Ideas About Writing

Merrill Glustrom Ph.D.

Description

Ideas About Writing is an entry level text for community college and high school writing classes. Everything about this book is practical, not theoretical, and designed to help your writing in school and career. The method the book uses for organizing, writing, revising, and editing essays can be applied to every essay you write. And the skills you learn will help you for the rest of your life.

Sujets

• Writting
• Disciplines
• Language Arts

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 28 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665550581
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Ideas about Writing

 
The Essay
A Practical Guide to Better Writing for School, Work and Life

Narrate
Persuade
Compare
Plan
Draft
Compare
Contrast
Summary-Response
Revise
Research
Edit


Merrill Glustrom, PhD
Boulder, Colorado
Special thanks to Sarah Peruzzi, who reviewed the text for content, style, and flow, the things that count; to Marge Weir, whose careful editing of the text made for mistake free (I hope!) communication; and especially to my wife Leslie for her encouragement and love, without which such an undertaking would not have happened.
 
© 2022 Merrill Glustrom Ph.D. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
AuthorHouse™
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Phone: [phone]
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 

 
ISBN: 978-1-6655-5057-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-5058-1 (e)
 

 
Published by AuthorHouse 09/23/2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface and Introduction
Six Ideas About Writing that will put you on the road to success.
How this book is organized
 
Chapter 1The Organization of the Paragraph
Chapter 2Paragraph to Essay
Chapter 3The Organization of the Essay
Chapter 4Knowing Your Audience
Chapter 5Introductory Paragraphs
Chapter 6The Conclusion
Chapter 7The Narrative Essay
Chapter 8The Illustration Essay
Chapter 9Persuasive Essay
Chapter 10Summary-Response Essay
Chapter 11Comparison-Contrast Essay
Chapter 12A Question of Essay Style
Chapter 13Sentence Building Blocks—The Subject and Verb
Chapter 14The Building Blocks of the Sentence—Adjective, Adverbs, Objects, Phrases & Clauses
Chapter 15Prepositional Phrases
Chapter 16Compound Sentences
Chapter 17Adverb Subordinate Clauses
Chapter 18Adjective Subordinate Clauses
Chapter 19Fragments
Chapter 20Run-ons
Chapter 21Punctuation Commas
Chapter 22Punctuation Potpourri Quote Marks & Commas
Chapter 23The Research Essay A How-to Guide
Chapter 24The Quote and Paraphrase
Chapter 25MLA Style for Quotes and Citations in Research Essays
 
Ideas about Writing
Merrill Glustrom Ph.D.
Copyright © 2020

“Writing to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.”
Isaac Asimov
PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION
Chapter contents: This chapter introduces you to the Ideas about Writing textbook. I have a short bio so we won’t be total strangers. I also make a case for the importance of writing in college and career. Next I outline Six Ideas About Writing that will put you on the road to success in the class.
The text is organized as follows:
• Book I: The Essay
• Book II: The Sentence
• Book III: The Research Essay.
The introduction concludes with a discussion on Learning Styles, how it affects your learning when using this text and in college.

Merrill Glustrom, Professor of Writing
Hi, I’m Dr. Glustrom, known to my students as Dr. G! My family and I live in Boulder, Colorado. When I’m not teaching or writing, I like to hike in the mountains and the foothills of our beautiful state. I also like to run. My family runs the Bolder Boulder 10K each year.
I have a daughter, Rachael, and a son, Eric. Rachael is a bilingual speech therapist with the St. Vrain School District in Longmont, Colorado. Eric started a non-profit that helps with education of refugees in Uganda. Check out Educate!’s website at ( experienceeducate.org , ). Eric also started a institute for social entrepreneurship here in Boulder, called the Watson Institute ( https://watson.is/ ) . Watson has campuses in Boulder, at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, and at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala.
My wife Leslie is a biochemist at the University of Colorado and volunteers with an environmental group called Clean Energy Action. They promote alternative energy like solar and wind and try to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels like coal and oil.

At home, I like to read. I’m reading an excellent book by Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University, who is on the autism spectrum. She points out that because of autism she thinks in pictures not words, yet she has made her disability work for her in her job because she can understand how animals think better other humans. She is especially effective in helping farmers and ranchers take care of their animals.

Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Sciences and Autism Spokesperson, Colorado State University
I also like watching Colorado sports including the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Rockies, and the University of Colorado football and basketball teams, and women’s soccer !
If you’ll commit the time to read this book, here’s my promise: Everything I teach is practical, not theoretical, and is designed to help your writing in college and career. The method we’ll be using for organizing, writing, revising, and editing essays can be applied to every essay you write. And the skills you learn will help you for the rest of your life.
Here’s a key point about writing: It’s essential to getting a job and building a career. You even need to write well to apply for a job. Employers require a letter from each applicant that states his or her reasons for seeking the job, as well as what experiences and skills will make that applicant successful. Then once you have the job, writing becomes an essential skill for success. Consider the following careers:
Nursing

Nurses write summaries of how their patients are getting on and what action they are taking to help. Their writing is read by nurses and doctors who form a team in treating patients.
Engineering

Engineers write reports that explain what the problem they are working on is and what action should be taken to correct it.
Police

Policemen write summaries that explain each case, who is involved, what action was taken, and what the consequences of that action were.
Business

Business professionals write proposals and reports that summarize a series of business actions and opportunities and explain the reasons why the company should choose one course of action over another.
Auto Mechanics

Auto mechanics are so good at analyzing problems in three dimensions, but did you know they also write summaries about each of the cars they work on, containing their diagnoses of the problem and what they did to correct it.
The bottom line: Almost all jobs require you to write—to communicate with others on the computer and through the printed page.
SIX IDEAS ABOUT WRITING THAT WILL PUT YOU ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS.
Idea # 1:
You shouldn’t think of writing as something that magically emerges from those with unusual talent. That might seem true of great writers of fiction like Shakespeare or Tolstoy, but we are not talking about great writers. The method we’ll be learning will make you a good writer, a competent writer, a writer who can use an essay or report to communicate successfully in college, on the job, and in life.
It was Thomas Alva Edison (an elementary-school dropout) who said, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration [ great ideas ], and 99 percent perspiration [ hard work !].” All of us can write, if we’re willing to work at it.

The motion picture camera, invented by Edison

Idea # 2:
There’s a myth about writing, and unfortunately many students believe the myth. It goes like this: Good writing is all about talent. If you have talent, you’ll know it because your writing will be good. If you don’t have talent, you’ll know it because your writing will bad, and you should write as little as possible. You may even have heard this myth from your 8 th grade teacher!
This myth is doubly harmful. First, it stops you from learning how to become a good writer, and second, since there are fewer and fewer jobs today where you can get away with not being a competent writer, you’ll miss out on all the advantages good writing brings.

Idea # 3:
Writing, like talking, is about communication. But unlike talking you can’t rely on facial expressions or questions to help. We’ll be learning a writing method that puts the reader first, that gives the reader every chance to understand what’s being said. Here’s the point: effective writing is not about you, it’s about the reader!

Idea # 4:
1. Keep it simple! Write without showing off and in you