WRI 101 Study Notes PDF

**WRITING** Writing is a craft that requires skill. It is a process that starts from planning out your writing in an outline, putting down the first draft, organizing your writing in a way that it follows grammar and syntax rules, and it is clear and concise. A good composition requires a good **s...

**WRITING** Writing is a craft that requires skill. It is a process that starts from planning out your writing in an outline, putting down the first draft, organizing your writing in a way that it follows grammar and syntax rules, and it is clear and concise. A good composition requires a good **subject** or **theme**, a **clear purpose** (to argue, describe, narrate etc), an **audience**, a **tone** (formal or informal) and **unity** that ties the whole writing to its central theme. The structure of a composition is the topic, introduction, body and conclusion. **The Writing Process** 1. - - - - - 2. - - - - - 3. - - - - - 4. 5. **PS** - Writing a good composition may not include all these steps, or they may not follow this particular order because it depends on the writer and their essay. However this is a guideline of essential steps in writing. Features of a paragraph include topic sentence, cohesion, adequate development, unity **Mechanics of Writing** These are the technical rules of writing such as punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing and so on that are used to make the writing clear and grammatically correct. The proper use of punctuation is to establish pause in a sentence or emphasis on a section of a sentence. Punctuation involves the use of special characters like period, exclamation point, comma, colon, semicolon, apostrophe, ellipsis, hyphen etc. **Critical Thinking** Critical thinking is the act of analyzing the world around us beyond what is presented to us and questioning usually unquestioned assumptions. It involves thinking for ourselves and deducing our opinions on subjects based on evidence and analysis. Some obstacles to critical thinking include: - - The building blocks of reasoning are inferences i.e. deductions The four patterns of development in writing are **narration**, **description**, **exposition** and **argumentation**. **Description** This is one of the organizational patterns of developing an essay. It entails vividly explaining a person, place, event, concept etc. in a way that engages the reader's senses. In objective description, the tone is straightforward and based on facts, while in subjective description, the tone is emotionally charged and reflects a personal view. **Narration** A form of composition used to tell a story. The dominant approach to the structure of the essay is chronological. A difference between narration and description is that narration uses past tense while description uses present tense. **Exposition** This is another developmental pattern of writing that is used to **inform** or **give instructions** about a concept. It is used in historical, biographical, scientific and philosophical material. It's based on factual detail, a contemporary experience or social issues. The aim of an expository essay is to objectively analyze a topic in these categories. The forms of expository essay are: - - - - - - - A good expository essay requires a clear subject matter, a solid analysis of that subject, use of examples and the points must all come together nicely. **Argumentation** This form of composition is used to persuade the reader to adopt the notion of the writer concerning a topic by comparing two perspectives of a topic. It is the use of reasoning and evidence to back up the writer's position in a comprehensive manner. A solid argumentative essay implements the **logos** (logical reasoning with evidence), **pathos** (emotional appeal) and **ethos** (credibility of the writer) in a balance that best drives the writer's argument. The dominant approach is emphatic **Spelling rules**\ There are several rules of spelling: - - - - - - - **Capitalization rules** - - - - - - - **Abbreviation rules** - - - - **Exemplification essays** This kind of essay uses brief or detailed examples as the main supporting material for a subject matter in a composition. The examples are meant to strengthen the writer's point and explain her ideas, whether complex or simple. The steps to writing an exemplification essay are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The writer can choose to write the examples in the order of the time period they happened, or according to significance to the topic of the essay. She can put the examples from the least to the most relevant. Also, she can arrange the examples logically to demonstrate her thesis and enforce unity in her composition. An example topic of this kind of essay is "The level of comfort of students' environment can encourage or disrupt their learning process". This thesis statement requires examples of how a comfortable environment is most conducive to students, and instances of an uncomfortable environment making the learning process difficult for students. Compare-contrast essays Cause-effect essays