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