English Composition Class @ LVS Online

Many students do not realize that proofreading and editing is the final stage of the writing process. Every assignment—a discussion board post, essay, proposal, etc.—should be proofread and edited before submitting it to the instructor. Moreover, it is best to proofread and edit the final draft of an assignment.

To guide you in this process, here are some proofreading and editing strategies that work well:

Be Prepared for Proofing. Proofread and edit your assignment when you are most alert and are without distractions. Know the best time and place for you to concentrate. Also, print out a hard copy, have a pen or pencil in hand, and keep any necessary materials within reach—dictionary, style guide, writing handbook, notes, assignment description, old drafts.

Break the task down into small steps. Avoid proofreading and editing every aspect of the draft all at once. Instead, focus on one component at a time with each read. For example, you might have three proofreading and editing sessions in which you concentrate on the following separately: organization, mechanics (grammar & punctuation), and formatting style.

Proofread backwards. This means to read from the last sentence of the paragraph to its first sentence (bottom to top) or from the end of the sentence to its beginning (left to right). Proofreading backwards will help you “slow down” and consider each sentence or word separately. This strategy works best for isolating typos, misspellings, or missing words.

Read out loud. Reading what you wrote out loud to yourself can help you catch both grammatical errors and awkward organization or development of ideas. A variation on this strategy is having someone else read your paper out loud to you. By putting yourself in the role of the audience, you can hear what does not “flow” or make sense. Or, have this “second pair of eyes” read your draft to her or himself.

Know your computer. Learn to use the tools most word-processing software have. (Note: Refer to “A Basic Guide for Using Microsoft Word” in Writing Resources.

o Spell check – This does not mean, however, that you should not reread your paper on your own or have a friend, relative, or spouse look at it. Have a dictionary on hand to double-check your word choice vs. the spell check’s corrections or suggestions.

o The “Find” feature – This helps you to identify words and phrases you overuse, such as “they,” “it is,” and “it has been said that.”

o Thesaurus – Use it with care: bigger words are not always better.

???? Let your eyes rest. Take a break for a few minutes or hours. Working closely with your own writing for stretches of time can affect the way that you read the paper. You will overlook typos and simple mistakes if you do not allow your eyes to rest. Set small goals. Allow yourself enough time for proofreading and editing to avoid feeling overwhelmed or rushed.
From Ashford Writing  Center

According to Langan, “The main purpose of a narrative essay is to make a point by telling your audience a story. Colorful details and interesting events that build up to a point of some kind makes narrative essay enjoyable for readers and writers alike” (p. 195).

The narrative process can take several paths because of the imaginative, personal, and structural elements of the writer. The narrative essay has many uses such as a thoughtful letter to an old friend, a reflection on your education or ethnic heritage, childhood reminiscence, a personal event, why you decided to attend college, and so forth.

Writing narrative essays depends less on subject or structure than on the writing context and word choices used in the essay. Narrative essays can assume a personal stance, but it requires the narrative technique. The narrative technique suggests close connections among writer, reader, and subject. A good narrative essay has a relaxed style, but retains a strong structure of an academic essay. A narrative essay is written mainly for enjoyment and learning techniques, which can be accomplished by appealing to the reader’s five senses: sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch with concrete descriptions.

A narrative essay consists of a few structural elements: narrator, order, and thesis. The narrative point of view in an informal essay is from first person perspective directed at the reader. The order is usually chronological sequence and a clearly stated thesis in the beginning paragraph and retouched on in the concluding paragraph.

A major element of a narrative essay is to use effective word because this provides the reader with a vivid image of what you are trying to say. Effective word choices are concrete words such as nouns and action verbs; adjectives and adverbs; and abstract words such as pronouns, preposition, and conjunctions. Using words correctly within a sentence and paragraph are very important in order to have concrete words to provide details in your essay as well as provide the reader with the impression that you are trying to create within your essay.

Concrete terms refer to objects or events that are available to the senses such as sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. This is directly opposite to abstract terms, which name things that are not available to the senses such as love, success, freedom, good, moral, democracy, and any -ism (chauvinism, Communism, feminism, racism, sexism, and so forth).

Examples of concrete terms include cat, chair, dog, eye patch, front door, hot, leather high heels, leather work boots, nose ring, rocking chair, sailboat, sand paper, specific colors, specific trees or plants, spoon, table, velvet, walking, and so forth because these terms refer to objects or events we can see or hear or feel or taste or smell, their meanings are pretty stable. For example, if you ask me what I mean by the word spoon, I can pick up a spoon and show it to you.

Examples of abstract terms refer to include belief, comfort, compassion, democracy, failure, faith, feelings, freedom, law, love, loyalty, maturity, memory, moral, peace, pride, power, racism, romance, sadness, sexism, skill, success, talent, thrill, truth, wit, and so forth because these terms have different meaning for most people and the words are not perceived through the five senses. For example, I cannot pick up a freedom and show it to you, or point to a small democracy crawling along a window sill. I can measure sand and oxygen by weight and volume, but I cannot collect a pound of responsibility or a liter of moral outrage.

On a final note, writing narrative essays will help students with writing other types of essays that are required in composition courses. Your narrative essay should have defining characters, setting, and action, which reaches a culmination in the middle and resolution at the end of the story. Try to find ways to involve the reader in the story and using descriptive, clear, and concise words in your essay.

If you are unfamiliar with narrative essays, the following is some examples of well-known writers of narrative essays: Charles Dickens, Henry David Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, James Baldwin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, and Barry Lopez.

Reference: Langan, J. (2005). College Writing Skills. New York:McGraw-Hill Companies.

A Guide for Writing Research Papers—APA Style

http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/

This web site provides a guide for writing research papers in APA Style.

A Research Guide for Students

http://www.aresearchguide.com/

This web site provides a variety of links to help with research.

Academic Center

http://www.uhv.edu/ac/research/main.asp

This web site provides a variety of information and links to help with writing a research paper.

Elements of a Research Paper

http://www.umw.edu/hisa/resources/writing/papers/elements_papers.htm

This web site provides information for writing a research paper.

How to Write a Research Paper

http://www.enotes.com/topics/how-write-research-paper

This web site provides information on how to write a research paper.

How to Write a Research Paper

http://www.experiment-resources.com/write-a-research-paper.html

This web site provides information on how to write a research paper.

How to Write a Term Paper

http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/term_paper/

This web site provides information on the steps of writing a term paper for college.

Sample Research Paper in APA format.

http://valencia.cc.fl.us/lrcwest/apapaper.html

This web site is a sample of a research paper in APA format.

The Research Paper

http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant570/pap_rule.htm

This web site provides information for writing a research paper with information on the bibliography.

Write Source—APA Style

http://www.thewritesource.com/apa/

This web site provides information for APA style writing.

Writing a Bibliography APA Style

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/legacylib/apa.html

This web site provides information for a bibliography in APA style.

Writing a Research Paper

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/01/

This web site provides valuable information to help students succeed in the research process. (Purdue’s Owl contains information that will help with the APA format, and Writing Process to help students.)

Writing Research Papers

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/tools/report/reportform.html

This web site provides a variety of information to help with writing a research paper.

Writing Resource Center: Research Writing

http://www.esc.edu/ESConline/Across_ESC/WritingResourceCenter.nsf/wholeshortlinks2/Research+Writing

This web site provides information and links on the steps of writing a research paper.