Text Organization, Development, and Unity Quiz

Study Notes

Main Features of Organized Text

A developed main idea should have supporting ideas and a paragraph should have at least 4 sentences explaining the topic sentence.

Achieving Unity in a Paragraph

Unity is achieved by remembering the parts of a paragraph: topic sentence, supporting details, and clinching sentence.

Creating Cohesion in a Text

There are six main ways to create cohesion in a text:
- Reference substitution: uses a word or phrase to replace a word or phrase used earlier.
- Ellipsis: omits words because they are already understood in the context.
- Lexical chain: one word is related to another, forming a sequence of related words.
- Cohesive nouns: a kind of lexical reference that can summarize many words and signal what is to come or refer back.
- Conjunction: uses words like firstly, next, moreover, however, but, and, etc.

Language Use

Effective language use refers to the appropriateness of word/vocabulary use, which should be specific, concise, familiar, correct, and appropriate.

Types of Language Use

Informal language: used in writing for oneself or in writing to family, friends, and colleagues.
Formal language: used in writing academic, business, and official texts.
Unbiased language: language that is free of racial bias, religious bias, and gender bias.

Characteristics of Effective Language Use

Use concrete words that are specific and form sharp, clear meanings, standing for what the reader easily perceives through the five senses.
Use concise words and avoid redundancy.
Use familiar words and avoid highfalutin words, defining technical terms or providing examples.
Use precise and clear words, avoiding vague language.

Characteristics of Effective Language Use (continued)

Avoid sexist language and use constructive language instead.
Use mechanics correctly, including spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and other conventions.

Mechanics

Spelling: consistently use one standard with regard to spelling.
Punctuation: use a system of symbols to give structure and organize a text.
Capitalization: write the first letter of a word in uppercase and the rest in lowercase.
Comma: use to separate items in a series.
Semicolon: use to join two independent clauses together with conjunctive adverbs.

Description

Test your knowledge on the important features of an organized text, focusing on one main idea, development with main and supporting ideas, and achieving unity. Also explore six main ways cohesion is created in a text, including reference substitution and ellipsis.