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wgu college

English 204: English Composition 1

https://study.com/academy/course/english-204-english-composition-i.html

Chapter 1 - Academic, Professional, and Formal Writing

What is professional writing?

  • Style of communication used in a workplace
  • Has a formal tone

Purpose of professional writing

  • Convey information within a workplace
    • To encourage action
    • To instruct
    • To persuade
    • To inform
    • To affirm shared goals

Formal writing

  • Formal writing includes business writing, formal letters, and academic writing
  • Rules of formal writing
    • Complex, add meaning to the writing
    • Sophisticated vocabulary with terms related to the topic's field
    • Serious tone with literal meanings
    • Have a specifically-stated purpose (thesis)
    • Avoid contractions
    • Written from the third-person perspective
    • Use standard punctuation
    • References are properly cited
    • Well organized into paragraphs

Chapter 2 - Genre, Voice, and Writing Style

What is writing style?

  • Helps a writer express their ideas

Types of writing

  • Expository
    • General category, fits all types of essays
    • Main purpose is to explain a concept or idea
    • Usually based on a subject; requires facts, not opinions
    • Textbooks, essays, etc.
    • Descriptive, flowery language distracts from the purpose
  • Persuasive
    • Usually found in article and essay form
    • Relies on specific detail, facts, and examples for support
    • Author is often expressing opinion and trying to persuade the audience
    • Clear and concise but can be more forceful/dramatic to help convince the reader
  • Descriptive
    • The purpose is to entertain
    • Fiction, poetry, etc.
    • Tends to use more adjectives, adverbs, figurative language, and imagery
  • Narrative
    • The purpose is to entertain
    • Telling a story

Voice in writing

  • When a writer puts themselves into the words
    • The distinct personality of a piece of writing
  • Provides the sense that a real person is speaking and cares about the message
  • Ways to do express your voice
    • Make different choices than other writers
      • Ones that reflect who you are inside
    • Express your thoughts and feelings in a way that is unique to you
    • Communicate strong feelings
    • Be authentic
    • Be consistent

Analyzing an author's style, voice, and language

  • Style --> how an author writes
    • Formal language tends to draw words from Latin or French (Latinate)
    • Can often be described in a broader way
  • Voice --> distinct qualities that make a writer's work unique
    • Harder to detect
    • How do they use language? Do they speak in a complex or simple way?
    • Requires closely examining language

Chapter 3 - Analyzing Rhetoric in Writing

What is rhetoric?

  • Sometimes words have different meanings...
    • Plato's definition: "The art of winning the soul by discourse"
      • Philosophy rather than an art
    • Aristotle: "... the faculty of discovery in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion"
  • Rhetoric
    • The art of using language where at least one person is trying to change the thinking of at least one other person
  • Can be done orally or in written form
  • Sometimes considered meaningless or empty language
  • Rhetoric devices
    • Alliteration
      • Repetition of the same consonant sounds beginning several words in sequence
    • Hyperbole
      • Use of exaggeration for emphasis
    • Antistrophe
      • Repetition of the same word or phrase
    • Irony
      • Expression of something other than the intended meaning
      • The opposite of the literal meaning
    • Euphemism
      • Substitution of an agreeable/non-offensive word or phrase for one that can be considered offensive
    • Metaphor
      • Word or phrase that is used for comparison in a figurative sense
    • Oxymoron
      • Apparent paradox achieved by the juxtaposition of words which seem to contradict one another
    • Paradox
      • Statement that seems absurd but might be true
    • Antithesis
      • Contrast of ideas or words in order to juxtapose
    • Apostrophe
      • Interruption in order to directly address a person or object

