What to Write about: Modes of Development

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“What am I going to write about?” That’s the usual response when students have to write a modes of development paragraph. Not knowing how to choose a suitable topic, students often fall back on repetitive (and weak) subjects: For a comparison/contrast paper, sports cars vs. SUVs. For a process paper, a recipe. And so on.

So I’m going to offer some suggestions. You’ll notice that all these recommendations have something in common: a meaning. There’s a reason for making the comparison, outlining the process, and so on. (For an introduction to modes of development, click here.) A good modes paper doesn’t just list facts: It always gives readers useful information.

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Comparison (notice that all these topics show that two things that seem very different are actually very similar)

  • public schools offer the same educational experiences as private schools, at a much lower price
  • a low-cost US vacation offers the same enjoyment as a pricey European trip
  • volunteer work can be as impressive on a resume as a full-time job
  • rescue animals are as much fun to own as purebreds
  • the fitness facility on campus is just as good as a gym you pay for

Contrast (notice that all these topics show that one thing is better or worse than another)

  • a Mac is better than a PC
  • term insurance is better than whole-life insurance
  • reading on a Kindle is better than reading a conventional book
  • taking a year off after high school is better than going to college right away

Cause (notice that you’re focusing on factors that that came before a problem or event)

  • why students drop out of high school
  • what inspired you to enroll in college
  • reasons you broke off a relationship
  • what your committee did to ensure that your prom was successful

Effect (notice that you’re focusing on factors that that came after a problem or event)

  • problems students face when they don’t complete high school
  • how your life got better after you break off a relationship
  • how a part-time job helped you mature
  • results of a new law in your state

Process (notice that all these topics show how to do a step-by-step process in a better way OR take a stand about a process, showing that it’s easy, beneficial, or harmful)

  • how to bake a better cake
  • a better way to organize your tax documents
  • a soothing way to get your child ready for bed
  • how to disagree without damaging a relationship
  • what happens to a fetus when a pregnant woman consumes alcohol
  • donating blood is easy
  • a task you know how to do better than other people
  • an environmentally friendly way to clean your apartment
  • a process that more people should do
  • a process that’s a waste of time

Classification (notice that all these topics offer readers multiple options for dealing with a particular situation)

  • three types of diapers
  • three ways to discipline a misbehaving child
  • three ways to study for a test
  • three ways to amuse a cat
  • three ways to get experience to put on a job application
  • three types of birth control
  • three ways to stop procrastinating

Definition (notice that these define the best or worst person or thing in a particular category)

  • the best (or worst) date
  • the best (or worst) parent
  • the best (or worst) boss
  • the best (or worst) party
  • the best (or worst) place for students to live

Narrative (notice that every story happened ONCE and makes a point)

  • a disagreement that you resolved in a positive way
  • an experience that taught you something
  • a time when you realized how much you appreciate your family
  • an experience that caused you to end a relationship
  • a time when you solved a problem in a creative way

There you have it! I hope these suggestions will help you find a topic that’s meaningful and meaty enough to earn you a good grade.

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Good Writing Advice 2

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I’m wrapping up 2010 by offering my best suggestions about becoming a better writer. Here’s today’s advice: Creating is different from editing.

Creating (generating ideas) and editing (sharpening sentences and correcting errors) are very different activities, involving different parts of the brain.  Both are vital – and they have to be approached in different ways.

Where do ideas come from? On a good day, they simply blaze forth onto a piece of paper or a computer screen. You feel inspired. In bygone days  writers would say that a muse had visited them.

Most of us can’t wait around to be inspired, however. The pump must be primed, so to speak. Reading, doing research, journaling, freewriting, webbing, listing, talking to a friend – there are many ways to start the creative juices flowing.

It can be helpful to remember that “create” does not necessarily involve originality. Most great thinkers freely acknowledge that they’re building on ideas and information from others. The writer’s job is to reshape those materials to fit the task at hand.

Editing requires a totally different set of skills: Knowledge of punctuation, spelling, and the other conventions of writing. It also requires a feel for an effective sentence, along with knowing how to write a thesis statement, how to support it, how to organize a paragraph, and similar tasks.

If you were to look at MRIs or brain scans of hundreds of writers at work, you would soon notice that they use different parts of their brains at different times. You might also notice differences in the way the writers’ brains have developed. English courses in schools and colleges tend to emphasize one at the expense of the other.

