V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing By Joe Napora.

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing By Joe Napora

Visible Speech: Writing Fundamentals A program of instruction in five parts: Part 1--What is an essay? Part 2--What is a paragraph? Part 3--What is a sentence? Part 4--Word confusions. Part 5--Punctuation. Click on the button to continue 

Symbol Key : = Advance to next slide =Return to previous slide =Return to the first slide =Go to Part One =Go to Part Two =Go to Part Three =Go to Part Four =Go to Part Five Symbols Used in This Program 1 2 3 4 5

I nstructor: Joe Napora C ollege: Ashland Community College E -mail: joseph.napora@kctcs.edujoseph.napora@kctcs.edu Phone: 606-326-2037 Website: http://users.ashlandcc.org/jnapora/ Visible Speech

WHAT IS AN ESSAY? LESSON 1-5 Part One

Symbol Key : =Return to “The Types of Introductions” slide =Return to “The Form of the Essay” slide Intro Form Lesson 1: What is an essay?

What is an essay? A nswer: O rganized W riting

What is an essay? I f an essay is organized writing, a good question to ask is “What is organized writing?” A fter all, isn’t all writing organized?

How is writing organized? A ll writing is organized; otherwise we could not read it. The writing we are concerned with is organized in a special way. W riting is organized according to audience. Who is the audience? You or other people. Couldn’t a machine be an audience? Yes. But we are only concerned with people.

What difference does the audience make? I f you are the audience, writing is a form of memory: you are writing notes to yourself to help you remember. T hese notes may take the form of a diary (where the time of your writing is important), and they may just be nearly random ideas written on scraps of paper. This is the end of lesson one

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing / lesson 2 By Joe Napora

What are the different forms of writing? I f someone other than you is the audience, then what are the possible forms that writing can take? B elow are some of the most common forms that writing can take. NotesE-mailLetters MemosSignsEssays ReportsAnnouncementsOther

N o t e s N otes can be written to yourself or others, but notes usually depend on an intimate knowledge of the audience. W hen you write a note, you usually already know the audience; therefore you do not have to introduce yourself to the audience. A n example of a note would be a message attached to your phone to remind someone in your family to call your mechanic. Forms

Notes, continued Q uestion: Why is it not usually necessary to have an introduction in a note? W hat are two examples of notes that you have written during the past week? A nswer: It’s because you are the audience as well as the writer. You normally don’t have to introduce yourself to yourself. Forms

M e m o s When you write a memo, you are given a form that simplifies the relationship between you, the writer, and the audience. Memo To: From: Re: The introduction and conclusion are in the form of TO: and FROM:. And the subject matter is simply introduced with RE:. Forms

R e p o r t s A report is like an expanded memo. The audience is determined by the subject matter. If you are doing a report in biology, your audience anticipates a report on some subject in biology. Y ou, as the writer, do not have to get your audience interested in your topic because by the very nature of the subject, they are already interested. Forms

E – m a i l E -mail is a recent form of writing that was invented with the online computer. E -mail is a lot like letter writing, but it is also a lot like memo and report writing, plus a little like a telephone conversation. Forms

S i g n s A sign is a public form of writing that places a premium on getting the readers’ attention. A sign is formal in that it has a long history of design features that are proven to work. Forms

Announcements An announcement often relies on fancy paper or graphics to get the readers’ attention. Announcements are another type of formal writing. Forms

L e t t e r s L etters have a prescribed structure. T he more formal the letter, the more standard the Introduction, the Body, and the Conclusion. Forms

E s s a y s E ssays are also a formal type of writing. What we mean by “formal” is that the structure of the writing is more rigid than other forms of writing. T his more rigid structure is not a restriction to our ability to communicate; in fact, it is an opportunity to be more creative than if there was a very loose structure. Forms

Other Forms of Writing Writing takes many forms, many more than the ones I have listed. We live in a literate age: we cannot go through a single day of our lives without the influence of writing in some form. Try to imagine a day without a direct or indirect connection with writing. Forms This is the end of lesson two

The Parts of the Essay T he I ntroduction T he Body T he C onclusion I nterest and I nformation D etails U nity and a L asting I mage

Introduction T he Introduction has two functions. The first function is to get the readers’ attention. It is the writer’s job (the most important one) to get the reader interested. The second function is let the reader know what the essay is all about. W hat are the two functions of the Introduction? I nterest and I nformation

Introductory Techniques T here are at least a dozen ways to begin an essay that have been proven to work well in getting the attention of the reader. Half this many are most common, and it is these six that we are most interested in. A sk a question or several questions. M ake an outrageous statement. G ive a detailed description. P resent a dramatic scene. Use D ialogue. U se a famous quote or historical reference.