Rhetoric modes of writing

  • Rhetoric --> art of communication with an audience
    • Writer tries to communicate with readers using literary devices and compositional techniques
  • Modes of writing
    • Description
      • Writing that tries to describe an idea to help the reader visualize it
      • Often depicts a person, place, or thing
      • Brings characters and places to life
      • Examples
        • Journal entries
        • Poems
        • Character sketches
      • Make readers feel like they've experience a thing as well
    • Expository
      • Explains, informs, or analyzes information
      • Explains an idea or concept so that the reader knows exactly what the writer means
      • Examples
        • Textbooks
        • Business letters
        • News articles
        • Research papers
      • Focus on the facts
      • Provides all research on the topic, even if it goes against your beliefs
    • Narration
      • Tells a story by recounting events
      • Often utilizes descriptive writing
      • Organization is key
    • Persuasive
      • An appeal to the reader's reason or logic
      • Writers attempting to prove their point of view
        • Presenting a convincing perspective
      • Urges the readers to do or think something

The application of modern rhetoric principles

  • Rhetoric --> the art of discourse
    • Strives to improve the writers/speakers ability to inform
  • Classical rhetoric
    • Aristotle created rhetoric
      • He stated a true rhetorician can always see what is persuasive
  • Modern rhetoric
    • Often used to obscure the truth
      • eg. rhetorical questions
    • Still intends to make a point
  • Different compositional strategies to employ rhetoric
    • Metaphors, similes, exemplification, imagery, analogy, sarcasm, unity, emphasis, etc.
  • Classical principles in modern rhetoric
    • Writer
      • What motives do they have?
      • What is the point of what they're saying?
    • Audience
      • Who are you speaking to?
      • What is the audience hoping to take away?
    • Context
      • What arguments are laid out?
      • How are they delivered?
    • Three classical persuasive appeals
      • When applied, an argument has a good chance of being effective
      • Ethos
        • Building trust by establishing authority and credibility
        • Correlates to the writer
      • Pathos
        • Appealing to emotion through connecting with interests and values
        • Correlates to the audience
      • Logos
        • Appealing to intelligence through well-established and logical arguments
        • Correlates to context

Rhetorical shift

  • Occurs when speakers or writers alter their style or tone
  • Often accompanied by a shift in focus
    • Often between rhetorical modes

Chapter 4 - Selecting and Evaluating Academic Sources for Research Papers

Selecting and refining a research topic

  • Research is an investigation or study of a topic in order to draw a conclusion
  • Steps to select and refine a research topic
    • Brainstorm
    • Preliminary research
      • Narrow down your choices to research
    • Analyze research
      • Help refine your topic
      • Do you believe what you've found about the topic?
      • Are there ideas about it that people believe but aren't true?
      • Is any of the information biased?
    • Plan for the project
      • Is your project persuasive or informative?
    • Thesis
      • Statement of the main idea or focus of the paper/project
      • Return to your thesis and strengthen it as you work on the project

Academic sources

  • Sources are places to get information
  • Academic or scholarly sources
    • Peer-reviewed
    • Includes a list of references
    • Written by an expert author
    • Published by a reputable publisher
    • Examples include books, academic journal articles, published reports, etc.
  • Identifying scholarly sources
    • Look at the author's credentials
      • Should be an expert in the field
    • Look at the bibliography/list of references
    • Look at the publisher
      • Eg. published by a university or academic publisher
  • Aggregated databases can be used to find peer-reviewed journal articles

Using search engines for online research

  • Types of search engines
    • General
      • Google, Bing, etc.
    • Metasearch
      • Searches many other search engines to obtain info
      • Dogpile, MetaCrawler, Excite, etc.
    • Specific
      • JSTOR, LexisNexis, etc.

Finding reliable electronic reference sources and databases

  • Invisible web --> sources not featured on Google
  • Try Google's Advanced Search to limit search
    • By domain, by file type, etc.
  • Bibliographies
  • Google Scholar
    • Has rigorous quality control

Finding and evaluating sources for research

  • Use the CRAAP test
    • Currency
      • Timeliness of the info
      • How long ago was it published?
    • Relevance
      • How well does the info relate to your topic?
    • Authority
      • Is the info coming from a credible source?
    • Accuracy
      • Is the info true?
      • It should be supported by evidence, free of bias
    • Purpose
      • What is the purpose of the info you are sourcing?
  • Don't use blogs or wikis
  • Use databases and archives to find documents not available via search engines

