Effective Writing Techniques and Styles for Different Purposes

Paragraph

Is the subdivision of a written composition that consists of one or more sentences, deals with one point and begins on a new line. Elements: purpose, audience, clarity, unity and coherence. Techniques to achieve fluency: linkers, repetition, varying sentence length, punctuation and synonyms.

What to Avoid in Summaries?

No opinion, no pronouns, no adjectives, no exact figures, achieve neutral style.

Letters

Purpose: inform, complain, request, apologize, give opinion and apply-organization-intro: aim of letter/present the idea/dear sir, madam> yours faithfully//dear mr thomas> your sincerely-body: develop idea, give previous background and specific data-conclusion: sum up the info / point of view--style: friend: semiformal, to an editor etc: formal/ think about audience--Grammar and voc. : different sentence types and varied punctuation

News Report

Purpose: inform, tell the readers about something that actually happened. Audience: general public-organization- Headline: sums up story-Byline: writer's name and job- Placeline: where story begins- Lead: gives important info. answer the 5w's-)what, when, where, who and why- Body: Most important ideas and supplies with details- Facts: simple true statements- Quotation: what someone actually said also adds accuracy.-- style: informative, can be written in present and have narrative devices-- grammar and voc.: passive (it is said...) impersonal( people), direct speech(denied/ affirmed), narrative ( past/perfect) no pronouns

Diary

Purpose: write about something personal--organization: intro: dear diary/ suitable descriptive heading of entry- date, conclusion: reference to the future-- style: informal-- Grammar and voc. : lot of personal voice and not very fine and organized piece of writing

Formality

Less Formal: active voice, 1 and 2 person, direct questions, simple and compound sentences, sentences/verbs, definite verbs, no adverbs, no formal words, more than one word verb, abbreviations

More Formal: passive voice, 3 person, indirect questions (don't use ?), complex sentences, use nouns, use less definite verbs, use adverbs, use one word verbs, formal words, don't use abbreviations.

6 Traits of Writing

-ideas>topic developed-organization>smooth direction, order, transition and closure-sentence fluency> Rhythm to connect naturally and smoothly- conventions> rules to understand(punctuation, capitalization, spelling and grammar)-word choice> power of words to move reader(variety)-voice>way of expressing to engage the reader.

Combining sentences: appositives, participial phrases, prepositional phrases, coordination and subordination

8 parts of speech; noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction and interjection.