READING AND WRITING

GUIDELINES ON WRITING THESIS STATEMENT

-Avoid making overly-opinionated stands -Avoid making announcements -Avoid stating only facts

CREATING A READING OUTLINE ( Steps )

-Reading the entire text first -Locate the main idea or thesis of the whole essay (Title, Heading, Information that answers the question) -Look for key phrases in each paragraph of the essay -Locate the topic sentence of each paragraph -Depending on the length of the text, look at the topic sentences and group those with related ideas together. See if they describe a process or are examples -To logically organize information, the contents of the reading are arranged according to level. -Evaluate the supporting details provided. These will be the third level of your outline. Label these with Arabic numerals -Go back to the text after you have finished your outline. Check whether you have followed its sequence closely and that you have not missed any important information

CHARACTERISTIC OF AN EFFECTIVE THESIS STATEMENT

-Responds to the assignment by following instructions -Expresses the main idea in one to two sentences -Focuses on a specific issue -States a stand on the topic -Says something meaningful by answering the questions : "So what?" "How?" "Why?" -Previews the rest of thr essay by being placed in the introduction -Reflects a tone and point-of-view appropriate to the identified purpose and audience

STEPS IN REVISING YOUR DRAFT

-To take a bird's eye view of your draft, to reread it as a whole -Reviewing your draft portion by portion and adding in, filtering, and re-organizing content according to form and flow

LEVEL

A level refers to the number of ranks in the hierarchy of information in the reading

WORKING THESIS STATEMENT

An argument containing your stand and that you intend to prove with evidence in the essay

PARAGRAPH/S

Are building blocks of essay Is a group of sentences that deals with one particular idea. Paragraphs are defined by the point that they support, the controlling idea, and not just by how long they are. This is the fundamental rule in writing paragraphs. Only one idea should be discussed per paragraph

FORMS TO USE FOR DRAFTS

Descriptive essay Expository essay

EDITING SYMBOL

Guide them in knowing what to remove, correct, or improve on

FOURTH LEVEL

Identify particular details ( such as statistics, quotes, and other secondary informtion ) and classify them under the correct supporting points. Indent and label them with lowercase letters

SECOND LEVEL

Identify subtopics and classify them under the correct main topics. Label these subtopics with uppercase letters

THIRD LEVEL

Identify supporting points ( such as illustrations and examples ) and classify them under the correct subtopics. Indent and label them with Arabic numbers

SCRATCH OUTLINE

Is a simple list of ideas that take the form of words and phrases

WRITING OUTLINE

Is a skeletal version of your essay. It is used as a guide to organize your ideas. It is usually done before you write the first draft of your essay

OUTLINES

Is a summary that gives the essential features of a text

THESIS STATEMENT

Is the central idea of an essay, around which all other ideas revolve

REVISION

Is the general process of going back through your whole draft from start to end, and improving or clarifying your writing subject's meaning Adding in, taking out, moving around, and polishing certain parts

READING OUTLINES

Is used to get the main ideas of a text that is already written. It helps you understand the text's structure more critically because you will have to find the text's thesis statement and support

Emphatic Order

Is when the information found in a paragraph is arranged to emphasize certain points depending on the writer's purpose

Spatial Arrangement

Is when the sentences of a paragraph are arranged according to geographical location, such as left to right, up to down, etc.

FIRST LEVEL

Label all the main points with Roman numerals. Make sure your main topic are logically sequenced

COHERENCE

Means that the sentences are arranged in a logical manner, making them easily understood by the readers

REPETITIONS

Repetitions of main ideas keep continuity and highlight important ideas

POST-WRITING STRATEGIES

Revising Editing Proof Reading

STEPS IN EDITING YOUR DRAFT

Revising your draft line by line, word by word, according to proper grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation

Expository essay

Shedding light on a current event

UNITY

Simply means that all of the sentences in the paragraph are related to the topic sentence

EDITING

Sometimes known as proofreading. Is the more meticulous process of clarifying meaning by revising each word and line of your draft Grammatical principles, such as subject-verb agreement, verb tense, noun and pronoun usage, prepositions, sentence transition, punctuation, spelling and capitalization

TOPIC SENTENCE

Tells the reader the main idea of your paragraph. It reveals which you generally plan to propose, argue, or explain.

Chronologinal Order

The details are arranged in the order in which they happened

ADEQUATE DEVELOPMENT

The topic sentence in the paragraph should be elaborated on using concrete evidence, different examples, relevant facts, and specific details. Having specific details helps your readers become interested in your topic, understand your message, and convince them of the validity of your topic sentence

TRANSITIONS

These are words and phrases that connect one idea to another Time Sequence Space Illustration Comparison Contrast Cause and Effect Conclusion

SYNONYMS

These are words similar in meaning to important or phrases that prevent tedious repetitions

MULTIPLE RE-READINGS

To check only for subjects -verb agreement and correct pronoun usage To focus on sentence fragments and run-on sentences To focus on spelling To focus on punctuation, and so on and so forth

Descriptive essay

To describe a person or a place

SENTENCE OUTLINE

Uses sentences to define the subject matter. This is similar to outline previously explained

PARALLELISM

Using similar sentences structures

PRONOUNS

Words that connect readers to the original word that the pronouns replace

SIGNAL DEVICES

Words that give readers an idea of how the points in your paragraph are processing