Effective Writing Principles and Techniques

Writing > Effective Writing Tips, Guides and Resources

Effective Writing for Business, College & Life (Pocket Edition) International best-selling author William Stanek helps you get the Edge you need! Whether we like it or not, writing is a part of our every day lives and to get by you need an edge. Enter Effective Writing for Business, College & Life: the down in the trenches writing resource you need to be successful! Use this concise guide to help you: Write essays, papers, dissertations Create reports, presentations Develop articles, stories, novels Publish digitally on the Internet, CD-ROM and ... [Find out more ...]
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Effective writing is much more than just knowing how to write and writing with correct grammar. It is writing that responds to the needs and interests of your readers. There are several guiding principles that can make your writing more effective. These describe the most crucial effective writing techniques.

Consider Your Audience

Who you are writing to? What expertise and knowledge do they have? What do they need from you? If you believe you have more than one audience, select one as the primary audience and write accordingly.

Organize Your Writing

The key to clear writing is to present material in the order that is most useful to the reader. If you are dealing with a process, organize it chronologically, first step to last. You can also organize you writing by putting the most important points first and the minor ones at the end. Sometimes a combination of these organizational methods is useful. Whichever method you use, keep your reader in mind and be consistent.

Use Active Voice

Voice is the form a verb takes to indicate whether its subject acts or is acted upon. When the subject of a verb does … [Find out more ...]

Phonics Poetry Using Digraphs: Grade 1-3
Phonics Poetry Using Digraphs: Grade 1-3
Rhyme and repetition are engaging and effective strategies for teaching phonics skills. Cute, simple poems emphasize specific consonant digraphs and blends. Each poem is followed by reproducible ... [Find out more ...]
Writing to Win: The Legal Writer
Writing to Win: The Legal Writer
From a master teacher, a results-oriented approach to powerful legal writing that communicates, that persuades—and that wins.Of all the professions, the law has the most deserved reputation for opaque, ... [Find out more ...]

What Are Writing Prompts?

English Writing Tips, Guides and Resources

Painless Writing (Barron's Painless) Updated with many new references, this entertaining book advises students on ways to enliven their essay assignments with vivid images, avoid the dull passive voice, and construct smooth, well-crafted sentences that flow together to create unified themes. Short quizzes called "Brain Ticklers" appear throughout the text. Titles in Barron's Painless Series are written especially for middle school and high school students who are having a difficult time with a specific subject. In many ... [Find out more ...]
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Writing prompts are used as starting points to formulate and inspire writing ideas. These prompts can take on virtually any form. A single word, a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph, a quote, a picture or even a physical object can be utilized as aids to facilitate writing. Writing prompts can be very helpful in planning and creating outlines. It is an extremely effective writing tool.

Writing prompt is simply a topic around which you start jotting down your thoughts. It gives you something for your mind to focus on. You may stick very closely to the original prompt or you may wander off.

Writing prompts can help you improve your creativity and writing skills. A great thing about using writing prompts is that they can make you think in a new way, or think about completely new topics. Writing prompts may force you to write about something that you know nothing about and learn something new.

Using writing prompts is a great way to fight writer’s block. The main purpose of writing prompts is to help purge and focus the mind. Staring at a blank page can be daunting, … [Find out more ...]

Cultural Connectives: Bridging the Latin and Arabic Alphabets
Cultural Connectives: Bridging the Latin and Arabic ...
Cultural Connectives bridges the Arabic and Latin alphabets through a family of typefaces designed by author Rana Abou Rjeily that bring the two alphabets into typographic harmony, even ... [Find out more ...]
Contacts: Langue et culture francaises
Contacts: Langue et culture francaises
Both students and instructors find this popular introductory text easy to use. The grammar lessons are presented in a logical sequence with constant vocabulary reinforcement and practice of the four ... [Find out more ...]

Articles, Determiners and Quantifiers

Grammar > Parts of Speech Tips, Guides and Resources

Parts of Speech Bingo Game Players learn to identify and define eight parts of speech, and to recognize and use them in sentences. Boosts reading and language arts skills. Traditional 5 x 5 grid format can be played eight ways to meet the needs of learners of all abilities. Fun for large or small group use. Set includes: 36 playing cards, over 700 chips, caller's mat and cards, and a sturdy storage box. [Find out more ...]
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Articles, determiners and quantifiers are sometimes referred to as the ninth part of speech. These are small words that will precede and modify nouns in a sentence. Different functions are served by articles, determiners and quantifiers. One purpose of these words is to show whether something specific is referred. Another purpose is to determine the quantity of the object of the sentence.