Some writers – those who spent many hours diagramming sentences and studying traditional grammar – are terrific editors. Others – who attended liberal schools and were encouraged to express themselves freely – are good at creating.

If you want to be a successful writer, you need to be good at both. Or, alternatively, you need to hire a terrific secretary or marry someone who has developed the skills that you’re lacking.

And, at the very least, you need to remind yourself not to get sidetracked into editing too early in the writing process. Have something to say first. Know where your ideas will be taking you. Look for interesting examples that will draw readers into your ideas.

Then – and only then – you can start focusing on gerunds and indefinite pronoun references and all the other grammatical points that educated writers and readers delight in. (I’ve been known to phone writers to congratulate them on getting a subtle usage issue right.)

Creating comes first, editing is second: Sound advice for any writer.

 

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In Praise of Wordiness

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Earlier this week I warned you about unnecessary and repetitious words (whispered softly, ran quickly, a smile on his face). You don’t want empty spaces in your writing. Stimulate your readers and pique their interest by making every word interesting.

But sometimes longer is better: Wordiness can be an effective choice. Good writers know that there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all rule for every writing situation.

More-is-better is a useful principle when:

  • You’re trying to create a mood or an atmosphere
  • You’re giving unwelcome news (for example, saying “no” to a customer’s or employee’s request)
  • You’re explaining something complex
  • You’re emphasizing a point that readers might miss

Here’s one example of useful redundancy: The close of a paragraph. Let’s say you’ve just described the warmth and love you experienced in your grandmother’s kitchen as a child. You’ve said it all: The cinnamon in the air, the purring of her cat, the teakettle whistling on her stove, the songs she used to hum when she was making her famous chicken and dumplings. What’s left to say? Nothing – but if you’re an exceptional writer, you’ll wrap up the paragraph with one more sentence. Here are three possibilities:

  • I was happy there.
  • I wish I could go back.
  • Nothing was ever the same after she died.

There’s a grace and ease about a few extra words in just the right place. Don’t be afraid to take a little longer to say exactly what you want your readers to know. The results will be worth the effort.

(Did you notice that last sentence? Not really necessary, but it added a little finesse to what I’d written. At least I hope it did.)

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Climax and Closure in Writing

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A few days ago I offered advice about beginnings (the first part of a sentence, paragraph, essay, report, or research paper). Today we’re going to focus on endings, and I’m going to show you two strategies that pros use to add polish to their writing. (You’ll be surprised how easy these strategies are – and how well they work!)

Here are two words you need to know to end sentences, paragraphs, and writing tasks effectively: climax and closure. And here are some tips for using climax and closure in writing:

1. If you’re listing several things in a sentence, save the best for last.

We offered our guests fresh fruit, imported cheese, and homemade chocolate ice cream. [Climax]

2.  When you’re writing a paragraph, save the best example for last – or end with a closure sentence that wraps up your paragraph and gives it a completed feel (like a bow on a package). Or do both!

I still remember my excitement as the guests arrived for my birthday party. Friends from my third-grade class came in party dresses with fancy sashes and velvet collars. Aunt Jane and Uncle Stan brought the birthday cake, an amazing confection with a fancy little doll on top. Best of all was Grandma, full of hugs and kisses for the birthday girl. [Climax] I felt like a movie star. [Closure]

Never use finally, last, in conclusion, or last but not least. These expressions tell your reader that nothing new and important is coming. (Last but not least is especially insidious: How would you like to be introduced at a meeting as “not the least of our staff”?) Save your most important supporting idea or example for last, and use a transition that signals its importance: Best of all, most of all, worst of all, most important.

When you come to the end of your paper, restate your main point and finish without raising any new issues. A good concluding strategy is to make some connection between your main point and the future. For example, an essay about a childhood birthday party could end like this:

Although I’m grown-up now, I still feel a little of the same magic every year when my birthday rolls around again.  [Restated main point]

Notice that you should restate your main point. This will be the second time you’ve presented your thesis.

NEVER wait until the end of a writing task to make your main point. Your thesis belongs near the beginning so that readers are clear about what you’re saying and where you’re taking them.

Thinking about endings (and beginnings, as I suggested earlier) makes your writing more polished and professional. As a writing teacher, I was always impressed when my students produced well-crafted sentences and paragraphs.

Want to learn more? Watch a short (and free) presentation about climax and closure by clicking here: Write Like a Pro

A climax or closure sentence is like a bow on a package - something extra that makes your writing more special!

