CORE Citizenship Paper: Agonizing over Antigony? January 20, 2011
Posted by jhicks in : Citizenship Unit, CORE, Uncategorized , comments closedAs you begin to draft your CORE citizenship paper, count on the Writing Consultants to help you think outside the box.
- Do you see Antigone as a rebel? Loyal sister? Headstrong niece? Devoted disciple? Role model? We can help you dig deeper into Antigone’s character to get at the truth of her immortalized story.
- Do you love shows like CSI and Law and Order? We’ll help you navigate the crime scenes, interview the perps, and cross the yellow tape to determine the facts as you write your inquest verdict for the Antigone affair.
- Play Supreme Court Justice for the day as you consider Antigone and Kreon’s legal suits. We’ll listen to your arguments and help you write the judicial memorandum.
If you can’t find your prompt on here, don’t worry! Come visit us at the Writing Center and start the semester off right by brainstorming along with us!
~ The Writing Center Staff @ The Green Light
Is FLOW Only for Water? January 20, 2011
Posted by jhicks in : Love Unit, Nursing, Portfolio, Style, Uncategorized , comments closed“Can you help me make this FLOW better?”
“I’d like you to check for FLOW.”
”Maybe this doesn’t FLOW right.”
Though you might not be able to define FLOW in writing, you know when you have it and when you don’t!
Many qualities contribute to text FLOW; here are some editing steps you can apply that may help you capture that elusive quality.
COHERENCE
Read aloud. Though this reminds you of junior high, it’s the best editing trick around. Underline sentences or parts that don’t “sound right” and check out their insides. These two examples will give you the idea.
Example: Colleges are making tuition more affordable with scholarships and having scholarships and campus jobs. [Notice how the phrases are constructed differently. They are not similar in grammatical structure or consistent in point of view, which wrecks the flow.]
Improved: Colleges are making tuition more affordable by offering scholarships and campus jobs.
Example: For companies who want to increase market share, they must advertise to their target group. [The word "for" throws off the sentence. Begin with "companies" and omit "they."]
Wordy or illogical constructions can clog a sentence’s flow: The reason is because . . .Pneumonia is when
Omit because and when in this type of construction.
COHESION–You’ll feel “flow” when ideas move from old-to-new:
Move from familiar to unfamiliar ideas. Notice this movement in the following sentences:
The native language of nearly 1 million people is American Sign Language (ASL) [new idea]. Unlike a common misperception, ASL [old idea] is not English in signed form [new idea]. Signed English [old idea] involves signing individual characterisitics of an English sentence, whereas an ASL signer uses physical space occupied and facial expression in a communication exchange [new idea]. ASL [old idea] can be described as “pictorial/visual and three dimensional while English is audible and linear” (Schmidt, Bunse, Dalton, et al 7).
PUNCTUATION also assists with “flow” because these minute marks signal a change in tone, expression, or tempo that you would hear or see in a conversation. On paper, these signals tell your brain what to expect next.
Check out the blog category of “editing” to brush up on conventions of punctuation.
Schmidt, Katherine, et al. “Lessening the Divide: Strategies for Promoting Effective Communication between Hearing Consultants and Deaf Student-writers.” The Writing Lab Newsletter, 33.5 (2009): 6-10.