Traditionally, English grammar does not classify articles, determiners and quantifiers as a separate part of speech. Most often they are included as adjectives. Therefore, articles are treated like adjectives. There are definite articles and indefinite articles.

A definite article is used to specify a particular person or object and it is used with both singular and plural nouns. An indefinite article is used to describe an unspecified person or object and it is mostly used with singular countable nouns. In some cases, a noun does not need an article to precede it. Nouns that can function without an article preceding them are called zero article nouns.

Determiners are words used to indicate nouns. A noun or noun phrase comes after the determiner. Many modifying functions served by … [Find out more ...]

Dorling Kindersley Multimedia DK ldsmast3rj Smart Steps 3rd Grade
Dorling Kindersley Multimedia DK ldsmast3rj Smart ...
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Daily Skill-builders For Grammar & Usage
Daily Skill-builders For Grammar & Usage
Covers core concepts from parts of speech to sentence structure. Equip your students with the skills they need for successful research in any content area!. Drill students on rules of grammar and usage ... [Find out more ...]

What Are Conjunctions?

Grammar > Parts of Speech Tips, Guides and Resources

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Conjunctions form a basic part of speech in the English language. A simple definition of a conjunction is that it joins two parts of a sentence. Conjunctions can be used to link words, phrases, clauses, and sentences into one sentence.

When conjunctions are used in a sentence, they can take a single or compound form. A single form conjunction is a single word. Examples of this conjunction form include “and”, “or”, “but”, “although”, and “because”. A compound conjunction links two or three words together to form a conjunction and it will usually end with the words “as” or “that”. Some examples of this conjunction form include “as long as” and “provided that”. The three basic functions of conjunctions are coordinating, subordinating and correlative.

A coordinating conjunction has the task of joining together individual words, phrases, and independent clauses. The two parts of a sentence that are joined together with a coordinating conjunction must be grammatically equal. Any coordinating conjunction is required to come between the words or clauses that it joins.

With a subordinating conjunction, the purpose is to join a subordinate dependent clause to a main clause. For … [Find out more ...]

The Speaker's Handbook (with CD-ROM and Infotrac )
The Speaker's Handbook (with CD-ROM and Infotrac )
As the first of its kind for this course, THE SPEAKER'S HANDBOOK has established itself as both a reference for the individual speaker and an excellent textbook for use in the public speaking ... [Find out more ...]
Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar, 3rd edition
Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar, 3rd edition
Winner of the Swedish National Language Council's Erik Wellander Prize, 2003 Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar is an award-winning complete reference guide to modern Swedish grammar. Systematic and ... [Find out more ...]

English Language Writing Tips for Your Success

English Writing Tips, Guides and Resources

Write Good or Die Survival tips for 21st century writers, from best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson, M.J. Rose, Heather Graham, J.A. Konrath, Gayle Lynds, Alexandra Sokoloff, Jonathan Maberry, and more. How to develop your craft, improve your writing, get an agent, promote your work, embrace the digital age, and prepare yourself for the coming changes in the publishing industry. Edited by Scott Nicholson. Other contributors include Elizabeth Massie, Harley Jane Kozak, Douglas Clegg, Brandon Massey, Mur ... [Find out more ...]
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The English language is a complicated language. With all the rules and exceptions, writing in the English language can be very challenging. However, the rewards can be tremendous if you can write well in the English language. Being proficient in English writing makes all the difference in the world when it comes to succeeding in business and building personal relationships.

Keep It Simple

Words can be organized into sentences in many different ways. There are four kinds of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. Sentence structure can be simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex. Try to use simple sentence structure as much as you can. Focus on getting the subject and verb placement where they need to be.

Parts of Speech

Parts of speech are the building blocks of sentences. These are categories that define the role of words. In the English language, words can be categorized into nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verb, adverbs, prepositions, and interjections. Words can mean different things depending on how they are used and which part of speech they are being used. You need to master all parts of speech in order to use them effectively in … [Find out more ...]

It Shall Be of Jasper and Coral and Love-Across-a-Hundred-Lives
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Anna and the King of Siam
Anna and the King of Siam
Anna Leonowens, a proper Englishwoman, was an unlikley candidate to change the course of Siamese (Thai) history. A young widow and mother, her services were engaged in the 1860's by King Mongkut of Siam to help him ... [Find out more ...]
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