A climax or closure sentence is like a bow on a package – an extra touch that makes your writing special!

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Starting a Writing Task

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If you have trouble starting a writing task (and who doesn’t?), a kick-off task can help you get you warmed up and moving. Here’s a good one: Grab this “starting” idea and apply it to each part of the task by asking yourself questions like these: How will I begin my first sentence? How will I start each paragraph?

There’s another benefit to thinking about “beginnings” as you tackle a writing task: You can avoid many grammatical errors if you pay particular attention to how you start your sentences.

Here are a couple of tips:

-If you’re nervous about punctuation, try starting each sentence with a person, place, or thing. Because your sentences don’t have introductions, you don’t have to use commas. Just make sure there’s a period at the end.
Here’s another useful bit of advice about starting sentences: Avoid using an -ing word there. Yes, it’s perfectly correct to start a sentence that way–but long experience has shown me that many people tend to write dangling modifiers or fragments.
One more tip: “It” starts a new sentence. Wrong: The sky was dark, it looked like rain. Right: The sky was dark. It looked like rain.

-Stories are great starters for many writing tasks. If it’s a personal essay, think of a brief story from your own experience. If you’re writing a research paper or a report, find a story to put into your opening paragraph. News magazines like Time and Newsweek are great places to look for relevant stories.
So…suppose you were writing a research paper about the importance of educational programs in prisons. Your opening paragraph might be a story about an ex-con who was able to stay out of trouble after her release because she’d earned high-school equivalency diploma in prison.

-Paragraphs should begin with a sentence that does two jobs: Making a connection to your main idea and introducing what’s special about the paragraph.
In that paper about education in prison, you might start a paragraph with a sentence pointing out that ex-cons have greater earning power if they leave prison with an equivalency diploma. That sentence will set up your paragraph, which might include statistics and anecdotes to support your point.
Use the same strategy for each paragraph, and you’ll end up with a well-organized and well-developed paper.

 

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Using Spaces in Abbreviations

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Yesterday was Black Friday, the big shopping day right after Thanksgiving. We were bombarded with TV ads promising great bargains if we arrived at the mall early on Friday morning. Great! I hope everyone found some great shopping deals.

But there was pain mixed with the pleasure. Again and again I saw messages like this on TV:

Doors open at 5am.

The sale begins at 4am.

Nope. There should be a space between the numeral and a.m. or p.m.

OK, I’ll grant you that those periods in a.m. and p.m. are disappearing. But the space is still necessary in these abbreviations.

Here’s how the announcements should have looked:

Doors open at 5 am. CORRECT

The sale begins at 4 am. CORRECT

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Revising Tips That Solve Common Problems

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Even if you’re an excellent writer and a perfect grammarian, you can exasperate your readers without even realizing it. Here are some problems I see in published writing all the time, along with revising tips that solve the problems quickly and easily.

1.  Using an abbreviation without giving the full version the first time.

OK, everyone understands abbreviations like “USA” and “p.m.” But don’t assume that readers know other abbreviations just because they’re familiar to you. Spell them out the first time.

2.  Writing a lengthy dialogue without helping readers keep track of who’s speaking.

Insert a name occasionally [“Look, Jim, I partially agree with you. But….”], or use some other strategy to help readers follow the back-and-forth exchange. For example, you could interrupt the dialogue with a sentence or two of description and then begin again with the speaker’s name: Carol looked down at her hands. Then she slowly answered Julie’s question.

3.  Help readers keep track of the passage of time.

Like many people, I read in fits and starts. I don’t always remember that a chapter in a biography, say, mentioned the year as 1924 fifteen pages ago. Delete expressions like “later that year” or “a few months earlier.” Be specific: “later in 1962” or “in May 1947.”

4.  Use names, not pronouns, when several people are mentioned in a paragraph.

If two women are having an argument, the word “she” is useless. Name names.

5.  Reintroduce people when necessary.

Time and again I have to backtrack in a book or magazine article to figure out who “Joe” is. If there are many characters, and someone hasn’t been mentioned for several pages, reintroduce him or her.

 

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Writing Your Introduction Paragraph

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Many writers (perhaps you’re one of them!) struggle with an introduction paragraph for an essay, research paper, or report. Today I’ll offer some suggestions for tackling the beginning of a writing task.

Why are introductions difficult? One reason is the “blank-piece-of-paper” syndrome: Your brain freezes because the writing task seems overwhelming.