Introductory Technique: Asking Questions Intro. A question is like a ringing phone: it’s very hard not to answer it. A question involves the reader automatically into your essay. This is why asking a question or a series of questions is often a good way to begin your essay. Of course it has to be a question that is appropriate to your thesis. The thesis rules everything. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Introductory Technique: Outrageous Statement Intro. Writing is my worse subject! I hate writing! When I think of my writing teachers, I’m sure I believe in capital punishment. My writing classes in grade school were nothing but a form of child abuse. Writing! Who needs it? An outrageous statement gets attention. After you have the readers’ attention, then you can alter your statement. But it’s not as bad as getting beaten with barbed wire. But I hate mean people worse. Yet, I’m not so sure I want to see any of them hung. But then, most classes in grade school were that way. Unfortunately, now everyone needs it.

Introductory Technique: Detailed Description Intro. A detailed description acts like the pictures that accompany a story in the newspaper or in popular magazines: they get our attention and relate to the story. That’s why they work. We would expect the story with this picture to be about people at work in a white-collar job.

Introductory Technique: Dramatic Scene Intro. While the doctor listened for sounds that my only kidney is failing, I thought to myself, why had I given my other kidney to my worthless brother? The last time we saw each other he screamed at me, “I’d rather have a dog’s kidney than yours. Thanks for nothing!” Conflict always gets the readers’ attention.

Introductory Technique: Dialogue Intro. Beginning with dialogue puts the reader in the position of an eavesdropper: you listen to people talk even if you are not interested in them or what they are saying. You get drawn into their lives because of the power of the human voice. Dialogue gets the human voice onto the lifeless page.

Introductory Technique: Quotes & Allusions Intro. A stitch in time saves nine. Honor thy father and mother. Thou shall not kill. "To believe yourself to be brave is to be brave; it is the only essential thing.” --Mark Twain “Don’t panic!” --Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy “ x ” The X stands for anything you have quoted. And the X must be exactly, word for word, as it was in the original source.

B o d y T he function of the Body of the essay is to provide the Details of what the essay is all about. T he Body of the essay is divided into paragraphs that are organized around topic sentences. W hat is the function of the Body of the essay? Details

C o n c l u s I o n T he function of the Conclusion of the essay is to unify the reading experience and to leave with the reader a lasting image that will recall to mind the essay after it has been read, perhaps years after it has been read. W hat are the functions of the Conclusion ? U nity and I mage This is the end of lesson 3

A n a l o g y T he structure of an essay can be compared to the structure of the human body. W hy would you want to make this comparison? I t helps us to understand that communication is a very human act, and it helps us to remember the functions of the essay.

A n a l o g y, (the Head) T he Introduction is similar to the Head. W e normally look first at a person’s face; it is what interests us most. I t is the head that rules the body.

A n a l o g y, (the Torso) T he torso of the human body is what we usually refer to as our body. A nd it is the Body of the essay that is the essay’s heart, the center, where the real action is.

A n a l o g y, (the legs / feet) T he body ends with the feet, but there is more. T he legs and feet are what moves us on, connecting us to what is not with us at the moment, much as an image does.

P r o p o r t i o n L ike the form of the human body, the form of the human essay has a pleasing proportionality. T here is a lot of variety in the human form, just as there is a lot of variety in the human essay.

P r o p o r t i o n, continued W e might think of an essay with very few details in the Body like a person with an extremely short torso.