Chapter 5 - Using Sources in Writing

Plagiarism

  • Passing off someone else's ideas as your own
  • Could be a direct quote or even summarizing ideas
  • Types
    • Intentional
    • Unintentional
      • More common
  • Avoiding plagiarism
    • Cite your sources and clarify how you used them
    • Acknowledge any help you had with writing
    • Put quotes around any exact wording borrowed from others

Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing

  • Quotations must be used for word-for-word information taken from a source
  • Paraphrasing
    • Put the text in your own words.
    • Avoid copying the text
    • Rearrange similar text
    • Can still contain multiple points from original source
  • Summarizing
    • Written information is written in your own words
    • Presents only the main idea in a short overview

APA Citation

  • Often required for college-level writing assignments
  • In-text citation is a source being cited within the body of the paper
    • Needed to show the reader where you got the info
    • Should include the last name of the author and the year of publication
    • Eg. "According to Smith (2012)..." or "... (Smith, 2012)"
  • A reference page lists all the sources used within your paper
    • References must be in alphabetical order according to author last name
  • Reference entries for journal articles must include:
    • Name of the author
    • Year the article was published
    • Name of the article
    • Name of the journal
    • Volume and issue number of the journal
    • Pages on which the article can be found
    • The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if available
    • Example: Smith, A. B. (2012). The best cure for hiccups. The Journal of Everyday Cures, 5(13), 802-850
  • Reference entries for authored books must include:
    • Name of the author
    • Year of publication
    • Title of the book
    • Name of the publisher
    • The edition of the book if it has multiple
    • DOI if applicable
    • Example: Smith, A. A. (2012). The best cure for hiccups: The inside story. Made-Up Publishing Company.

MLA Format

  • Modern Language Association
  • Commonly used in academic writing, especially the humanities
  • Format rules
    • 8.5 x 11 inch paper with 12 pt. font
    • 1-inch margins on all sides
    • First line of each paragraph indented one half-inch from the left margin
    • Body text of the paper should be double spaced
    • Only one space after periods or other punctuation
    • Number of the pages should be in the upper right hand corner
      • Half-inch from the top of the paper in line with right margin
  • Upper left-hand corner includes:
    • Your name
    • Name of your instructor
    • Course name and number
    • Date
  • Upper right-hand corner includes:
    • Your last name
    • Page number
  • Include a Works Cited page
    • End of your paper
    • Same margins, double-spacing, and page number format as rest of the paper
    • Citations in alphabetical order
    • Center title 'Works Cited'
    • 1/2 inch indentations for 2nd+ lines of each citation
    • Should include the medium of publication for each citation

Chapter 6 - Stages of the Writing Process

  • Using a process helps you focus, plan, and write our papers
    • Helpful with writer's block
  • The writing process is divided into five steps
    • Prewriting
      • Planning stage
      • Think about a topic, brainstorm, develop a thesis, etc.
    • Drafting
      • Start developing a paper from your outline
      • Mechanics don't matter here
      • Focus on the content
        • Are your ideas clear and detailed?
    • Revising
      • Take some time away before revising
      • Read your paper out loud
    • Editing
      • Finding and correcting errors (mechanics)
      • Focus on one goal at a time (eg. spelling mistakes)
      • Double check all citations
    • Publication
      • Focus on the formatting

Essay organization and outline building

  • Sometimes a formal outline is required
    • Requires presenting your major ideas and sub-points
  • An outline is just an organizational plan
    • Helps you organize and solidify your ideas
    • Often makes it easier to write the actual essay
  • Develop your thesis before you do your outline

Chapter 7 - Writing Introduction Paragraphs

  • The introduction is one of the most important parts of a paper
    • Explains what is going to be talked about, how it will be laid out, background on the topic
    • Helpful for grabbing the reader's attention
  • An introduction should be comprised of:
    • Hook
    • Background
    • Thesis statement
      • Explains the purpose of the paper

Thesis development

  • The thesis needs to communicate the main point of the essay
    • Don't make points that won't be in the rest of your paper
    • Don't make it vague so it doesn't communicate anything of substance
  • The thesis should also express the writer's position
  • Typically one sentence long at the end of the introductory paragraph

