Writing Seminar #7

1. Writing Seminar #7 Augustine Institute

2. Part 1: The Basics of Style • Verbs • Adjectives, Adverbs, Clauses • Punctuation • Pronouns • Structure

3. Subject-Verb Agreement • Wrong: The dogs runs around the house. • Right: The dogs run around the house.

4. Subject-Verb Agreement • Wrong: Neither of the bishops are boring. • Right: Neither of the bishops is boring.

5. Passive vs. Active Voice • Passive: The ball was hit. • Active: Joe hit the ball. • Passive: The ball was hit by Joe. • Active: Joe hit the ball.

6. Passive vs. Active Voice • Passive: Mistakes were made • Active: I made mistakes. • Passive: A general malaise was felt. • Active: The people of late seventeenth century France felt a general malaise.

7. Passive vs. Active Voice • Passive: Some theologians are referred to as “Doctors of the Church.” • Active: The Church regards some theologians as “Doctors of the Church.”

8. Passive vs. Active Voice • Rarely, passive is better. • Examples: • Finally, Nazi Germany was defeated. • The car was broken. • The students were very confused.

9. Use Action Verbs. • Being is boring. • Action verbs rule! • Boring: That dog is hyperactive. • Action: That dog ran around the house ten times and bit my arm!

10. Use Action Verbs. • Avoid “there is” and “there are.” • Boring: There is a new document from the Vatican about evangelization. • Action: The Vatican recentlypublished a new document about evangelization.

11. Use Action Verbs. • Boring: St. Bonaventure’s reading of this passage is unique. • Action: St. Bonaventure offers a unique reading of this passage.

12. Use Action Verbs. • Verbs for talking about texts and opinions • Refers, mentions, proposes, argues, thinks, explains, interprets, avers, opines, demonstrates, comments, presents, etc.

13. Stick to One Tense. • Use the past tense for story-telling. • Use the present tense to talk about texts. • Augustine teaches… • De Lubac argues… • Ratzinger writes…

14. Nominalization • Bad: Dulles offered a development of Bonaventure’s idea. • Good: Dulles developed Bonaventure’s idea.

15. Nominalization • Bad: There is intentionality on the part of bishops when they make appointments to important positions. • Good: Bishops express their intentions when they appoint people to important positions.

16. Nominalization • Bad: His argument did not propose a good solution to the problem. • Good: The view he advocated did not solve the problem well.

17. Adjectives, Adverbs and Clauses

18. Adjectives and Adverbs • Don’t rely on them to do the work of active verbs and precisely chosen nouns. • Words which tend to be unhelpful: • Really • Very

19. Misplaced Modifiers • Sobbing loudly, I carried the baby to the cry-room at the back of the Church. • I carried the sobbing baby to the cry-room.

20. Punctuation

21. Comma • Panda bear • Use before conjunctions • I would eat ice cream at every meal, but then I would get sick. • Use for a series • Bananas, oranges, apples and berries • Use to separate clauses, appositives, parenthetical elements, etc.

22. Comma Problems • Bad: Cats, meow often. • Bad: He lifted, and threw the bucket. • Bad—comma splice: My friend teaches theology, his students love him. • Better: My friend teaches theology, and his students love him.

23. Parentheses • Use commas to set off parenthetical material. • Use parentheses to enclose important, but tangential information like the spelling out of an abbreviation, the birth and death years of a historical person, etc. • (When you have parentheses within parentheses [use brackets].) – See Turabian, 7th ed., 21.8.2.

24. Quotation Marks • Do not use straight "dumb quotes " • Use curly “smart quotes” • Always use double quotation marks. • “For a quote within a quote, ‘Use single quotation marks.’” • See Turabian, 7th ed., 25.2.1

25. Semi-colon • Use semi-colon to separate independent clauses. • The train left early; I missed it by two minutes. • Use semi-colon to separate complex elements in a series. • I have always been struck by creation in Gen 1:1; prayer in Rom 12:12; and unity in Eph 4:5.

26. Other Punctuation • Apostrophe: possession (Avoid contractions) • Colon: Introduce a series, quotation or explanation • Dash: a very strong separation, a “super-comma” • Period: full stop, abbreviation marker • Exclamation Point: Avoid! • Question Mark: Ok, but avoid asking consecutive questions.