P r o p o r t i o n, continued A n essay with very many small paragraphs and only a few details is like a mal- nourished body. This is the end of lesson 4

The Structure of the Essay, Review G ood writers organize the essay because readers expect it to be organized. Since we write in order to communicate with readers, we try to meet their expectations. Meeting readers’ expectations means writing according to an informed awareness of the function of the three parts of the essay. R eview: What are the three main parts of the essay? I ntroduction, B ody, and C onclusion

The Structure of the Essay, Review W hat is the function of the Introduction? W hat is the function of the Body of the essay? W hat is the function of the Conclusion? I nterest and I nformation D etails U nity and a L asting I mage

The Structure of the Essay, Review: Introductions W hat are the best six ways to begin an essay that have been proven to work well? A sk a question or several questions. M ake an outrageous statement. G ive a detailed description. P resent a dramatic scene. D ialogue. U se a famous quote or historical reference. This is the end of lesson 5 and Part 1

WHAT IS A PARAGRAPH? Lesson 6 and 7 Part Two

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing / lesson six By Joe Napora

What is a paragraph? Answer: Organized Writing Hey! Isn’t this the same answer for “What is an essay?” Yes, but it is organized differently.

How is a paragraph organized? A paragraph is organized writing, organized in three very simple ways: Deductive Inductive Mixed

Deductive Paragraphs Topic Sentence Supporting Details Most books are arranged deductively: they have a chapter title and the supporting details make up that chapter. Most of your Body paragraphs are arranged this way.

Inductive Paragraphs Supporting Details Topic Sentence Detective stories are arranged inductively: they give the details first and involve us in arriving at the solution, or topic. Nature writers often use a lot of inductive paragraphs.

Mixed Paragraphs Supporting Details Topic Sentence Supporting Details Sometimes writers put some significant information before the topic sentence, acting like the introduction to an essay.

Transition Paragraphs Transition paragraphs are usually small and don’t contain topic sentences. They link paragraphs together to help make the whole essay read smoothly, instead of chopped up into pieces. Paragraph A Paragraph B Transition paragraph linking A and B

Dialogue Paragraphs Dialogue paragraphs are simply paragraphs that are made when you use quotes to indicate speech. Each time another person speaks, you begin a new paragraph. “Dialogue paragraphs,” I said, “are simply paragraphs that indicate speech.” “Do you mean that each time another person speaks I have to begin a new paragraph?” she asked. This is the end of lesson 6

Lesson 7: Visual Clues Paragraphs, like all of writing, are visual as well as logical ways to organize information. Paragraphs are visual blocks help us read the essay. On paper, we indent for each paragraph. On the internet, we can’t easily indent so we skip a line between paragraphs. THISISTHEWAYPEOPLEONCEWROTEWITHNOSP ACEBETWEENWORDSANDNOSPACEBEFOREANE WPARAGRAPHANDMOSTOFUSWOULDAGREET HATITISALOTHARDERTOREADTHANWITHSPA CESBETEENWORDSANDPARAGRAPHS

The End Of Part Two

WHAT IS A SENTENCE? LESSONS 8-9 Part Three

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing / lesson eight By Joe Napora

What is a sentence? Answer: Organized Writing Hey! Isn’t this the same answer for “What is an essay and what is a paragraph?” Yes, but it is organized differently.

How is a sentence organized? Sentences can be organized in the most simple manner: by type. They are either complete sentences, or they are incomplete. A complete sentence contains a subject, a verb, and most often an object phrase. An incomplete sentence is fragmented: it usually doesn’t contain a complete verb.

Complete Sentences A complete sentence has a subject and a verb, and usually a phrase. Subject = S Verb = V Phrase = P

Subjects Subjects can be people, objects, events, and ideas. Subjects are usually in the most important part of the sentence, the first part. John, Mary, Men, Women, my uncle, chairs, dogs, the World Series, freedom, next year John loves Mary. “John” is in the most important part of the sentence.

Verbs Action. Making connections. Relationships. MOVEMENT is the main function of verbs, movement that affects the subject. Subjects run, walk, and sleep. Subjects are and will be. And it’s verbs that allow subjects to move, and movement draws attention to our sentences.

Object Phrases Remember the equation S + V + P? P = Object Phrase A phrase comes in many shapes, does many things, and attaches to the main sentence in many ways.

