writing
TRANSCRIPT
DEVELOPING WRITING SKILL 1
DSA1111
CSA1112
References1. Alice Oshima & Ann Hogue, Writing Academic English, Fourth edition, OUP.
2. Vu Thi Lan (2000-2001), Writing 1, Teacher Training College – Foreign Language Department.
3. Regina L. Smalley’ Mary K. Ruetten, Joan Rishel Kozyrev Refining Composition Skills, MacMillan Publishing House Company, NY, 2000.
4. Dorothy E. Zemach and Lisa A. Rumisek, College Writing from Paragraph to Essay, Dong Nai Publishing House, 2009.
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KINDS OF VERBS(From the angle of sentence patterns)
-Transitive verbs (Vt): There must be objects behind them. Ex: eat, like, check, play, love, write, etc.
- Intransitive verbs (Vi): There are no objects behind them. Ex: sleep, live, yawn, appear, work, etc.-Linking verbs (Vl): They are be, become and seem, and any verbs that can be replaced by one of these three verbs. Ex: It gets cold = It becomes cold.
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SENTENCE PATTERNS(Simple sentences)
• Pattern 1: S+ Vi (She is sleeping).
• Pattern 2: S+ Vl + C (She is a doctor)
• Pattern 3: S+ Vt+ O (She loves a doctor)
• Pattern 4: S+ Vt+Oi+ Od (He gives me a pen)
S+ Vt+Od+Prep.+ Oi (He gives a pen to me)
• Pattern 5:S+ Vt+O+C (We elect him our monitor)
* Besides S, V, O and C (main sentence elements), there are attribute (Attr.) and adverb (Adv).
ExerciseAnalyse the sentence elements in the following sentences
1. Jack runs fast.
S Vi Adv
2. Mary runs her machine fast.
3. Her money runs short.
4. The fisherman caught a big fish.
5. Tony showed them his new toy.
6. They consider the man their father.
7. His grandfather called him Jim.
8. Today she appears sad.5
9. Today is Monday.
10. The woman made them a big cake.
11. Mrs. Smith helped the boys last week.
12. Tomorrow Martha will pick some fruit.
13. Come in.
14. Don’t touch the switch!
15. How happy I am today!
16. Can you pass the sugar to me?
17. What did you see there?
18. When may Peter submit his task?
19. He is driving his car now.
20. He was driving along the road then.6
Fronting + inversion
Stupid as he is, he can solve that problem easily. (=Although he is stupid …)
Little does he realize what problem he creates for others. (=He little realizes what problems…)
Up went the prices again!
(=The prices went up again.)
There she stood! = She stood there.
*Normal position and yes-no position.7
Passive structure
Tides are caused by the pull of the moon’s gravity on the water of the earth.
(=The pull of the moon’s gravity on the water of the earth causes tides.)
•Active: S + V + O
• Passive: S + Be PP + by O
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Indirect object transformation
Please explain to them that nobody can feed animals here.
(= Please explain that nobody can feed animals here to them.)
S + V + Prep + Oi + Od
> S + V + Prep + Od + Oi
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Cleft structure
It is meeting Peter that has changed my life.
(= Meeting Peter has changed my life.)
It is my life that meeting Peter has changed.
It is in Do Son that he met his wife.
(= He met his wife in Do Son.)
It is his wife that he met in Do Son.
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Pseudo-cleft structure
What impressed me most was her sincerity.
(= Her sincerity impressed me most.)
What he likes is ice-cream.
(= He likes ice-cream.)
*WH = subject/object/Complement.
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Extra-position movement
It’s a wonder that no one was hurt.
(= That no one was hurt is a wonder.)
*It=formal subject; That-clause=real subject.
It is a surprise that he wins the contest.
(=That he wins the contest is a surprise.)
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Postponement
The time will come when no one will write by hand any more.
(=The time when no one will write by hand any more will come.)
The day will come when his bad friends abandon him.
(= The day when his bad friends abandon him will come.)
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Tough-movement
Such a husband is a pain to live with for so long.
(=It is a pain to live with such a husband for so long.)
So hard to work in that case is a surprise.
It is a surprise to work so hard in that case.
*It is formal subject; Infinitive phrase is real subject; adverb/object is converted.
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Raising movement
We believe Mary to be innocent.
(=We believe that Mary is innocent.)
*Phrase > clause
They consider her their friend.
They consider that she is their friend.
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Lowering movement
The gold price will probably rise.
(=It is possible that the gold price will rise.)
*Probably > main clause
You will necessarily do exercises every day.
(=It is advisable that you will do exercises every day.)
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Common sentence errors
1. Choppy sentences
Problem: no linking words are used to combine semantically related sentences together.
