Writing Skills

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Writing Skills

• Writing comes more easily if you have something
  to say.
• Sholem Asch
• The most valuable of all talents is that of never
  using two words when one will do.
• Thomas Jefferson

2
A Few of the Topics

• Global Warming
• Mars Missions
• Stem cells
• Cloning
• HIV / AIDS
• Homo Floresiensis
• Obesity
• String Theory

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Highlights

• Notable Titles
• Save the cord, Mean Girls, The Prolonging of
  Life through Wine. The 2 difference
• Notable Quote
• The art of medicine consists of keeping the
  patient amused while nature heals the desease.
• Voltaire (1694-1778)
• Notable Sentences
• According to 1995 statistics, approximately
  25.9 million people worldwide have been infected
  with HIV. Roughly 8.5 million have developed AIDS
  and 7.5 million have died from it.
• In 2005, the Centers of Disease and Control
  estimated that more than fifty percent of
  sexually active adults carry HPV.
• On 21 January 2007, a fishman notified the
  Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka that he had
  spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a
  mouthful of needle-sharp teeth
• A person dies of suicide every 18 minutes in
  the United States
• The 2000 census indicates that the greater
  population of Tucson grew by a whopping 26.5
  since 1990.
• Notable Closing Sentence
• Next time you are at a picnic and hear that
  Buzzing sound dont swat it After all that
  same bee could responsible for pollinating the
  food you are eating.
• Another good sentence
• if a gecko used all of its setae,
  microscopic hairs on the bottom of its feet, at
  the same time, it could support over 280 pounds.
  

4
Resources

• Strunk and White, The Elements of Style.
• Make an appointment at the Writing Resource
  Center, Bear Down Building, east side, Room 102.
  9 AM-4 PM Monday-Friday
• Practice. Read. Repeat.

5
Common Mistakes

• Disorganization. Make an outline. Make
  conscious decisions about the ordering of your
  main points.
• Random Thoughts. Group closely related ideas, and
  only closely related ideas, into paragraphs.
  Make sure each paragraph has a topic sentence.
• Repetitiveness. Say things once.
• Useless or Deranged Sentences. Make sure each
  sentence adds something essential to your essay.

6
On Being Personal

• Bad example I feel like black holes are really
  cool. I really liked the article.
• Good example It is not easy for me to pass
  these people without being concerned they look
  so fragile and helpless, even though they always
  make an effort to look strong. Or, maybe they
  are strong, in a way that we cannot be aware of
  after all, it is no easy task to live without
  your arms or legs.
• Good example As you are reading this, over four
  thousand patients are on a waiting list for a
  heart transplant.

7
Superfluous Modifiers

• Bad Example Greenhouse gases are potentially
  dangerous.
• Bad Example Globular clusters are a very
  important element of galactic structure.
• Words to use with care truly, really, very

8
Use Active VoiceAvoid over use of the verb to
be.

• Bad Example The walls were covered with
  Geckos.
• Better Geckos covered the walls.
• Bad Example The reason that he dropped the
  course was because of poor grades.
• Better His bad grades compelled him to drop the
  course.
• Bad Example Several investigations that have
  been carried out show that dolphins will someday
  rule the world.
• Better Several investigations find that
  dolphins will someday rule the world.

9
Use a range of words
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Needless Words Delete them.

• Bad Example Owing to the fact that the sun is
  hot, it glows brightly.
• Better The sun glows brightly because it is
  hot.
• Bad Example The question as to whether she is
  correct, will be proved by observations.
• Better Whether she is correct will be proved by
  observations.
• Note You do not have to write Whether or not
  in the sentence above.

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Key to Grading
1) Vague Incredible discoveries from outer
space have led to further investigations. 2) Use
active voice (a.v.) Brown and Smith have done
research, which is about the cloning of
humans. 3) Problem with Sentence Structure
(s.s.) ambiguity The average American
emits 49 tons of greenhouse gases each year.
Regarding the effects of acid rain on trees and
buildings Buildings are not as life
threatening as trees and water may be. 4) Bad
choice of words (w/c) thing, believe 5)
Incorrect verb tense (tense) 6) Repetition of
words, phrases or information. helps enable
The moon, a place that was once only dreamed
of reaching, became a reality in 1969 when Buzz
Aldrin and Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon
7) Good intention, bad execution (gibe) They
often will not think of a product in a positive
light such as that BMW believes consumers to be
intelligent enough to learn now to use such a
perplexing vehicle, but instead that the company
is playing a cruel joke on the consumer and
insulting their intelligence by making such a
complicated car. (monstrous runon) 8) Dont
use the word thing readily. It is too common and
has too broad a significance, thus allowing the
readers mind to wander. The brain is the most
complex and compelling thing in our bodies. 9)
Repeating unnecessary words, verbigeration (ver,
wordy) really truly , absolutely
essential research done in the area of
neurodegenerative diseases 10) Colloquialisms
(pop) all sorts of things acid rain gets
into wannagonna this means that 11)
Phrase that dangles at the end of a paragraph
(dangle) 12) An obvious point or unnecessary
sentence (n..n.)
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Mauna Loa a shield volcano
32,000 feet high
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Whats Happening?
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(No Transcript)
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Tsunami2004Dec 26
Earthquake 9.1-9.3 Mag 2nd largest
recorded Caused entire planet to vibrate 1
cm Caused waves up to 100 ft high
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2004 Tsunami
Aftershocks
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2004 Tsunami
Caused by the earthquake associated with the
subduction of the Indian Plate beneath the Burma
plate. The rupture was 1200 km long. The
vertical displacement was 15 meters (50 ft),
along the subduction zone where the Indian plate
dives under the Burma plate. The Earthquake
displaced 30 km3 of water.