has already been said best by someone else. Here’s some links to some awesome English charts that are as funny as they are informative. Most of these are from the awesome site called “The Oatmeal.” Warning, some analogies may contain potty jokes.

– Literally the best chart on the proper use of the word “literally”: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally

– On the proper use of “i.e.,” i.e., how you’re doing it wrong, in essence:  http://theoatmeal.com/comics/ie

– Ironically, I couldn’t come up with a funny tagline for this chart on the use of irony: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/irony

– This chart is about the dreaded semicolon; most people use them incorrectly: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

– Its wierd how much better this spelling chart is then others; I like it alot: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

– I had an apostrophe (points if you know what movie this is from) when I read this chart: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

– This last one is from hyperbole and a half, and is for all of you who get irritated at bad spelling: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

Keep Reading,

Allen