1. Week 6 - Tuesday
COMP 4100

2. Project 2

3. Assignment 3

4. Style

5. Style Writing style is much harder to teach than grammar
Style is subjective, dependent on audience and medium, and borders on art rather than science
While the basic unit of grammar is the sentence, Strunk and White say that the basic unit of composition should be the paragraph
One paragraph for each topic
As a rule, begin the paragraph with a topic sentence

6. Thesis statements
Most of you got comments that your thesis statement could be stronger
Make a point with your thesis statement!
Say something no one else has ever said
Argue that your paper's subject created a field of CS or that something that we now depend on wouldn't exist without them or something else impressive
Do not list a series of facts
Do not call a person the "mother" or "father" or something, since that label is meaningless
Tell a story!

7. Filler words Every writer has a tendency to use too many words
Students become verbose in order to meet a word count or to sound more intelligent
General rule: If a word can be removed from a sentence without changing its meaning, the word should be removed
Shorter sentences are clearer and more forceful
Reduce your preposition usage

8. Common filler words that somehow just absolutely only basically really
actually
slightly
sort of
almost
kind of
seemed
a little
perhaps
very
maybe
simply

9. Adverbs
In addition to the listed filler words, every adverb should be examined
Adverbs are long and add little meaning
Most adverbs end in –ly, but "very" is an exception
If you need an adverb to boost the power of your verb, consider using a stronger verb
Effective writing depends on the strength of nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs

10. Passive voice
Passive voice makes the object of an action into the subject of a sentence
Passive: My head was struck by a rocket.
Active: A rocket struck my head.
Ways to recognize the passive voice:
Form of the verb "to be" combined with past participle of a verb: "was struck"
Passive voice sentences will often end with "…by the something."

11. Issues with the passive voice
The passive voice reduces clarity:
A new age of computer science was ushered in.
Who ushered in the new age of computer science?
The passive voice removes credit and blame:
Mistakes were made.
The addition of a "to be" verb makes the sentence longer

12. Is it okay to use the passive voice?
There are some cases when passive voice is reasonable
If you want to emphasize the object rather than the subject:
100 votes are required to pass the bill.
If the subject is unknown:
A tremendous amount of graffiti was painted on the wall.

13. Resources
Perhaps the best known (though often criticized) book on style in English composition is Strunk and White's The Elements of Style:
Short and cheap!
Good because it talks about how to write well, not just to follow rules
Also useful is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association:
And the MLA Handbook:

14. Upcoming

15. Reminders Project 2, the design document, is due Friday
Assignment 3, the rough draft, is due the Friday after that