1. Tips for Successful Writing

2.  Formal ◦ Essays, reports, business letters, college letters of intent, cover letters etc…  Informal ◦ E-mail, memos, certain magazine and news paper articles, movie reviews etc…

3.  Words not to use when at all possible: ◦ Certain pronouns should not be used:  I, me, my, you, your  Not all pronouns are inappropriate, but these commonly are in formal writing ◦ Apostrophe words  Can’t, won’t, hadn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, I’ve, I’m, he’d, she’d,  Always spell it out! “Can not, will not, had not, would not, could not, should not, I have, he would, she would” etc…

4.  Do not use slang ◦ Examples of “slang terms”  Kid, a lot, a bunch, stuff, huge etc… ◦ Example sentence  “When I was a kid we always had a lot of fun with a bunch of stuff I kept in my huge closet” ◦ Corrected sentence  “During my childhood we would have an tremendous amount of fun while playing with the miscellaneous items found in my large closet.”

5. ◦ What can you replace them with?  Kid = child; kids = children  A lot/a bunch = large amount, very much, significant number, several  Stuff = various items, various assortment, miscellaneous items  Huge = enormous, large, vast, massive Be creative with your vocabulary!

6.  Generally, you don’t want to start a sentence with the following words: ◦ so, but, and, (or because)  These are coordinating conjunctions and are most useful for using in the middle of a sentence  In formal writing, don’t end a sentence with a preposition ◦ on, to, at, for, of, up, by, with, into, near.  (For a complete list, see resource on last page)

7. The comma was invented to help readers. Without it, sentence parts can collide into one another unexpectedly, causing misreadings. ◦ Examples:  If you cook Elmer will do the dishes  While we were eating a rattlesnake approached our campsite ◦ When commas are not used correctly, the reader often has to re-read the sentence to make sense of it

8.  In simple terms: Using commas makes reading easier to understand  They are used to set apart expressions/phrases that interrupt the flow of the sentence  “Football, as far as I am concerned, is a great sport.”  They are used to separate a string of adjectives that COULD be tied together with “and”  “Some of the most recognizable colors of a rainbow are pink, orange, green, blue, and yellow”

9.  Common areas of usage: ◦ Before words such as:  and, but, or, so, for, nor, and yet  These are called “coordinating conjunctions,” and they join independent clauses ◦ Example:  “Nearly everyone that has played football has jammed a finger at some point in time, but I actually broke one of mine when I tried to catch Brett Favre’s pass.”

10.  Exception to this rule:  If the independent clauses are short, and there is no danger of misreading, then you can omit the comma.  Example:  “The plane took off and we were on our way.”

11. Use between independent clauses of equal rank when there is not a coordinating conjunction.  "I went to the swimming pool; I was told it was closed for routine maintenance."

12. Don't overuse semicolons. Instead, try to use them only when a clear and close relationship exists between the things you connect. In other cases, you might want to use an effective transition. ◦ Examples : ◦ “Individual environmental action is essential for saving the planet; everyone must take action in his or her community.” ◦ All college students should be given a Porsche for graduation; after all, we've earned it!

13. ◦ Formal vs. Informal Writing: http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/jbednar/writingtips.html ◦ Comma use: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_comma.ht ml http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_comma.ht ml ◦ Semicolon usage: http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/semicolon.html ◦ Prepositions http://abcteach.com/free/l/list_prepositions.pdf ◦ Transitions http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/trans2.html