Chapter 8 - Writing Body Paragraphs

  • Main part of an essay or paper
  • Body paragraph is made up of:
    • Topic sentence
      • Tells readers what the paragraph is about
      • Tells readers what you want to say about your topic
    • Supporting sentences
      • Discuss the idea(s) from the topic sentence
    • Concluding sentence
      • Emphasizes the supporting sentences or the connection between them
  • A fully developed essay should have at least three body paragraphs

Argumentative writing

  • Convincing your reader of something
  • Make a claim and then defend it
  • Claim must be stated clearly and strongly early on
    • State it as a fact
    • Don't use hedging
  • Claims need strong evidence from credible sources
  • Strong arguments need counterclaims (opposing point of view)
    • Allows you to refute the counterclaim

Chapter 9 - Writing Effective Conclusions

  • Restate your main points used in your thesis
  • Mentioning your opposition in a conclusion can create a sense of real authority
  • Don't add new ideas in the conclusion
  • Add a consequence statement to your conclusion
    • What happens if the advice in the essay is ignored?
  • Tips
    • Use quotes
    • Add a surprise
    • Use emotion
    • Use a call to action

Chapter 10 - Revising and Editing Academic Writing

  • An argument is made of 3 main parts
    • Claim
      • Position to be argued
    • Reasons
      • Logically explain why we should accept the claim
    • Evidence
      • Supporting reasons with facts, anecdotes, statistics, etc.

Strategies for revising and improving your essays

  • Editing --> correcting mechanical/grammatical errors
  • Revising --> altering the actual content
  • Strategies
    • Analyze the organization
      • How does it flow?
      • Are there parts that don't fit?
    • Is your thesis strong?
    • Word choice
      • Are you precise?
      • Are you keeping your readers attention?
    • Is your introduction attention grabbing?
    • Does your conclusion summarize your main ideas?
  • Questions to ask yourself
    • Is your purpose clear?
    • Is the thesis clear?
    • Are there good main points?
    • Is there enough details?
    • Is your essay organized?

Chapter 11 - Paragraph and Sentence Structure

  • Write clear paragraphs
    • Topic sentences near the start conveying a main idea
    • Ensure the paragraph is coherent
      • Clear, logical sentences that flow well
  • Capture reader's interest

Errors in sentence structure

  • Subject-verb agreement
    • Subject is the person/object doing an action in the sentence, a verb is the action
    • Verbs must agree with the subjects
    • The verb must change form to match a subject
  • Clauses
    • Don't leave dangling clauses
    • Sentences must have at least one independent clause
  • Comma-splice
    • Any time a comma is inserted between two main clauses without a conjunction

Chapter 12 - Parts of Speech and Identifying Usage Errors

  • Noun
    • People, places, things, and ideas
    • Types
      • Abstract
      • Concrete
  • Pronouns
    • Take place of nouns
      • An antecedent is the word the pronoun takes the place of
    • Types
      • Peronsal
      • Indefinite
        • Does not refer to a particular person or thing
        • Examples: anybody, everyone, nobody, nothing, none, someone, etc.
  • Verbs
    • Action words
  • Adjectives
    • Modify nouns and pronouns
  • Adverbs
    • Modify verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
    • Frequently end in -ly
  • Prepositions
    • Describe relationships between nouns and pronouns
  • Conjunctions
    • Connect words and phrases
  • Interjections
    • Break the flow of a sentence to express emotion
    • Grammatically unrelated to the other parts of speech

Verb tense

  • The way a verb is formatted to communicate when the action is occurring
  • Tenses
    • Present tense
    • Past tense
    • Future tense
  • Perfect tenses are used to communicate an action that has recently or continues to happen
    • Present perfect tense
    • Past perfect tense
    • Future perfect tense

Comparison

  • Showing similarities or differences between objects or ideas
  • Comparative
    • Comparing two objects or ideas
  • Superlative
    • Comparing three or more objects or ideas

Parallelism

  • All parts or words in a sentence have the same form
  • Look at the verb tense to ensure everything is correct
    • Parallelism doesn't only apply to verbs