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1.13: Review and Practice

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    Review and Practice

    Exercise 1

    Discuss the following questions about the topics covered in this unit.

    1. What is academic writing? What are the characteristics of academic writing?
    2. What has been your best writing experience? The most challenging writing experience?
    3. The ten common misconceptions are explained in this unit. What are the ones that apply to you? What advice will be the most helpful to you?
    4. What is the writing process? Why is it important?
    5. What are the three stages in the process? What are the steps in each stage?
    6. Have you tried the writing process or a similar process before? Share your experiences.
    Exercise 2

    Narrowing down a broad subject will help you focus better on the main idea of your paragraph. Practice narrowing down the topics. The first two are examples. You see that the same broad topic can be narrowed down to two different focuses depending on your experiences and preferences. Compare and discuss your answers with your partner.

    Examples:

    narrowing down ideas
    narrowing down ideas
    narrowing down ideas exercise
    narrowing down ideas exercise
    narrowing down ideas exercise
    narrowing down ideas exercise
    Exercise 3

    Look at the following ideas from brainstorming. Add some of your own to the list. Then put the ideas into the categories below. The categories will be used as supporting ideas when you write a paragraph. If an idea does not fit the main idea, cross it out. An example is provided in each category.

    Main idea: Jerry’s Burgers is my favorite lunch place.

    fast service, nice decorations, fresh ingredients, clean washrooms, beautiful paintings on walls, Asian and Middle Eastern flavors, meeting room, noisy, not many salad choices, expensive, smiling owner, no place for kids to play, free soda, no parking, tasty soup bowls, kids’ menu, low fat menu, vegetarian choices, background music too loud, gluten-free options, polite wait staff, no delivery…

    Example:

    example
    Food Services Facilities
    fresh ingredients fast service meeting room
         
         
         
         
     
    Exercise 4

    Use three of the following topics to try free writing, listing, and mind mapping. Narrow down the topic if necessary. Then write an outline for each topic. Lastly, choose one of the three outlines to write a paragraph.

    1. driving in the U.S.
    2. my first class in the U.S. college
    3. the neighborhood where I grew up
    4. the person I admire the most
    5. a childhood memory
    6. a disappointing holiday
    7. advantages or disadvantages of cell phones
    8. characteristics of a good shopping mall

    Summary

    • Academic writing is what students write for their classes in colleges and universities.
    • Academic writing is logical, direct, formal, clear, and concise.
    • To improve writing skills, it is important to:
      • Try not to translate from your native language.
      • Do not rely on the information on the Internet.
      • Explore your topic by brainstorming and then organize your ideas by outlining.
      • Narrow down a general topic to a more specific one.
      • Get help from your professor and ESL tutors.
      • Be proactive in contacting your professor regarding errors in your writing.
      • Do not rely too much on the help of your family and friends.
      • Study grammar.
      • Read as much as you can.
    • There are three major stages in the writing process:
    • pre-writing: get ideas and make an outline
      • understand the assignment
      • choose topic, narrow down if needed
      • brainstorm – free writing, make a list, create a mind map
    • writing: write a draft of the paragraph
      • write a paragraph based on the outline
      • include basic elements of a paragraph
    • post-writing: revise and edit, proofread, and submit
      • revise ideas to make them clear and interesting
      • revise organization for unity, cohesion, and completion
      • edit sentence structure and grammatical aspects
      • check format, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
      • make a new copy, proofread, save, submit
    • The stages and steps ensure the good quality of your paragraph.
    1. dough: noun, a mix of flour, water, and other ingredients to make into bread, cake, etc. ↵
    2. essential: adjective, extremely important, cannot live without ↵
    3. proper: adjective, suitable, appropriate, right ↵
    4. reverse: verb, follow the opposite order ↵
    5. crusty: adjective, crisp, describing the outer layer of freshly-baked bread ↵
    6. laborious: adjective, with lots of work ↵
    7. ensure: verb, make sure, to be certain ↵
    8. crucial: adjective, very important ↵
    9. seemingly: adverb, in appearance but may not be true ↵
    10. establish: verb, build, set up ↵

    Attributions:

    This page titled 1.13: Review and Practice is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Connie Mathews, Elizabeth Stein, and Mary Elizabeth Wilson-Patton.