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Week 12

Week 12. Sentence-Level Revision. Sentence-Level Revision. We are looking at the surface issues that I have been telling you to avoid until now: grammar, mechanics, and style.

dominique-dudley
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Week 12

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  1. Week 12 Sentence-Level Revision

  2. Sentence-Level Revision • We are looking at the surface issues that I have been telling you to avoid until now: grammar, mechanics, and style. • These issues are important, but secondary to the content issues that we have been focusing on previously, which is why we are doing it now. • Make sure that you are revising content issues as well as surface issues. If your argument needs work, fixing your grammar will not help your paper.

  3. What Are Grammar, Mechanics, and Style? • Grammar is the set of rules that govern a language. • Written language is artificial, and therefore so is its grammar. As a result, the grammar of a written language is never exactly the same as the grammar of a spoken language. • Mechanics refers to things like punctuation and spacing that are employed to clarify written language. • Style is essentially the different dialects of the written language.

  4. Content Issues • Is there a topic sentence? • Are all quotes introduced? Are they cited correctly? • Does the analysis of each quote immediately explain how and why the quote is persuasive for the specific audience? • Are the quotes good quotes? • Is the amount of summary appropriate? • Does the analysis explain why this choice was a good choice?

  5. Confusing Shifts- Tense and Aspect • This list is not complete, but it will do for now. • Only one verb in a sentence needs to code tense, unless it is talking about separate events that happen at different times. • Make sure that you are keeping consistent use of tense. It is easiest to just use one tense throughout your entire paper. If you want to be more complex than that, please see me so we can make sure you do so effectively. • Style guidelines call for talking about writing in the present tense, but you may use past tense. • Read through your paragraph, and mark any shift in tense.

  6. Confusing Shifts: Mood • English has three grammatical moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive • Indicative represents something that is factual or a positive belief: I walk my dog. • Imperative is used for commands: Walk my dog! • Note the absence of a subject • Subjunctive is used for non-real events or desires: I should walk my dog. • Mostly a dead construction in English, but generally uses verbs that end in –ould • Look through your paragraph and note any shift in mood.

  7. Confusing Shifts: Voice Active Passive Subject is being acted upon “My dog was walked (by Joe).” Usually discouraged in writing, but can be used sometimes. Be + past participle If you can add ‘by zombies’ to any sentence and it works, then it is passive. • Subject is acting • “Joe walked my dog.” • This voice is preferred in writing in English, as it allows for livelier writing and is generally less confusing. Read through the paragraph and check for any passive voice.

  8. Confusing Shifts: Person & Number • Make sure that the correct verb is going with your subject • Grammar/Style disconnect: ‘They’ is the indefinite personal pronoun in English. This means that it is used whenever the subject is unknown. Prescriptive grammarians only see it as the 3PL pronoun, and so do not allow for its use as a singular pronoun. • Read your paragraph and check to make sure the verb agrees with the subject

  9. Parallel Structures • Items in a list need to be equal: I went running, shopping, and driving. I went to the park, the mall, and Amarillo. • We are not going to go into this in depth here, as you haven’t shown issues here. If you need help, consult the SMH or talk to me.

  10. Comma Splices and Run-Ons • Both of these involve connecting independent clauses incorrectly. • An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence. • Comma Splices connect these clauses with a comma, Run-ons do not use punctuation. • To fix these, use a conjunction or a period. • Read through your paragraph and mark any comma splices or run-on sentences.

  11. Sentence Fragments • These are where a phrase is standing as a sentence. • A sentence must have a subject and a predicate. • A subject is the actor of the sentence: I walk my dog. • A predicate is the argument of the sentence: I walk my dog. • Look for verbs that end in –ing. These cannot be the only verb in the sentence. Texan dialects seem to use these verbs as subjects, but this forms fragments in Standard American English.

  12. Sentence Fragments • Note that a predicate is not a verb. The verb is part of it (and can be the entire predicate), but not the only part. • Many fragments begin with conjunctions. Make sure that your sentences aren’t really part of a previous sentence • Read through your paragraph and mark any fragments.

  13. Modifiers Adjectives/Relative Clauses Adverbs Modify other parts of speech. Can occur pretty much anywhere, but where they occur changes what they modify or how they modify. Read through your paragraph and check for any misplaced modifiers. • Modify nouns. • Relative pronouns: that/which • Adjectives occur before nouns in American English. Relative clauses usually occur after nouns. • These must occur near the noun that they are modifying.

  14. Faulty Sentence Structure • This happens when the subject and predicate of a sentence do not fit together. • This could also happen because there is a missing word. • Read through your paragraph and check for mismatched subjects and predicates, and for missing words.

  15. Concise Writing • Get rid of fluff. • If it is not necessary, cut it out. • Don’t use a phrase when a single word will be more rhetorically beneficial. • Are you using the right word? • Simplify sentence structures. It is rarely rhetorically beneficial to confuse your readers.

  16. Read through the SMH for • Coordination and Subordination • Sentence Variety

  17. Memorable Prose • Essentially, effective rhetoric. • Are your arguments emphasized? • Are your verb choices effective? Often, be, do or have can be replaced with more exciting verbs. • Can you use different words? • Go through the paragraph and underline all of the verbs. Also mark any words that could be replaced by more effective words.

  18. Brief Assignment 9 • For this assignment, use the guidelines from Chapters 4, 5, 40, and 43 in the St. Martin’s Handbook to revise a substantial body paragraph (i.e. at least 4 sentences in length) from your Draft 1.1. Paste the original paragraph from your 1.1 draft into the assignment so that your instructor will be able to compare the original with your revision. Finally, write a short summary and evaluation of your revisions. Identify and explain which new strategy you used from the textbook and explain how changing the strategies used in this paragraph will influence your readers’ response to your analysis. Also let readers know here which paragraph, your original or the revision, is the strongest and why you believe that to be so. • The total length of the analysis should be 350-500 words, NOT including the original and revised body paragraphs.

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