Phrases Here is a simple sentence: John drives. [S + V] Add an object phrase: John drives to the park. [S + V + P] Add more phrases: According to Mary, John drives to the park in the morning. [P + S + V + P]

Fragmented Sentences Incomplete sentences usually result from writing a phrase as if it were a complete sentence. According to Mary. [P] John drives to the park in the morning. [S + V + P] This is the end of lesson 8

Simple and Complex Sentences Lesson Nine

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing / lesson nine By Joe Napora

Making Sentence SENSE The object of writing is to make sense of our ideas to other people. One way to do this is to write clearly, starting with standard sentences. A standard sentence is one that makes SENSE. SENSE = Standard ENglish SentencE

More SENSE The Basic SENSE sentence can easily be expanded to make your sentences more interesting, varied, rhythmic, attention getting. John loves Mary. According to Alice, John loves Mary. According to Alice, John loves Mary, who he met last week. This is the end of lesson nine

Sentence Styles Lesson Ten

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing / lesson ten By Joe Napora

Prepositions Take your basic sentence: John loves Mary. [S + V + O] Add a preposition phrase: John loves Mary with all of his heart. [S + V + O + PP] Prepositions are the most common words in the English language. You can’t say more than a few words without one.

Prepositions, again Take your basic sentence with a prepositional phrase: John loves Mary with all of his heart. [S + V + O + PP] Write it in this form: PP + S + V + O With all of his heart, John loves Mary. What is the difference between these two sentences?

Absolutes Take your basic sentence. John loves Mary. [S + V + O] Add an absolute phrase. His heart ruling his head, John loves Mary. AP + S + V + O Absolutes are phrases that contain a complete subject [his heart] but only a partial verb [ruling].

Appositives Take your basic sentence. John loves Mary. [S + V + O] Add an appositive phrase. John, the great Romeo, loves Mary. S + ApP + V + O The word “appositive” means “positioned next to.

Participles Take your basic sentence. John loves Mary. [S + V + O] Add a participle phrase. Ignoring his mother’s advice, John loves Mary. PP + S + V + O Participles are ways to add more movement into your sentences.

Relative Clauses Take your basic sentence. John loves Mary. [S + V + O] Add a relative clause. John loves Mary, who he only met yesterday. S + V + O + RC Who, which, when, where are the most common relative pronouns. End of Lesson 10

Word Confusions Lesson Eleven

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing / lesson eleven By Joe Napora

Sound Confusions Most word confusions are due to the fact that many words in English that have different meanings sound the same. Sight / Cite / Site Their / There / They’re To / Too / Two Where / Wear Hear / Here Through / Threw Bare / Bear Your / You’re

Sound Confusions Its / It’s This is most common of all word confusions. “Its” is similar to “his” and “hers.” We don’t write “his” like this: “hi’s”; nor do we write “hers” like this: “her’s.” “It’s” means “it is.” Sometimes “it’s” means “it has,” as in “So long, it’s been good to know you.”

Sound Confusions We confuse many words because we don’t always pronounce words clearly. We say, “I used to know better,” but we mistakenly write it as “We use to.” And the same goes for “supposed to”; it’s not “suppose to.”

More Confusions Some words are spelled differently in advertising than they are in essay writing. Light / Lite Through / Thru Right / Rite Though / Tho This is the end of lesson 11, part 4

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals Lesson 12, part five By Joe Napora

Why Punctuation? Writing is something we see before we hear it. When we read, we translate the written signs [letters made into words made into sentences…] into sounds. To help readers make better sense of this translation, we use a very few additional signs.

End Signs Period. We have signs that go at the end of sentences. They act something like a stop sign. Question Mark ? Exclamation Point ! [These signs sometimes appear within quotation marks.]

More on End Signs End signs end the sentence. This sentence ends with a period.period A sentence (or sometimes a single word) that asks a question ends with a question mark. Doesn’t it?question mark A sentence that indicates yelling, screaming, a voice raised higher than normal is indicated by an exclamation mark. Listen!exclamation mark

.Periods. Periods sometimes indicate when we take a deep breath if we spoke the sentence. Unfortunately, none of the punctuation signs are consistent indicators of how we speak. We could, for instance, pause long when we speak the words “for instance,” but we wouldn’t write the sentence like this: We could. For instance. Pause when we speak the words “for instance,”...

?Question Marks? The Spanish language has a better sign system for question marks. When you read a question in Spanish, you know immediately that the sentence is going to be a question because there is an upside down question mark at the beginning of the sentence as well as a regular question mark at the end. What? ? Que?

