Quality Control

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• Quality Control
• in Composition

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• Composition is process of production, just as
  working at a factory or a restaurant is a process
  of production.

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• And, as in any production process,
• Quality Control (QC) is essential!

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Dont serve up composition thats rotten or has
errors in it!
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• So whats good composition?
• Hint  
• There is no one single kind of "good" or
  "correct" writing that is right for every
  purpose.

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• Good quality writing means way more than just
  correct spelling and grammar!!!

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• What is "good composition" and what is "bad
  composition" depends totally on
•   the type of writing you are doing
•   the audience for whom you are writing
•   your specific purpose for writing and
•   your context or situation.

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• Generally, defective styles of writing include
  bloated," "slack or drifting," and "meager" or
  "starving."
• If any of these words apply to your text, fix
  what is defective before turning in your work. 

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• QC tip 1
• Allow yourself an absolute minimum of 10 minutes
  per paragraph to produce the rough draft for
  ordinary short academic writing. For a
  four-paragraph essay, plan that it will take you
  at least 40 minutes just to produce the first
  draft. Dont hurry!

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• QC tip 2
•  For longer written pieces allow an absolute
  minimum of one hour to produce every three pages
  of rough draft.

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If you spend significantly less time than that
there is a much greater risk, almost a
certainty, that you are producing garbage. The
time you save by hurrying you lose in rewriting.
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• QC tip 3
• Once your rough draft is done, leave it until the
  next day before revising it.

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• QC tip 4
• For serious text, allow at least the same amount
  of time for editing and proofreading (revising)
  as you did for producing the rough draft.

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• QC tip 5
•  Remember what Theodore Sturgeon wrote
  "Nine-tenths of everything is crap." Allow enough
  time to rewrite nine-tenths of your paper (or to
  rewrite it from scratch) if necessary!)

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• QC tip 6
•   Read the text out loud, or to have someone else
  read it out loud to you. This is one of the most
  important things you can do to as a scholar to
  ensure the quality of your academic writing.

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• QC tip 7
•   If your mother language is not English, or if
  you have more than average problems with
  spelling, punctuation or grammar, you must, must
  take your work by a tutor, instructor or other
  scholar whose first language is English!

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• There is no way around it, and no other way you
  can reasonably expect to succeed!

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• QC tip 8
• Check for grammar, spelling and punctuation last.
  The time necessary for this process depends on
  the length of the paper.

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• The best method for this is to print out the
  paper, proofread it in hardcopy (or, even better,
  have someone else correct it), then make the
  necessary corrections on the computer, and only
  then post or turn in the final version.

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• Suggested assignment Take a real written
  assignment that you turned in for  a class.
• Tell what actual methods you used to ensure the
  quality of the assignment before you turned it
  in. 
• Discuss which of the above suggestions you could
  have applied to improve the quality of the
  assignment or to get a better grade

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O.W. 8/11