Transition Words

4. The structure of the conclusion is basically the introduction backwards. The thesis is restated at the beginning, and then broadening out to more general statements.

Many college students find themselves struggling, while trying to write papers in their English classes. This book was written to help you though these struggles. They say/I say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein is a book that was designed to help students be better writers. I think that this book is absolutely a huge help to anyone in need of becoming a much more confident and better writer. This book has helped me learn how to write more structured sentences and how to form them in ways that sound better and are also more grammatically correct than before. I have learned how to properly demonstrate and use many writing techniques such as making quotations, playing the believing game, how to write strong summaries, how to plant a “naysayer”, and incorporate “so what?” and “who cares?” into my writing. This book can be extremely helpful to anyone in need of assistance or for people interested in

On a more serious level, coherence is undermined while being one of the writer's and reader's most basic need. "The problem is not that the Five-Paragraph formula produces incoherence but rather that it limits students to a superficial, predictable level or coherence," (232) states Foley. This allows for students to throw any three liberally related ideas together for the body of the essays. Once students fabricate a thesis statement that elucidates for their three ideas, the students feel they have mastered structure. Foley states, "To be asked merely to enumerate three aspects of any topic relieves the student of the need to probe relationships... it robs them of any motivation to do so," (232). Juxtaposition is not

Resources http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/topic.htm and http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/paragraphs/topicsentences have made it clear the importance if good topic sentences, and I will continue to check these two sites for future papers.

Some of the principles I learned were to write up my research in a standard form that is recognized by the community, such as writing for the general public, or lawmakers. Wording and use of terms is therefore matched to the audience educational level. Another technique I learned was to summarize my research paper into three main points “1) What you are writing about 2) What you don’t know about it 3) why you want your reader to know and care about it” (p46). Additionally, I found this last technique helpful in creating my thesis statement.

Graff and Birkenstein believe to become an effective writer on would start off with what “They are saying”. After you state the they say you can introduce your viewpoint/ argument so it can give the reader an idea of what you’re writing about. I like the idea of using the “they say” technique. Especially when writing an argumentative essay this strategy gives your essay more credibility. It gives the reader of sense that you can acknowledge a point of view even it opposes your own. Graff and Birkenstein also suggest to summarize the they say. Summarizing helps you understand the information better without

Before this English course, I would not feel compelled to incorporate transitions into my essays. Sentence transitions connect paragraphs and new ideas; it creates a better flow of the sentences. I now value the importance of formality in academic essays. I learned to avoid ending sentences with prepositions because it would not sound proper, to choose the right diction for clear understanding to readers, and to eliminate wordy expressions and needless words because being concise is key. Using active voice is strong and clear in academic essays because passive voice does not focus and emphasize on the subject but in the sentence object. During English 1101, I noticed the use of verb tenses from the rhetorical reading responses and the narrative essay; it is crucial to have the appropriate verb tense for a clear essay. In addition, finding different sources for research papers, such as the concept paper done this course, is pivotal for readers to consider the author credible. Beginning a sentence with a compelling subject will most likely evoke readers’ interests rather than just “there” or “it”. In all these years of sitting in an English class, I finally know why not to use second person: “You” does not apply to everyone when the author is talking about a narrowed topic. Lastly, the one aspect of writing that stuck with me the most was to make any work original and

The Little Seagull Handbook, by Richard Bullock, Michal Brody, and Francine Weinberg, is a book full of advice on the writing process. The book is divided up into sections which helps students to easily find the topic they need to review. Section W-4e on opening and closing paragraphs was used to improve my conclusions. I do not have a lot of trouble with conclusions, but I feel that mine do not fit as smoothly into my essays as they should. Therefore, I decided that it was best to improve my conclusions. The section lists out several tactics to form a conclusion, such as, summarizing the essay, discussing the implication of the essay’s argument, and giving a call to some kind of action. Reading the section has given me several ideas on how to finish an essay. Now I can either plan which tactic to use ahead of

     Next comes your conclusion, which brings closure to your paper, reiterating your main ideas and views, giving your final closing statement. This final paragraph should leave the reader with more understanding of the subject and/or your opinions of it. All loose ends should be tied up, and most conclusions will restate your main idea from the introduction.

As Goshgarian states in Exploring Language, “Most college writing is an exercise in persuasion – an attempt to influence reader’s attitudes about the subject matter” (90). In order to effectively persuade our audience, we must not only write skillfully, but also be able to send a clear, interesting, and concise message. In chapter two of the above mentioned book, Goshgarian provides various articles with insights on how to improve our writing. I found “Beware the Trap of Bore-geous Writing”, by Ayelet Waldman; “The Case for Short Words”, by Richard Lederer; and “Saying is Believing”, by Patricia O’ Conner very interesting as they all highlight the importance of writing clearly and provide valuable advice on how to do it better. However, I personally found “Saying is Believing”, by Patricia O’Conner, to be the most helpful resource due to the reasons I intend to explain in this essay.

Have a trusted individual that can help advocate for the student. (e.g. parent, another family member, friend, etc.)

Bywater is a professor at Dixie State University, He teaches expository english and has his way of doing so. On every Tuesday of the semester a printed draft is to be brought into class for class evaluation and on Thursday the final draft is due. On Thursday Bywater gives the topic for the next paper. He teaches based on The Rules of Thumb 9th edition, a book written by Jay Silverman, Elaine Hughes, and Diana Wienbroer. He urges his students to use sentence level structuring. Sentence level structuring includes level one, two, and three sentences. These sentence levels make up the compound, complex, and complex-compound sentences. The way the paper should be set up is introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusions. Conclusions should give a sense of closure. Slowly but surely Bywater hands out sheets that give instruction based on the week's assigned paper. He encourages students to following a checklist, avoiding MLA , and he also prefers that the students tell the main story of the paper in the introduction.

To have a strong impact on a reader and really cause them to think, change their minds, or learn something new, as the writer, it is important to have strong supporting paragraphs. This was something that I had previous knowledge of before it was discussed in class. Supporting paragraphs are used to help the reader get the point that is trying to be made. They provide the thesis with the supporting evidence that it needs. The thesis is the “road map” and the supporting paragraphs are the pit stops along the way to the final destination. Each pit stop, has an adventure making the overall journey a true learning experience.  I applied this concept to my own work when writing the research blog. The goal of my blog was to inform people about some misconceptions of feminism and what feminism is. The

“Get down off that counter.” “Stay away from there.” “Clean your room.” We’ve all heard our parents at some time or another spew advice to us. Whether or not we listened is altogether another story. These days it seems like there is advice everywhere and on almost every subject that can be thought of. One subject in particular is writing. And if you are going to be writing for publication in a home appliance service journal then it’s important to be a good writer. Remember in class when your English teacher finally said now we are going to write more than one paragraph. Then it was, we are going to write an introduction and a conclusion for your paragraphs. This simple and extremely common layout for an

In the final chapter of Style: A Pragmatic Approach, Peter Richardson recommended his final tips for writing strong essays. His recommendations included: assume the “readers don’t already know what we’re thinking” (56) and use metaphors from earlier drafts to develop your main points. His first recommendation is essential for me because I find myself not writing for my readers. Even rereading my first Martin Luther King Jr. essay, I found myself stating claims that may not be as obvious to other individuals. As Richardson noted: “When we’ve been pondering something for a while, we frequently assume that our readers have been doing the same” (56). However, this is not always the case because everyone’s mind is unique and different. And since