Correction: Combine short sentences together, making compound or complex sentences from them
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Example: She looked at the sky. Then she looked at the sea. They were too big. She threw a rock into the ocean. It disappeared. She started to cry.
Correction: The sky and the sea looked too big. She threw a rock into the ocean, and she began to cry as it disappeared.
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2. Run-on sentences
Problem: There are too many ideas in one sentence, with no proper punctuation marks or linking words to clarify the meaning
Correction: Use punctuation marks or/and change the sentence structure.
Ex: It was a pleasant drive the sun was shining.
Correction: It was a pleasant drive because the sun was shining.
It was a pleasant drive: the sun was shining.19
3. Comma splice:
Problem: The comma is wrongly used.
Correction: Use another kind of punctuation mark and proper linking words if necessary.
Ex: If you know, you must tell us, we will do it.
Correction: If you know, you must tell us. Then we will do it.
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4. Fragments:
Problem: incomplete sentences (because there is a tendency to speak in sentence fragments > they are brought into writing)
Correction: Supply what is missing (subject/verb…), or attach the fragment to the sentence before or after it.
Ex: Tom stood there, biting his nails. Nervously thinking about his debts.
Correction: Tom stood there biting his nails nervously, thinking about his debts.
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5. Rambling sentences:
Problem: A rambling sentence continues on and on, and never seems to end > the sentence is in fact grammatically correct, yet it interferes with the reader’s comprehension.
Correction: Use periods to make shorter sentences.
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Ex: Everyone knows a person like that, a person who has no concern for others, who will pretend to be a friend, but only because he profits from the relationship, and he never really gives of himself, and one cannot call him a friend in any sense of the word.
Correction: Everyone knows a person like that, a person who has no concern for others. He will pretend to be a friend, but only because he profits from the relationship. He never really gives of himself, and one cannot call him a friend in any sense of the word.
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6. Dangling participles:
Problem: The implied subject of the participle clause and the subject of the main clause do not refer to the same entity (person/thing)
Correction: Turn the participle clause into a finite adverbial clause, or supply a proper subject for the main clause (this means changing the structure of the main clause)
Ex: While turning over the bacon, hot grease splashed my arm.
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Correction: While I was turning over the bacon, hot grease splashed my arm.
Or: While turning over the bacon, I was splashed on my arm by hot grease.
7. Misplaced modifiers:
Problem: awkward placement of the modifiers > confusing the meaning of the sentence.
Notes: Postponement (a type of transformation) moves a modifier away from
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The head word it modifies when the modifier is rather complicated. This should be done only when ambiguity or misunderstanding does not occur.
Correction: Place modifiers as close as possible to what they describe
Ex: George couldn’t drive to work in his small sports car with a broken leg. (The sports car had a broken leg?)
Correction: With a broken leg, George couldn’t drive to work.
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Ex: He nearly scolded his son for two hours last night. (He came close to scold his son, but he in fact did not do this).
Correction: He scolded his son for nearly two hours last night. (He scolded his son for a long time – about 120 minutes.)
8. Ambiguous pronouns:
Problem: a pronoun might be used too often in a sentence (or paragraph)
> It is difficult to tell exactly what the pronoun refers to.
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Correction: Provide a noun phrase (with a noun head) in place of the pronoun.
Ex: When Mary saw Ann, she told her that she was pleased to help her with the project.
Correction: When Mary saw Ann, she told her that she was pleased to help Ann with the project.
Or: When Mary saw Ann, Ann told her that she was pleased to help Mary with the project.
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9. Faulty parallelism:
Problem: non-parallel (=unbalanced) structure (Ex: verb goes with adjective, participle goes with infinitive … in conjoined structures)
Correction: Structures conjoined by co-ordinate or correlative conjunctions need to be of the same form or class (i.e. word conjoined with word, phrase with phrase, clause with clause)
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Ex: Debby noticed the way Alice talked and how she kept looking at the table. (NP conjoined with clause)
Correction: Debby noticed how Alice talked and how she kept looking at the table.
Ex: The game-show contestant was told to be cheerful, charming and with enthusiasm.
(adj. conjoined with PP)
Correction: The game-show contestant was told to be cheerful, charming and enthusiastic.
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10. Subject-verb agreement:
Problem: Rules of S – V agreement are ignored, especially when the subjects are:
-Singular nouns in plural forms (e.g. news)
-Plural nouns in singular forms (e.g. people)
-Nouns indicating measurements (e.g. three dollars, five miles, ten hours)
-Nouns conjoined by correlative/co-ordinate conjunctions (e.g. both…and, neither..nor, together with)
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- Special expressions with OF-phrase (e.g. the number of students, a number of students, half of my money, a pair of shoes)
- Correction: Review the rules!
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