If you’re caught up in this syndrome, a good strategy is to skip the introduction altogether and work on the rest of the paper. Use a warm-up activity to get yourself going: freewriting, listing, making a mind map. (Click here for more suggestions about writer’s block.) You can always write the introduction later, when you have some momentum going and have a clear idea of what you’re saying in your paper.

Another reason introductions are difficult: You don’t know what you want to say. As an English professor, I’ve read countless student essays that say…nothing significant about a topic. The best solution here is to do some writing preparation. If you’re writing about a personal experience, look at photographs from the event or talk to someone who was there with you. Draw a sketch about the experience. In other words, have something to say before you formally tackle the writing project.

Some writers struggle with the introduction to a paper because they’re unsure how to organize it. Help is on the way! Here’s a list of what should be included:

  • An attention-getter. A short story (a sentence or two) is a great way to kick off your paper. Leaf through magazines, and you’ll see that almost every article starts this way. It’s a strategy you can (and should) use in your own writing.
  • The 5 W’s: who, what, when, where, and why. Don’t try cramming all of this in the first sentence of your paper. But do get it into your first paragraph (or second paragraph, if it’s a lengthy writing task). Make sure your reader knows the basics about what’s going on before you start exploring your topic in depth.
  • The thesis. Your paper should have an attitude or make a point, and readers should know what it is by the end of the first or second paragraph.

And there you have it!

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Watch out for These Common Errors in English

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You may have heard of a movie called The Kids Are All Right. Our local newspaper reprints news releases about the movie with all right spelled correctly.

But the local journalist who does our headlines (and who seems to be on a personal mission to drive me crazy) always changes the title of the movie to The Kids Are Alright. It doesn’t seem to matter that the movie title of the movie is spelled correctly in the first sentence of the news story that follows.

All right is always two words (at least in the United States – the United Kingdom is rapidly moving to the Dark Side on this one).

Here are few more fingernails-on-a-chalkboard common errors in English that we should all avoid:

“I feel badly.”
Nope. You feel bad. “Feel badly” means the nerve endings in your fingertips are damaged. (Similarly, you don’t “look well” in a particular color or garment: You “look good.” Clothing doesn’t enhance your vision.)

“I could care less.”
Nope. It should be I couldn’t care less – meaning that your level of engagement with the issue is so close to zero that it couldn’t go any lower.

“It’s comprised of representatives from every charitable organization.”
Nope. It’s composed of. “Comprise” means “includes”: It comprises representatives from every charitable organization.

“It’s very unique.”
Nope. It’s very unusual. “Unique” and “unusual” aren’t synonyms. Unique means one-of-a-kind. My fingerprints are unique, but they’re not at all unusual.

 

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Procrastination in Writing

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Writer’s block. That blank sheet of paper staring you in the face. It’s a student’s worst nightmare: THE RESEARCH PAPER.

This week I’ve been reliving all my procrastination behaviors from my student days: I’ve been putting off a research paper of sorts – a professional writing job that involved collecting, organizing, and commenting on some sources related to Bernard Shaw and feminism.

This is what it’s felt like: Carrying a cement block on my back. Living under a gray cloud. Dealing with a gloomy mood, a frozen brain, and fears that I’ll never get it done, it will be awful, and I’ll have nothing to say.

You’d think that by now – I’ve published six books, along with numerous articles in magazines, journals, and other media – it would get a little easier. Nope.

Worst of all is the guilt. I can’t enjoy anything because the dreaded task is hanging over my head.

Luckily there are strategies for getting out from under. Here’s what worked for me this week:

1.  Jump-starting my brain.

The unconscious mind will do a lot of the organizing and writing without our even knowing it if (and this is a big IF) we give it something to work with. Every day I’ve been reading and taking notes. Result: An unbelievably messy computer document (bad) that’s also an encouraging start to my writing project (good).

2.  Doing a little every day.

Small is Beautiful is the title of a collection of essays by E. F. Schumacher – and a great principle to live by, especially when a dreaded project is looming. If you commit to doing something to move the project forward every day (and, of course, follow through with your resolution), after a while it gets to be a habit, and the momentum is there when you need it.

3.  Doing it badly.

This is counterintuitive advice, but it works. Honest. Commit yourself to producing something awful. What always happens is that I discover a) The task isn’t so terrible after all, once I get myself going and b) I can improve it to make it something I’m proud of.

And that’s exactly what seems to be happening, to my immense relief. Try these tips for overcoming procrastination in writing.  They really work!

 
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