THE AMERICAN ENGLISH EXPRESS Chapter 9 page 6
Tips on how to express yourself better:
Rather, write, “I do not have any money…”
Informal:
“There is no way the student will complete the
assignment on time, she will have to take a grade of incomplete.”
Formal: “There is not any way the student will complete the
assignment on time, she will have to take a grade of incomplete.”
2. AMONG and BETWEEN: these two words have different usages, as follows:
Correct: “Socrates chose between exile and death.”
Correct: “Among the three, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, only Socrates sacrificed his life for the right to search for truth by asking questions.”
3. Use the word ‘sufficient’ as a synonym for ‘enough’, as in the sentence:
Common:
“Most unemployed students have enough time to study.”
Better: “Most unemployed students have sufficient time to study.”
And use ‘insufficient’ for the expression ‘not enough’, as in the sentence:
Common: “The student received a grade of ‘F’ because there were not enough words in the student’s essay.”
Better: “The student received a grade of ‘F’ because
there were an insufficient number of words in the student’s
essay.”
4. Among the frequent slang words not to use is the word ‘kid’ (plural: ‘kids’).
A ‘kid’ is a baby goat. For young people, please use instead the words ‘child’ and ‘children’, as in the following sentence written by a student:
SLANG
“Innocent kids are happy from the very depths of their beings.”
Correct: “Innocent children are happy from the very depths of their beings.”
This is a matter of showing respect for children as people.
1. Omitted Words: Very often students do not proofread and therefore do not notice that they have omitted words from their sentences.
This can easily happen to anyone, because we often think faster than we write.
You must proofread carefully and slowly in order to find situations where you have omitted words.
About the teacher/student relationship, a student wrote:
Incorrect: “They hold the future in their hands, that why a teacher is someone who should always be respected.”
The verb ‘is’ is left out of this sentence:
Corrected: “They hold the future in their hands, that is why a teacher is someone who should always be respected.”
6. Try not to use the same word twice in the same paragraph.
After
you have written anything, you want people to read it. For this reason, you do
not want your writing to be boring.
One way to avoid boring writing is to use different words in your writing rather than to repeat the same word over and over.
The thesaurus is an excellent tool for finding words with similar meanings.
USE IT!
7. Do not begin sentences with ‘because’.
Students often ask about beginning a sentence with the word ‘because’. I tell them that it is probably better not to begin a sentence with ‘because’ and that they should consider one of the alternatives listed in chapter VIII or re-write the sentence with because in the middle, as in the sentence:
Common: Because I was thirsty, I took a drink.”
Better: “I took a drink because I was thirsty.”
8. Another way to prevent (method of preventing) your writing from being
boring is to vary your sentence patterns:
Use different sentence patterns means mixing short and long sentences, passive and active voice, and manipulating the transitional words so that they appear at different points in different sentences. Please see the following examples:
· Short and long sentences mixed:
“ A woman went to the store. He bought fruit and vegetables for his dinner salad, which consisted of pears, lettuce and tomatoes.
He enjoyed his meal.”
· Passive and active voice mixed:
“The
girls were so excited that they screamed. The tallest girl wept and the shortest
girl laughed out loud. The rest of the girls were congratulated by each other.”
The first two sentences are in the active voice.
The last sentence is in the passive voice.
· Use the transitional words in your sentences in a variety of positions:
“Generally, students do not enjoy taking tests.” can also be written
“Students, generally, do not like to take tests.”
9. TRANSITION TECHNIQUES: The transition techniques to use relate to the structure (outline) of your essay.
· Comparisons and Contrasts: If you are comparing two different things, the following transition words will help your essay:
On the one hand --- On the other hand
However, Nevertheless, Yet, Nonetheless (These all mean 'but')
· Emphatic order: Use these transition words to help you describe steps in a process or an event:
First, Second, Third...
Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly...
· Levels of Importance: Use these words to express significance:
Primarily, Secondarily.
· Link ideas: use these words to show how ideas relate to each other (they all mean 'and'):
Furthermore, Moreover, In addition, Additionally
END OF CHAPTER 9 GO TO CHAPTER 10
Copyright: 2004 English 4 All, Inc.