!Exclamation Marks! We don’t get more emphasis by using more exclamation marks!!!!!!!! How many times do I have to tell you????? Nor do we get more emphasis by using more than one question mark. Well, maybe we do, but it’s not good practice. Someday the exclamation mark may be replaced with sentences written in BOLD and ENLARGED type.

INSIDE SIGNS Parentheses ( ) Colon : Quotation Marks “ ” Semi-colon ; We have signs that go within sentences. Hyphen - Dash -- Apostrophe ’ The most used inside sign, the comma:, Ellipses...

Apostrophes The apostrophe indicates possession. The hat belongs to the boy; therefore, it is the boy’s hat. If more than one boy owns the hat, then it is the boys’ hat. [ Logically we should write it as “the boys’s hat” but punctuation and spelling are not very logical.] Apostrophes are also used to indicate speed in speech: contractions. We say it’s instead of it is, don’t instead of do not, won’t instead of will not.

Semi-colons The main use for the semi-colon is to join two complete sentences that are closely related. John went to the store. He bought apples, grapes, and a watermelon. We combine these two sentences into one, joined with a semi-colon. John went to the store ; he bought apples, grapes, and a watermelon. [Sometimes semi-colons separate items in a list.]

Colons Colons have a very limited use. People can write for years and never use one. Some people use them often because they make lists. There are lists for many things : people, dogs, cats, houses, blouses, mouses (that’s mice, isn’t it?). Sometimes colons function a lot like the semi- colon : they join two sentences, the second subordinate to the former.

Quotation Marks You say something. You write it down. You use quotation marks to indicate exactly what you said. You ask your friend, John, how he is doing. “John,” I asked, “How are you doing?” You can also write this quote other ways: I asked, “John. How are you doing?” “John. How are you doing?” I asked.

Quotation Marks Quotation marks are very handy; they help since they allow us to indicate speech as well as sentences that we quote from other written materials. But sometimes they cause problems. There are two main problems: 1) end punctuation, and 2) quotes within quotes.

Quotes Within Quotes When we quote something, we place it within quotation marks. But what if we quote something that has already been quoted? John loves Mary. I wrote the sentence “John loves Mary.” We use single quotes within the double quotes. He said, “I wrote the sentence ‘ John loves Mary ’.”

End Quotes Sometimes quotation marks come at the end of sentences (and sometimes as the beginning). When a sentence ends with a quotation mark, periods cause problems [and also commas, which are not end punctuation but are affected by the quotation marks in the same way]). “ John loves Mary,” I said. Here the period ends the sentence. I said, “John loves Mary.” Here the period is inside the quotation marks, not at the end. This is not logical, but it’s the way we do it.

Parentheses In drama, the play writer will often indicate an aside, a time when an actor will speak directly to another actor or to the audience. Parentheses often work like an aside. In drama, the play writer will often speak directly with the audience [using a technique called an aside] to get comic effect.

Hyphens Hyphens join words and parts of words together to get additional meaning or to create new words, usually new nouns or adjectives. brother-in-lawre-maketwenty-two This is a hard-to-understand type of punctuation because there are no clear rules about how to use it. For instance, something could just be hard to understand.

Dashes Dashes are just longer hyphens that can give extra emphasis--more than a comma can give.

Ellipses When we don’t need to quote everything, we must still indicate that we left out information. In this case we use a punctuation mark that looks like three periods run together. We use an ellipsis. I wrote, “When we don’t need to quote everything….[W]e use an ellipsis. We use square brackets [ ] to make certain that our new sentence is correct in grammar, capitalization, and punctuation.

Commas Commas cause problems because commas sometimes act like short pauses in speaking and sometimes act like little signs that separate items in a series, that introduce quotes in speaking, that come after greetings, and that do a lot of un- related things.

More Signs There are a few other signs we use in writing, most taken from math, logic, drafting, science, and computer science. & { } @ #$ *% +=

The End Of Parts One to Five

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing By Joe Napora.

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing By Joe Napora."— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback

Log in

Auth with social network:

V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing By Joe Napora.

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "V isible S peech a short course in the fundamentals of writing By Joe Napora."— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback