Lecture 3

Writing Skills


Recap
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What is Communication?

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How do we Communicate?

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What is a Skill?

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Language Skills

•

Types of Communication

•

The Communication Cycle

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Barriers in Language Communication

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Overcoming Barriers


Writing Skill
•

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Writing skills are an important part of
communication.
This is a Productive Skill.
Good writing skills allow you to
communicate your message with clarity
and ease to a far larger audience than
through
face-to-face
or
telephone
conversations.


Before Writing you should
know…

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•

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Who is the audience?
What format is required – essay or report
or reflection on experience?
Styles of writing–
–

writing in a logical and `objective’ way

–

writing from personal experience

Academic conventions – referencing
and plagiarism


Formal and Informal Writing

Formal
Writing
Complex


Informa
l
Writing
Simple
Contractions and Abbreviations

Objective
Third Person
Full Words

Colloquial
Empathy and Emotion


Formal Writing Style
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Complex –
–

Longer sentences are likely to be more
prevalent in formal writing.

–

You need to be as thorough as possible with
your approach to each topic when you are
using a formal style.

–


Each main point needs to be introduced,
elaborated and concluded.


Formal Writing Style (cont…)
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Objective –
–

State main points confidently and offer full
support arguments.

–

A formal writing style shows a limited range of
emotions and avoids emotive punctuation
such as exclamation points (!), ellipsis (…)
etc., unless they are being cited from another
source.


Formal Writing Style (cont…)
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Full Words –
–

No contractions should be used to simplify

words (in other words use "It is" rather than
"It's").

–

Abbreviations must be spelt out in full when
first used, the only exceptions being when the
acronym is better known than the full name
(BBC, or NATO for example).


Formal Writing Style (cont…)
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Third Person –
–

Formal writing is not a personal writing style.

–

The formal writer is disconnected from the
topic and does not use the first person point of
view (I or we) or second person (you).


Formal Writing Style (cont…)
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Process–


Formal writing follows a writing techniques.

–

It follows a writing process.

–

Material is organized on a set pattern.


Informal Writing Style
•

Colloquial –
–

Informal writing is similar to a spoken
conversation.

–

Informal writing may include slang, figures of
speech, broken syntax and so on.

–

Informal writing takes a personal tone as if
you were speaking directly to your audience

(the reader). You can use the first or third
person point of view (I and we), and you are
likely to address the reader using second


Informal Writing Style (cont…)
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Simple –
–

Short sentences are acceptable and
sometimes essential to making a point in
informal writing.

–

There may be incomplete sentences or
ellipsis(…) to make points.


Informal Writing Style (cont…)
•

Contractions and Abbreviations –
–

Words are likely to be simplified using
contractions
•


for example, I’m, doesn’t, couldn’t, it’s

•

abbreviations (e.g. TV, photos) whenever possible.


Informal Writing Style (cont…)
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Empathy and Emotion –
–

The author can show empathy towards the
reader regarding the complexity of a thought
and help them through that complexity.


Writing Effectively


Conciseness
1.

Avoid redundant categories
–

Same idea repeated


2.

Unnecessary clause

3.

Unnecessary construction

4.

Awkward repetition


Revising for Conciseness
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Example 1:
–

ORIGINAL: The reason buying a new
house is so
difficult because the
process is so
complex.

–

PROBLEM:
because”


–

REVISED: Buying a house is so difficult
because the process is so complex.

Redundancy – “reason… is


Example 2
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ORIGINAL: A realtor who is experienced and
well recommended is a must.
PROBLEM:

Unnecessary clause.

REVISED:
An experienced, wellrecommended realtor is a must.


Example 3
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•


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ORIGINAL: It is when you can find a fixedinterest
advance loan with single-digit
interest that you should lock it in,
rather than settling for a variable rate
loan.
PROBLEM: Unnecessary expletive
construction.
REVISED:

When you can find a advance loan
with a single-digit fixed rate, you
should lock it in, rather than settling
for a variable rate loan.


Example 4
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ORIGINAL: Don’t forget that your down payment is only
one
part of your closing costs. Closing costs may
also
include having the home inspected, prepaying
a

year’s worth of taxes in advance, insuring the
house and even having the property surveyed.
PROBLEM: Awkward repetition. Revise by combining
sentences and reducing phrases to single words.
REVISED: Don’t forget that your down payment is only
one
part of your closing costs, which may also
include
having a home inspected, prepayment of
taxes,
home insurance and even a survey.


Revising for Coordination or
Subordination
•

focus on identifying and correcting
problems of:
–

Coordination

–

subordination


Example 5
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ORIGINAL: Joan was 35 and she had not
lost
her taste for learning and she
wanted to finish her degree.
PROBLEM: Excessive coordination, unclear
relationships among ideas.
REVISED:
Although Joan was 35, she had
not
lost her taste for learning and
wanted to finish her degree.


Example 6
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•

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ORIGINAL: She had a few early successes,
but
she felt she could do it after all.
PROBLEM:


Illogical coordination.

REVISED:
When she had a few early
successes, she felt she could do it
after all.


Example 7
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ORIGINAL: Her family transformed itself into a
support system. She wondered
how single people could manage
the
workload by themselves.
PROBLEM: Unclear - Subordination would
make the connection between
ideas clearer.
REVISED:
As her family transformed itself
into a support system, she
wondered how single people could
manage the workload by themselves.



Revising for Parallelism
•

focus on identifying and correcting
problems of parallelism.