Hollidaysburg Junior High

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Hollidaysburg Junior High

• Writers Handbook

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Table of Contents

• The Writing Process
• Structuring Paragraphs and Essays
• Spelling Help
• Grammar and Usage
• Style

Click on any of the section titles above to go
directly to that section.
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The Writing Process

• So, you want to be a better writer? Good writing
  takes time, and whether one is professional
  writer or a junior high student writing a paper
  for history class, a writer need to move through
  a series of steps to write well.
• The steps in this process are prewriting,
  composing, evaluating, revising, editing, and
  publishing.

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Prewriting

• When you start to write, you dont need to know
  exactly what you want to sayyou just have to get
  ideas on paper. Some ways to start include
  free-writing, talking, brainstorming, keeping a
  writers notebook or journal, having a special
  place that helps your write.

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Free Write

• Write down whatever comes into your head.
• Dont worry about spelling, punctuation, etc.
• Even if you dont know what to write, keep
  writing, I dont know what to write until
  something else comes to mind.

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Talk or Discuss

• Participate in the class discussion on the topic.
• Talk to a friend about your ideas.
• Listen to the ideas of others about the topic.
• Talk to a parent or other adult about his/her
  ideas on the topic.

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Brainstorm

• Write down everything that you can think of about
  your topic.
• Dont judge or edit your ideas.
• Write quickly.
• Limit the amount of time you give yourself to
  brainstorm.
• Let one idea remind you of another. Do word
  associations.

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Writers Notebook

• Take some time to write everyday.
• Keep a journal, notebook, or diary.
• Keep your journal handy so that when ideas come
  to you, you can jot them down.

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A Special Place to Write

• Thomas Jefferson spent the first 5 hours of every
  day at his writing desk composing letters and
  other documents. Where do you write best?
• Find the place that is right for you, where you
  can be comfortable and productive.

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Organizing Your Ideas

• Once youve generated lots of ideas, you need to
  organize them in a logical way. Two ways to do
  this are outlining and webbing.

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Outlines

• Include a title, main headings, subheadings, and
  details.
• My Favorite Vacation (title)
• Preparing for the bike trip (main heading)
• A. Organizing the group (subheading)
• B. Gathering Supplies
• 1. Bikes
• 2. Clothing
  (Details)
• 3. Food
• C. Physical Training
• The Big Trip
• A. Arriving at our base camp
• B. The first day on the trail
• C. My big wreck
• 1. Trying to jump the log
• 2. Riding to the hospital
• The trip home
• A. What my parents said
• B. What I learned

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Webs
Your main idea goes in the middle of the web, and
all your other ideas branch out from that main
idea.
Arrival
1st Day
Clothing
Bikes
Food
The Big Trip
Gathering Supplies
Organizing the group
The Big Wreck
Physical Training
Preparing for the Trip
My Favorite Vacation
Going Home
Parents reaction
What I learned
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Composing

• Using your outline or web to help you stay on
  track, begin to write.
• Try not to edit or revise during this step its
  more important to get you ideas on paper in
  sentence form. Youll go back to worry about
  spelling, punctuation, word choice, and sentence
  structure later.

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Evaluate

• Read your paper to yourself.
• Read your paper aloud.
• Read your paper to someone else.
• Have someone else read your paper to you!
• Notice if your paper sounds the way you want it
  to?
• Does it make sense?

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Revision

• Revision is the stage where you improve the
  focus, content, organization and style of your
  paper.
• Play with your words, sentences, and paragraphs
  to say exactly what you want to say, exactly the
  way you want to say it.

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Strategies for Revision

• Create an opening that grabs your readers
  attention. Ask a question. Use a quote. Find
  an interesting or even shocking statistic. State
  a problem.
• Add details - lots of detail. Its easier to cut
  when theres too much than to supplement when
  there are too few.
• Avoid using passive voice. In other words, try
  to have the subject in your sentences doing
  something rather than having something done to
  it.
• Find the right words there are a lot of ways
  to say a lot.
• Move sentences and paragraphs around to see what
  happens. Use transitional words and phrases to
  show the connections between your ideas.
• Leave the paper alone for a while and come back
  to it later. You might have a new perspective if
  youre away from the paper for a while.

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Editing

• Editing is the part of the process when you
  improve the conventions on your paper that is
  the spelling, punctuation, grammar, usage and
  mechanics.
• Use an editing checklist like the one on the next
  slide to help you, and dont always trust the
  spelling and grammar check on your computer.
  Reread the paper before you turn it in to your
  teacher.

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Proofreading Checklist

• All misspelled words have been circled.
• All sentences begin with a capital letter.
• Sentences end in periods, question marks, or
  exclamation points.
• Dialogue is contained within quotation marks.
• Paragraphs are indented.
• Apostrophes are used correctly for contractions
  and possessives.
• Unnecessary words and repetitions have been
  eliminated.
• Missing words have been added.
• Subjects and verbs agree.
• Sentences are varied. Run on sentences have been
  improved
• Fragments have been made into complete sentences.
• Proper nouns and adjectives are capitalized.
• Commas and semicolons are used correctly.
• Strong, active verbs have been used.
• Specific nouns have been used to add detail.