27. Other Punctuation • Hyphen: Use to connect words to make an artificial adjective (e.g., a hard-to-get kind of person) • Slash indicates options • He could have a hot dog and/or ice cream.

28. Pronouns

29. Pronouns • Ensure the antecedent is clear • Harry went to town with Bob. Somewhere along the way, he lost his wallet. • Use the correct form to indicate possession • Its vs. it’s • I saw the dog lick its paw. • There/their/they’re

30. Pronouns • Do not use “their” to mean “he or she” • Incorrect: Each student must turn in their paper on time. • Correct: Each student must turn in his or her paper on time.

31. Pronouns BEWARE THE AMBIGUOUS “this.”

32. Pronouns • This creates problems for the observer trying to understand the situation. • This WHAT? • This disordered presentation creates problems for the observer trying to understand the situation.

33. Structure

34. How to use a quotation effectively • When you read a source, look for: • A Problem • An Argument • Evidence This section based on The Craft of Research, 2nd ed., by Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb and Joseph Williams.

35. How to use a quotation effectively • 1. When you quote, get the context right. • 2. When you cite a claim, get the rhetorical importance of the claim right. • 3. Get the scope and confidence of the claim right. • 4. Do not quote an author summarizing someone else’s views.

36. How to use a quotation effectively • 5. If two sources have the same conclusion, figure out whether they got the conclusion the same way or not. • 6. Identify the cause of disagreement

37. Evidence-based Arguments • 1. What do you claim? • 2. What reasons support that claim? • 3. What evidence supports those reasons? • 4. Do you acknowledge this alternative/complication/objection, and how do you respond? • 5. What principle (warrant) justifies connecting your reasons to your claim? This section based on The Craft of Research, 2nd ed., by Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb and Joseph Williams (p. 115).

38. Sentences • Make definite assertions • Be very clear—leave nothing to chance, guesswork or confusion • Do not begin a sentence with a conjunction

39. Develop a Paragraph • 1. Supply specific details to develop the central thought. • 2. Use examples to illustrate the controlling idea. • 3. Formulate and develop a definition. • 4. Use classification to relate ideas. • 5. Use contrast or comparison.

40. Develop a Paragraph • 6. Show cause or effect to develop the controlling idea. • 7. Use a combination of these methods Based on The Harbrace College Handbook, 8th ed., by John Hodges and Mary Whitten.

41. Special Habits of Academic Prose • Formality • Evidence-based argumentation • Avoid the logical fallacies • Generosity • Collegiality

42. Part 2: Elevating Your Style

43. Subordinating Clauses • Think about the relationship between various bits of information • Augustine’s mother was Catholic. • He did not practice the faith as a young man. • Although Augustine’s mother was Catholic, he did not practice the faith as a young man.

44. Useful Words • afteralthoughasbecausebeforeeven ifeven thoughifin order • onceprovided thatrather thansinceso thatthanthatthoughunless • untilwhenwheneverwherewhereaswhereverwhetherwhile

45. Using Parallel Structure • All the elements in a series must be a functional match of the others and serve the same function in the sentence.

46. Using Parallel Structure • Incorrect: Every morning she prays, eats breakfast and is training for a marathon. • Correct: Every morning she prays, eats breakfast and trains for a marathon.

47. Extending sentences • Resumptive Modifiers • The article provides insight into the culture of American universities • The article provides insight into the culture of American universities, insight potentially useful for the catechist who ministers to college students.

48. Extending sentences • Summative Modifiers • In the last five years, our population growth has dropped to almost zero. • In the last five years, our population growth has dropped to almost zero, a demographic event that will have profound social implications in the future.

49. Extending sentences • Free modifiers • Writers such as Aristotle drew a sharp distinction between the domestic and the political. • Writers such as Aristotle drew a sharp distinction between the domestic and the political, arguing that running an estate and governing a city required different sets of skills.

50. Eliminating Needless Words • The problem with using this method was that it took us an overly long time to complete all of the steps. • This method proved inefficient for us.