Brainstorming

When you have a writing assignment, you should not procrastinate. Don't wait until the last minute to begin. If you have to write an essay, you are free to be creative, to use your imagination. For example, many college composition classes require students to write a descriptive essay. Many students cannot think of anything to write about. However, there are people around you every day who would make interesting topics for an essay.

Sit down in a quiet place and start listing potential people you could describe. Once you have listed the people you know who would be interesting subjects, try to narrow it down to one.

Now turn over your paper and begin listing characteristics of this person. What makes this person interesting to you? Have they done something that is particularly noteworthy? Sometimes it is difficult to write about someone who is close to you.

Think about activities--things this person does. Also, think about the places where you see this person. Is he a teacher? You might describe the person in the classroom environment. It would make your essay much more vivid if you could show your character in his/her normal environment doing what he/she usually does.

Don't just describe. Show action.

The following does not show action and is not very interesting to read:

Sara was wearing a blue skirt and white blouse. Her hair was long and blonde. She walked into the classroom and put her books on the desk.

Instead try:

The wind blew through Sara's long blonde hair, as she approached the building. She peeked from beneath the golden strands and hesitated for a moment. She sighed and went inside. The long hallway echoed with each step as she approached the classroom. Voices were loud as she walked through the door and dropped her books onto the desk.

Writers write

Writers must write on a regular basis. Just like pianists who must practice to improve their skills, writers must also practice their craft. Even if you only write a few sentences or a paragraph a day, it is important to write.

Some writers provide themselves with daily writing prompts to inspire their writing. Others free-write in their journals on a daily basis. Whichever method you choose, be consistent. Set a time and a place where you will write. Allow yourself to write without concern for spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. Errors can be corrected later. It is important to just let the ideas flow. You may find that, at times, the words come faster than you can get them on paper (or on the computer screen).

Carry a notebook with you, so that you can make notes of interesting characters, parts of overheard conversations, and ideas that may occur to you as you go about your daily life.

Again, it important to write. Remember, writers write.

Passive Voice

Perhaps your writing teacher has told you to avoid the passive voice in your writing, but you are not sure exactly what this means. The fact is, writing in the active voice makes your writing more vivid and more exciting for the reader. When you write in the passive voice, you are using verbs of being like is, are, am, was, were, has, had been, and so on. These do not show action. By using action verbs, you can also provide a sense of your character's personality through his/her actions. For example:

Passive voice: She has long, blonde hair and green eyes.
Active voice: She brushed her long, blonde hair back away from her face, revealing her deep green eyes.

Passive voice: He was careful not to make any noise as he went into the house.
Active voice: He crept into the house like a cat stalking his prey.

See the difference?

Links to fun quizzes that will help you learn

Capital College has a wonderful site that provides numerous grammar and sentence structure quizzes. Check out the list of quizzes at the following address:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quiz_list.htm

Sentence Structure

Many students have problems constructing complete sentences, while others wrote run-on sentences, that is, they contain several sentences in one.

A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb (action). For example:

She sings.

Who? She
Does what? Sings.

Similarly, "She sings at the club." is a simple sentence.

Compound sentences contain a conjunction (connecting word) like and, but, or that connect two independent clauses.

She collects dolls, and she sells them at doll shows.

Both "She collects dolls" and "she sells them at doll shows" could stand alone as separate sentences.

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Words Often Confused

There are certain pairs of words that cause frequent confusion for students and business writers alike. For example, the words "there" and "their" are frequently misused. I remind students of the following:

"There" is "where"-- Adverb. Definition: "a place". Example: Where is the book? There is the book. This should not be confused with "their", which shows possession. Their book was there on the table all the time.

Another pair of commonly confused words is "then" and "than". I use the following explanation (or memory trick) to help my students remember which is which.

"Then" is "when". I will not be able to read your report until then.

"Than" is used in the following: I would rather have cash in hand than a promise to pay later.

Rather and than may be used together in the same sentence. Both have an "a" as the vowel.

Using these memory tricks, choose the correct form of the word in the following sentences:

1. (There, Their) voices were much too loud for the library.
2. The missing wallet was found over (there, their).
3. How do you know they were not (there, their)?
4. I went to the store, and (then, than) I went home.
5. I had more money (then, than) he did.

Think on this: (There, Their, They're) going to the mall this afternoon.

The answers to the above questions are:
1. Their
2. there
3. there
4. then
5. than

Think on this: Did you catch it? The correct answer to this question was "They're". Remember, "they're" is a contraction for "they are".