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Publishing

• Handwrite or type your paper according to the
  directions in your classroom.
• Be sure to cite any sources you used for
  research.
• Create a bibliography if your teacher requires
  one.

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Organizing Paragraphs and Essays

• A good paragraph includes a topic sentence,
  detail sentences, example sentences, and a
  concluding sentence.
• The topic sentence states the main, controlling
  idea for the paragraph.
• It often comes near the beginning of the
  paragraph, but sometimes it can come as the last
  sentence in the paragraph.

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Paragraphs (continued)

• Detail sentences help to prove that your topic
  sentence is true.
• Example sentences give clear specific examples,
  like statistics, to clarify what your detail
  sentence is saying.
• Make your details and examples specific by using
  names, exact colors, shapes, and sizes.
• Use comparisons to move from the familiar to the
  unfamiliar.
• Use sensory details to create an image for your
  reader.

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Using Transitional Words and Phrases

• Transitional words and phrases are the glue that
  hold your paper together. They make for a
  cohesive style of writing.
• Dont use the same transitional words and phrases
  over and over. Take some chances and try new
  ideas.
• Use transitions within and between paragraphs.

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Some Useful Transitions

• After
• Also
• Although
• As a result
• As well
• At last
• Before
• But
• Finally

• For example
• However
• In addition to
• In conclusion
• Instead of
• Just as
• Later
• Rather than
• therefore

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The Five Paragraph Essay

• One popular way to organize a longer writing is
  the 5 paragraph essay.
• This format can be easily expanded to write for
  longer assignments too. Just add more body
  paragraphs.
• Use the outline on the next slide to help plan
  for a longer writing assignment.

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5 Paragraph Outline

• Introduction Thesis
• Paragraph 1 Main Idea
• Detail/example
• Detail/example
• Detail/example
• Paragraph 2 Main Idea
• Detail/example
• Detail/example
• Detail/example
• Paragraph 3 Main Idea
• Detail/example
• Detail/example
• Detail/example
• Concluding Paragraph Restatement of thesis
  using different words

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Help with Spelling

• Keep a dictionary handy!
• Many words are misspelled because we mispronounce
  them. Words like probably (not probly), couldve
  or could have (not could of), and temperature
  (not temprature). Notice words that you
  mispronounce and therefore misspell.
• Make a list of the words that you often misspell,
  and keep it in your writers notebook or near
  your computer wherever you do your writing.
• There are some words that lots of people have
  trouble spelling. Work on learning this list of
  spelling demons that appear on the next slide.

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Frequently Misspelled Words

• About
• Acquire
• Address
• Afraid
• Afternoon
• Already
• Always
• Antarctic
• Anyone
• Arithmetic
• Asthma
• Athlete
• Available
• Because
• Before
• Blue
• Cemetery
• Chief
• Children

• Everyone
• Father
• First
• Formally
• Formerly
• Four
• Freight
• Friend
• From
• Gauge
• Gone
• Good
• Guess
• Guest
• Have
• Height
• Hello
• High
• How

• Come
• Committee
• Conscience
• Conscious
• Corduroy
• Cough
• Could
• Counterfeit
• Definite
• Dependent
• Desperate
• Does
• Done
• Down
• Dumb
• Easy
• Eight
• Eighth
• Environment

• Inside
• Into
• Just
• Laugh
• League
• Library
• License
• Love
• Many
• Mattress
• Might
• Misspell
• Mosquitoes
• Most
• Mother
• Much
• Name
• Necessary
• Neighbor

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Frequently Misspelled Words

• Nice
• Niece
• None
• Noticeable
• Nuisance
• Obedience
• Occurred
• Off
• Omitted
• Once
• One
• Out
• Out
• Outside
• Parallel
• Plaid
• Play
• Prairie
• Pretty

• Sunday
• Sure
• Talk
• Than
• That
• Them
• Then
• These
• Time
• Today
• Together
• Too
• Two
• Upon
• Use
• Very
• Was
• Wednesday
• Were

• Probably
• Put
• Raspberry
• Receipt
• Reference
• Relieve
• Rhythm
• Ridiculous
• Right
• Said
• Saturday
• Say
• School
• Send
• Shoes
• Should
• Show
• Some
• Sometimes

• When
• Where
• Which
• While
• White
• Who
• Whole
• Whose
• With
• Woman
• Women
• Would write
• writing

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Homophones

• Ant/aunt
• The ant climbed out of the picnic basket.
• My Aunt Came over for Thanksgiving.
• ate/eight
• I ate my lunch.
• I had eight chicken nuggets.
• Brake/break
• Use the brake to stop your bike.
• Dont break the new toy.
• Cent/scent/sent
• Can you get anything with one cent?
• The scent of the flowers filled the room.
• Mom sent me to the store.
• Deer/dear
• The deer ran through the meadow.
• My baby sister is very dear to me.

