Guide to Good Writing

American English Contents: Mastering the art of writing is one of the most important, yet most challenging tasks for many people Without proper writing skills, completing the easiest assignment can quickly become an insurmountable problem From English

The task of writing, that is, of producing a written document of some description – is like many other tasks: what we tend to think of as the whole is in fact only a part. If the talk of tasks and burdens suggests that writing is all labor and no reward, then let it be said that there is as much satisfaction and pleasure to be gained THE FACTS ON FILE GUIDE TO GOOD WRITING The task of writing, that is, of producing a written document of some description – is like many other tasks: what we tend to think of as the whole is in fact only a part. If the talk of tasks and burdens suggests that writing is all labor and no reward, then let it be said that there is as much satisfaction and pleasure to be gained from writing as from the exercise of any other skill. The task of writing, that is, of producing a THE FACTS ON FILE GUIDE TO GOOD WRITING M ARTIN H. M ANSER DAVID H . PICKERING and STEPHEN CURTIS Associate Editors THE FACTS ON FILE GUIDE TO GOOD WRITING Copyright © 2006 by Martin H. Manser All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Manser, Martin H. The Facts On File guide to good writing / Martin H. Manser. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-8160-5526-2 (acid-free paper) 1. English language—Composition and exercises—Study and teaching (Elementary) 2. English language—Grammar—Study and teaching (Elementary) I. Title: Guide to good writing. II. Title. LB1576.M3775 2005 372.62'3—dc22 2004026990 Facts On File Books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Erika K. Arroyo Cover design by Cathy Rincon Printed in the United States of America VB FOF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS Introduction ix PART I THE WRITING PROCESS ✒ Introduction 3 ✒ The Four Stages of the Writing Process 4 1 Preparing to Write 7 ✒ Thinking and Researching 7 ✒ Paraphrasing and Summarizing 22 ✒ Quotations 29 ✒ Thinking and Researching: An Overview 36 ✒ Planning 36 ✒ Planning: An Overview 47 2 Writing Your Document 48 ✒ Getting Started 48 ✒ Your Authorial Voice 54 ✒ Composition: Paragraphs 63 ✒ Writing: An Overview 71 3 Revising Your Document 72 ✒ How to Revise 72 ✒ Revision Checklist 74 ✒ An Example of Revising a Text 75 ✒ Checking for Consistency 86 ✒ Proofreading 88 ✒ References 89 ✒ Revision: An Overview 92 PART II WRITING FUNDAMENTALS ✒ Introduction 95 4 Grammar 97 ✒ Introduction 97 ✒ Nouns 98 ✒ Adjectives 109 ✒ Determiners 114 ✒ Verbs 115 ✒ Adverbs 132 ✒ Pronouns 135 ✒ Prepositions 141 ✒ Conjunctions 144 ✒ Phrases, Clauses, and Sentences 148 ✒ Reporting Speech 167 5 Words in Use 171 ✒ Introduction 171 ✒ Vocabulary 171 ✒ Spelling 176 ✒ Prefixes and Suffixes 185 ✒ Foreign Words and Phrases 193 ✒ Abbreviations and Symbols 202 ✒ Numbers 217 ✒ Sensitive Terms 219 ✒ Slang 227 6 Words Often Confused 229 7 Punctuation 337 ✒ Introduction 337 ✒ Punctuation Marks 338 ✒ Apostrophe 338 ✒ Capital Letters 340 ✒ Colon 340 ✒ Comma 342 ✒ Dash 347 ✒ Ellipsis 348 ✒ Exclamation Point 349 ✒ Hyphen 350 ✒ Italics 352 ✒ Paragraph 353 ✒ Parentheses and Brackets 353 ✒ Period 354 ✒ Question Mark 355 ✒ Quotation Marks 356 ✒ Semicolon 358 ✒ Slash 359 8 Reference Resources 360 ✒ Introduction 360 ✒ Dictionaries 360 ✒ Thesauri 361 ✒ Other Reference Books 362 ✒ Electronic Reference Sources 363 9 Glossary of Grammatical Terms 365 Index 383 INTRODUCTION E verywhere in the modern world the emphasis is on speed, and nowhere have things moved faster than in communications. Messages travel at the speed of light, and we humans seem to feel that we have to imitate the wonderful machines that flash our words around the globe in fractions of a second. We have become a race of scribblers, jotting memos, punching in text messages, rushing off e-mails, and dashing off quick “Happy Birthday” or “Thank You” cards, often not worrying much whether what we write gets our message across or even makes sense. Fewer and fewer of us, it seems, take the time to write properly. Fewer and fewer of us perhaps know how to write properly. Fashions in the teaching of English have changed over the years, and we can easily find that we have finished our education but have never grasped the principles of correct English. Then the day comes when we have to write an important letter, prepare a speech or presentation, or hand in an essay or assignment, and suddenly we are at a loss. Are you unsure about how to write good, clear English? If you are, this book has been specifically designed to help you. It comes in two major sec- tions: Chapters 1 to 3, of Part I, deal with the writing process itself; chapters 4 to 9, which make up Part II, deal with grammar, spelling, usage, and punc- tuation. Some writing manuals begin with grammar and then move on to dis- cuss writing. The authors of this book believe, however, that it is better to get something down on paper in draft form first and to polish up the grammar afterward, hence the placement of the “Preparing to Write,” “Writing Your Document,” and “Revising Your Document” chapters at the beginning. These chapters treat writing as a task that can be divided into manageable parts: thinking, researching, and planning; writing; and revising. Each of these activities is explained in detail with the help of examples. In order to write good English, however, we also need to be aware of the rules that govern the use of words and the construction of sentences. The later chapters therefore contain a review of grammar, a discussion of how words are formed and used in practice, advice on sensitive language issues, a list of words that are often confused (“Is it continual or continuous?”), and ix