Hope this helps!

1. Effective Writing Skills
PRESENTED BY: SUMMAIYA NAVEED
PRESENTED TO: PROF. ALWIN EDWIN

2.  According to www.Cambridge.org:
“Students are better writers when they master discrete writing skills, such as creating
topic sentences and recognizing irrelevant information. These skills are critical to
become good writers.”
 Effective writing skills:
Effective writing skills are skills which make a piece of writing lucid, expressive and
persuasive. Such a piece of writing serves the purpose and fits the audience for
it was written (for example, writing about a certain scientific discovery)

3. Principles of Effective Writing

4. Brainstorming
 Pre-planning the content as well as the arrangement of the content is crucial for
an effective piece of writing. Thoughts organized into a well-structured writing are
more easily understood than haphazard ideas.
 For short writings, brainstorming may be as simple as penning down all your
thoughts on a piece of paper and then arranging them.
 For lengthier works, such as research papers, the writer may create a working
bibliography for keeping a record of all the sources used.
 Research sources: Reference books, articles in reputable periodicals, internet,
government publications, interviews/surveys/observations.

5. Paragraphing and Coherence
 Short paragraphs that create “white space” on the paper are quicker to read and
engage the reader.
 A paragraph should ideally contain 7-8 sentences.
 Each paragraph should discuss a single idea. The topic sentence should be clearly
written in each paragraph. (No Ambiguity)
 Coherence: Paragraphs themselves should be logically linked with one another to
make a coherent piece of writing. No irrelevant material should be included.

6. Clarity
 “The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest
components.” – William Zinsser, On Writing Well.
 Avoid irrelevant, long words, dead weight phrases, redundancy etc.
Example:
“ The expected prevalence of mental retardation, based on the assumption of a
normal distribution of intelligence in the population, is stated to be theoretically abut
2.5%” (INEFFECTIVE)
“ The expected prevalence of mental retardation, if intelligence is normally
distributed, is 2.5%” (EFFECTIVE)

7. Language
 Formal: Language used should be impersonal, grammatically correct and formal.
Example: “good” not “lit”
 Non-attacking: A professional tone should be maintained that does not offend or
attack the reader on the basis of their gender, race, religion etc.
Example: No sexist or discriminating language.
 Active Voice: A.V makes the meaning more clear as both the subject and object
are clearly stated. In passive voice, the subject is ambiguous. In effective writings,
active voice should be used.
Example: President Kennedy was shot in 1963 (Passive)
Oswald shot President Kennedy in 1963. (Active)

8. Plagiarism
 In any piece of writing, originality of words matters a great deal. Copying
someone else’s work, in other words, plagiarism, is frowned upon and even
punishable by law. Therefore it is important for a writer to check that their words
do not overlap with another writer’s words.
 To avoid plagiarism, you must cite any copied works properly, so that the credit of
the mentioned work goes to its rightful owner.
 You may not reproduce someone else works along with your name. Such a piece
of writing will have zero credibility and will be disregarded by readers. You, as a
writer, will also lose your credibility.
 If you have ideas similar to another writer, make sure you paraphrase them
differently from said writer.

9. Proofreading
 Although, not a writing skill, proofreading is important to end any written work
with. It simply means to check for errors in spelling and grammar, cohesion and
coherence of the ideas, and cutting out any irrelevant material that may distract
the reader from the original meaning and purpose of the writing
 Proofreading is a final read, which can also be used to check for accidental
plagiarism and sexist or discriminatory language.
 In simple words, it serves to making your piece of writing perfect.

10. Hope this presentation was
effective. Thank you!