• Hear/here
• Did you hear that?
• Bring that here!
• Hole/whole
• The golf ball dropped right in the hole.
• Can I have the whole pie?
• Pair/pear/pare
• I have a pair of shoes.
• Is the pear ripe?
• Pare the potatoes before you cook them.
• Principle/principal
• Its important to have principles to guide your
  actions.
• The principal at out school is Mr. Wagner.
• Role/roll
• What role do you have in the play?
• Put the hotdog on a roll.

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Homophones

• Son/sun
• His son will mow the lawn.
• The sun is hot today
• Threw/through
• He threw the ball to me.
• The dog jumped through the hoop.
• To/too/two
• Give the prize to me
• I want to come too.
• Can I have two scoops?
• Which/witch
• Which seat is mine?
• The witch brewed a potion.

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Frequently Confused Words

• affect/effect
• Affect is a verb that means to impress change or
  influence
• Effect is a noun that means the result of an
  action
• all right/alright
• All right means that everything is correct.
• Alright is not a word in accepted usage.
• good/well
• Good is an adjective used to describe nouns and
  pronouns. The soup tastes good.
• Well is an adverb that means to do something
  capably. I did well on the test.
• there/theyre/their
• There is an adverb showing location. Put it
  there.
• There is a contraction of they are. Theyre
  going too fast!
• Their is a possessive pronoun. That is their
  house.

• Whose/whos
• Whose is a possessive pronoun that shows
  ownership. Whose turn is it?
• Whos is a contraction of Who is. Whos going
  to do the dishes?

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Slang and Misused Expressions

• Instead of
• Gonna
• Gotta
• Hafta
• Wanna
• Waz up
• u

• Try
• Going to
• Got to (or have to)
• Have to
• Want to
• What is up or Whats up
• you

Yo! Waz up? Nuttin here. U wanna go to the
mall later? Hafta go now. Later, Dude!
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Good Sentences

• A sentence has a complete subject and predicate,
  and it expresses as whole thought.
• Fragments are either the subject or predicate.
  When we cam home from the party. This has a
  subject and verb, but the thought isnt complete.
• Run-on sentences are strings of sentences that
  have been connected incorrectly. We went to the
  beach we had a great time. This just needs a
  comma and a conjunction to be correct We went
  to the beach, and we had a great time.

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Common Problems with S/V Agreement

• Doesnt/dont
• Doesnt is always singular
• Dont is always plural
• There/here
• These words are not the subject in the sentence.
• Find the subject and make your verb agree with
  it.
• There is a fly in my soup.
• There are six flies in my soup.

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Common Problems with S/V Agreement

• Indefinite pronouns
• Singular each, either, neither, anyone, anybody,
  anything, someone, somebody, everyone, one,
  everything, everybody, one, everybody,
  everything, nothing, no one,
• Plural few, many, several, both, others
• Sometimes plural or singular look at the word
  they refer to some, all, most, any, none

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Common Problems with S/V Agreement

• Compound subjects
• Connected by and choose plural verb
• Connected by or nor, choose the verb that
  agrees with the part of the subject that is
  physically closest to the verb.
• Collective Nouns
• Collective nouns are used with plural verbs when
  the writer is referring to the individual parts
  or members of the group separately.
• Collective nouns are used with singular verbs
  when the writer is referring to the group acting
  together as a unit.
• The class have completed their projects.
  (individuals)
• The class has elected its officers. (group/unit)

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Improving Style

• Cut unnecessary words never use two words when
  one word gets your point across.
• Keep it simple its good to use new words, but
  make sure you know what they mean and how theyre
  normally used before you try them out in a formal
  writing assignment.
• Have fun with words too choose more specific
  words to make your writing more interesting.
  Strong, active verbs are important. Instead of
  walked slowly, try dawdled. Instead of
  bragged, try crowed.

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Improving Style

• Similes and Metaphors are comparisons that help
  your reader move from the familiar to the
  unfamiliar.
• A simile is a comparison that uses like or
  as.
• The soccer field was like a swamp after the
  heavy rains.
• A metaphor is a comparison that says one this is
  actually another.
• My backyard is a jungle where my friends and I
  play games for hours and hours.
• Clichés are phrases that are used so much that
  they hurt your writing rather than help it.
  Avoid words and phrases like the list on the next
  slide.

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Clichés to Avoid

• Slow as molasses
• Big as a whale
• Quiet as a mouse
• Hungry as an ox
• At deaths door
• Depths of despair
• Grinning from ear to ear
• One in a million
• In the same boat
• Easier said than done

• Green with envy
• Weigh a ton
• On cloud nine
• To make a long story short
• Cried her eyes out
• Busy as a bee
• White as a ghost
• Once in a lifetime
• Raining cats and dogs