1. Writing Activity
Write about your favorite restaurant.
*If you have trouble generating ideas, consider the
following:
1. What does the restaurant look like?
2. When do you go there?
3. What do you order there?
2. Questions for Discussion
1. What makes writing “good”?
2. Sometimes people say “I’m a bad writer.”
Why might someone think he or she is a
bad writer?
3. What do you like about your writing? If
you could improve one thing about your
writing, what would it be?
3. How would you change these
sentences?
1. Marcia admires her parents, Abraham Lincoln and Barbra
Streisand.
2. Today we will be reading “Ode to the Sprinkler”, “Ode to La
Tortilla”, and “Ode to Pomegranates”.
3. I can tell that the author likes sports because they wrote a
story about a soccer team.
4. Everyday I go to work, write lessons and cleanup my desk.
5. Jared likes to run as well as bike for exercise.
4. 10 Tips for Strengthening
Your Writing Skills
By: Samantha Gussow
May 29, 2013
5. Background on Writing Tips
Based on house style and Chicago Manual of
Style (used by editors and proofreaders in
Publications)
Things that get fixed at the copyedit stage or
paged-up stage (proofs/passes)
These tips help to make written work more
concise and to the point.
6. 1. Use the active voice.
Sentences using future progressive:
1. We will be reading about frogs today.
2. We are going to read about frogs today.
Sentence using active voice:
1. We will read about frogs today.
7. Why use the active voice?
Implies more certainty
Makes writing more concise/less
wordy
More direct
8. 2. Avoid the phrase “in order
to.”
In order to learn about team
cooperation, we will watch a video.
To learn about team cooperation,
we will watch a video.
9. Why avoid this phrase?
Similar to why active voice is used:
Less wordy
More direct
10. 3. Use commas properly.
Use commas to set off people’s
names.
Ex: Karina admires her parents, Stuart and
Martha.
Why not put a comma after Stuart?
Ex: Karina admires her parents, Stuart, and
Martha.
If you put a comma after Stuart, it looks
like Karina admires her parents and two
other people (Stuart and Martha).
11. More Comma Fun….
Use commas in lists.
Ex: Karina admires her parents, Ben
Carson, and Princess Diana.
Ex: Michael likes fishing, reading, and
skiing.
Using a comma before and sets off items in
a list.
13. 4a. Think about the part of speech
of a word.
There are many parts of speech!
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb (end in –ly)
Some words can be more than one
part of speech, making it tricky to
identify which type is being used.
14. Determining Part of Speech
Sometimes when reading a sentence, it is
not instantly clear which part of speech is
used.
Ex: the word honored
Can be a verb OR an adjective
Honored as a verb
Kellie honored her mom’s request to water the
plants.
Honored as an adjective
Mr. Bell was honored to speak at graduation.
15. Writing Definitions of Words
Activity: Read the following two
words. Which definition do you think
works best? Why?
1. smiled
look happy
looked happy
2. honesty
act of telling the truth
told the truth
16. Definitions (cont.)
1. smiled
looked happy
Past tense
2. honesty
act of telling the truth
“Act of” or “process of” → good
way to begin def. of noun
17. 4b. Think about whether a word is
one word or two.
Some words can be used as a noun and
a verb.
The noun form is usually one word.
Ex: The Environment Club held a weekly
cleanup in the park.
The verb form is usually two words.
Ex: Clean up your room.
18. Everyday vs. every day
1 word = adj. (means daily, ordinary)
Ex: Shawna incorporates exercise into her
everyday life.
Ex: A cup of morning coffee is part of Jason’s
everyday routine.
2 words = adv. (means each day)
Ex: Every day Bryan goes to work.
Ex: Kaye delivers the mail every day.
19. 5. Use the phrase “as well as”
correctly.
This is used for comparison.
Ex: Brandon draws as well as his sister.
This phrase does not mean “and.”
Incorrect: Stacey is good at swimming as
well as basketball.
Correct: Stacey is good at swimming and
basketball.
20. 6. Use affect and effect
correctly.
Affect = verb
A verb (or a = v)
Ex: The weather will affect Ms. Johnson’s
plan for an outdoor picnic.
Effect = noun
e = n
Ex: Fallen trees were an effect of the
storm.
21. 7. Make your nouns and pronouns
agree.
Their = more than 1 person
Incorrect: The author likes animals because their
characters are bears.
Why is this sentence incorrect?
The author refers to 1 person.
How can this be fixed?
The author likes animals because her characters
are bears.
The author likes animals because his characters
are bears.
22. A Special Note about Pronouns
Using “his or her” when the gender is
unknown is a bit of a debate.
Some people feel that “his or her” is
too wordy.
Handled on a case-by-case basis
23. 8. Put commas and periods inside
quotation marks.
Example #1:
The author used the phrases “ray of
sunshine,” “beam of light,” and “grinned
widely” to describe Mickey’s smile.
Example #2:
We will read “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes.”
24. 9. Be aware of words with multiple
spellings.
There are countless examples. Here
are just a few!
Manner vs. manor
Peak vs. peek
Pedal vs. peddle vs. petal
Rapped vs. rapt vs. wrapped
25. 10. Use apostrophes correctly.
Singular = apostrophe s (‘s)
‘ + s
Ex: Call on a volunteer, and record the
student’s response on the board. (just 1)
Plural = s, apostrophe (s’)
s + ‘
Ex: Record students’ responses on the
board. (more than 1)
26. Let‘s go back to where we
started…
Now that we’ve reviewed some
writing tips, look back over the 5
sentences. Make any other changes.
27. Sentences with Changes…
1. Marcia admires her parents, Abraham Lincoln, and Barbra
Streisand.
2. Today we will read “Ode to the Sprinkler,” “Ode to La
Tortilla,” and “Ode to Pomegranates.”
3. I can tell that the author likes sports because he or she
wrote a story about a soccer team.
4. Every day I go to work, write lessons, and clean up my
desk.
5. Jared likes to run and bike for exercise.
