October 1, 2009 at 11:22 Ways of student self-development. Practice 2 - Learning to write
We continue our practical exercises. We have already considered a set of tools that could be useful to us, and today there will be more practice - today we will learn to write. Oddly enough, the ability to write is that skill that we are no longer taught at the university, but still taught at school. Yes, students are often given the task of writing an abstract or making a report, but in the end, in 95 percent, it all comes down to searching the Internet for finished material. And after graduating from an educational institution and having come to work, a former student may find himself face to face with the fact that he is not able to write various documents. The ability to write is also important because each sentence is a complete thought, so by writing we first of all learn to think clearly. So let's get started.
I want to make a reservation right away, all of the following is both my experience and a compilation of numerous articles and translations, and is applicable not only to writing the already mentioned essays and reports, but also to diaries, blogs, and more.
Main idea . Probably, this item is the most important - we should clearly and coherently, preferably in one sentence formulate what we will write about. This will help both in finding the material necessary for publication, and in dropping out the excess when everything is already written, and all that remains is to bring the notes into proper form.
Make a plan. When the idea is clearly formulated, you can move on to the plan. The plan should contain the key steps in building your publication. In addition, often an article cannot be written in one sitting and has to come back to it once, second and third. Therefore, the presence of the plan, as well as possible comments and notes to it, will help to harmoniously develop the text. In addition, the plan does not allow you to get away from the main idea and constantly support thoughts and narration in a single direction.
Text structure. By the structure of the text, I understand the presence of an introduction, disclosure of the topic, conclusion and everything else that makes the publication more logical. Here, in principle, it is easiest to use ready-made structures, especially when writing resumes, business letters and other similar texts, since their structure has been verified literally for centuries, and knowledge of such structures is the rule of good taste.
Slang, idioms and persistent expressions. Each publication has a target audience, whether it be a lesson report or an annual financial report. And this audience is used to using certain turns of speech, words and expressions. Therefore, having written the text, it is important to read it again, perhaps some of the expressions, phrases or even individual words will have to be replaced so that the text does not sound incorrect. For example, it would not be too vernacular, did not contain too much terminology, expressions from related fields. The same can be attributed to repetitions, they must also be avoided.
Paragraph break. Each paragraph of the text contains a specific block of information, so break your article into paragraphs. And here our plan may come in handy. First you can break down in accordance with the points of the plan. Then, each of the resulting paragraphs should be divided according to logic and completeness. For example, a paragraph may form around a keyword or phrase.
Volumes and text complexity. Often the university is obliged to write essays by strictly restricting one of the boundaries of the volume, for example, no more than 15 sheets. On the one hand, this is true, as it allows you to remain concise, which is a very important feature when writing articles. On the other hand, if a lower bound is set, then it may be necessary to fill the work with meaningless data, which, obviously, spoils its perception. And the imposition of the complexity of the topic that requires disclosure, following the indicated volumes becomes more than a difficult task, so here you always have to look for a fine line.
Spelling and punctuation. Two scourges of modern man. Constantly using instant messengers, reading forums and sending sms, we stop monitoring how correctly we write. Therefore, before final publication, check the spelling, for example, using MS WORD.
General readability of the text . Many people read just looking at the text and isolating individual words and phrases from it. This is a feature of our head. And this must be taken into account when you write something. Make formatting mandatory, it at least looks beautiful. Highlight chapters and subclauses to form the text structure. do not abuse pictures, graphs and tables, as switching to them, you can forget what is meant in the text.
And most importantly: write, write and write again! After all, if you do nothing, then nothing will work.
Here is a short list of key rules to keep in mind when writing any text. In conclusion, I also want to add - read, read more, as this is the best way to learn how to write correctly.
And in the next practice, we will learn to speak. Thanks for attention.
I want to make a reservation right away, all of the following is both my experience and a compilation of numerous articles and translations, and is applicable not only to writing the already mentioned essays and reports, but also to diaries, blogs, and more.
Main idea . Probably, this item is the most important - we should clearly and coherently, preferably in one sentence formulate what we will write about. This will help both in finding the material necessary for publication, and in dropping out the excess when everything is already written, and all that remains is to bring the notes into proper form.
Make a plan. When the idea is clearly formulated, you can move on to the plan. The plan should contain the key steps in building your publication. In addition, often an article cannot be written in one sitting and has to come back to it once, second and third. Therefore, the presence of the plan, as well as possible comments and notes to it, will help to harmoniously develop the text. In addition, the plan does not allow you to get away from the main idea and constantly support thoughts and narration in a single direction.
Text structure. By the structure of the text, I understand the presence of an introduction, disclosure of the topic, conclusion and everything else that makes the publication more logical. Here, in principle, it is easiest to use ready-made structures, especially when writing resumes, business letters and other similar texts, since their structure has been verified literally for centuries, and knowledge of such structures is the rule of good taste.
Slang, idioms and persistent expressions. Each publication has a target audience, whether it be a lesson report or an annual financial report. And this audience is used to using certain turns of speech, words and expressions. Therefore, having written the text, it is important to read it again, perhaps some of the expressions, phrases or even individual words will have to be replaced so that the text does not sound incorrect. For example, it would not be too vernacular, did not contain too much terminology, expressions from related fields. The same can be attributed to repetitions, they must also be avoided.
Paragraph break. Each paragraph of the text contains a specific block of information, so break your article into paragraphs. And here our plan may come in handy. First you can break down in accordance with the points of the plan. Then, each of the resulting paragraphs should be divided according to logic and completeness. For example, a paragraph may form around a keyword or phrase.
Volumes and text complexity. Often the university is obliged to write essays by strictly restricting one of the boundaries of the volume, for example, no more than 15 sheets. On the one hand, this is true, as it allows you to remain concise, which is a very important feature when writing articles. On the other hand, if a lower bound is set, then it may be necessary to fill the work with meaningless data, which, obviously, spoils its perception. And the imposition of the complexity of the topic that requires disclosure, following the indicated volumes becomes more than a difficult task, so here you always have to look for a fine line.
Spelling and punctuation. Two scourges of modern man. Constantly using instant messengers, reading forums and sending sms, we stop monitoring how correctly we write. Therefore, before final publication, check the spelling, for example, using MS WORD.
General readability of the text . Many people read just looking at the text and isolating individual words and phrases from it. This is a feature of our head. And this must be taken into account when you write something. Make formatting mandatory, it at least looks beautiful. Highlight chapters and subclauses to form the text structure. do not abuse pictures, graphs and tables, as switching to them, you can forget what is meant in the text.
And most importantly: write, write and write again! After all, if you do nothing, then nothing will work.
Here is a short list of key rules to keep in mind when writing any text. In conclusion, I also want to add - read, read more, as this is the best way to learn how to write correctly.
And in the next practice, we will learn to speak. Thanks for attention.