The good paper is good, but the excellent paper is better. Besides making a good paper, it will be useful to make an excellent one. So, we must not only arrange the content of the paper, but also it is very important for students who want to have an excellent paper to know the firm grasp on the basic mechanics of writing and ways to fine-tune their papers stylistically. An excellent paper must have a solid and interesting thesis, effective organization, and flawless grammar and punctuation in its body. Hopefully, the following guidelines can serve big help to make an already good paper more stylistically mature and, therefore, it will be excellent and more enjoyable to be read.
First guidance is we must pay attention to vary sentence patterns. The key to interesting writing lies mainly in variety. Obviously, since a paper is comprised of a string of sentences, one of the best ways to lend a paper variety is to use different sentence structures. To do this, break from the normal pattern of subject-verb-object and try coordination and subordination. We have known that coordination is the joining of simple sentences to form compound sentences (using coordinating conjunctions like and, but, or, for, nor, yet), or the joining of similar elements of different sentences (e.g., combining the subjects of two sentences if they perform the same action). For example; changing Mrs. Whitesell teaches College Writing. She also directs the Writing Center to be Mrs. Whitesell teaches College writing, but she also directs the Writing Center; (two simple sentences combined by but to form a compound sentence). In the using of subordination as the turning of a related sentence into an appositive phrase or dependent clause, we can change the sentence Brian Miller is a tutor at the Writing Center. He’s a funky guy to be Brian Miller, a tutor at the Writing Center, is a funky guy.
Second, try to apply various word orders. We can also make sentences interesting by examining the pattern of words within each sentence. We must try to rearrange the usual order of noun-verb modifier to the upper level. For example, it is better to change the sentence Steve Goldstein ran reckless and screaming from the tutoring room to be Reckless and screaming, Steve Goldstein ran from the tutoring room.
Besides, there must be varying diction. Diction is a fancy word for word choice. We can use language that is varied, interesting, vivid, and fresh. In short, we have to avoid writing tired words. It is important to avoid trite language: i.e., don’t use cliché phrases. For example; in an ideal world, writing tutors who are over the hill would retire before they were past their prime. It is better to use; ideally, aging writing tutors would retire before they lost their grammatical skills.
Furthermore, varying diction includes using interesting vocabulary, but we must be careful not to sound strained. For example; the words correspondence or composition is fine to replace writing; but the word graphorrhea is a little much. In addition, we must increase the using of active verbs and strong verbs to drab ones. For example; Professor Jennings is in the English department at F&M to be Professor Jennings teaches in the English department at F&M.
The last, varying punctuation patterns can work wonders in a paper, so, it will be better to try straying from the repeated use of periods and semicolons to combine related independent clauses. We must try using colons to combine sentences of equivalent meaning, or using dashes to emphasize or subordinate a phrase. For example, we had better to change Shaheen tutors in the evening. However, her club meets every other Thursday after dinner, so she was forced to compromise to be Shaheen was forced to compromise when her club meetings — every other Thursday evening — conflicted with her work schedule or For Shaheen, a compromise was necessary: she could not go to work and attend the meeting at the same time.
As the conclusion, writing paper is not only about the content, but also the arrangement of the body. It is very common to find a good paper, but making a good paper is not enough, it will be better to improve it to be an excellent one in order to make it more interesting and enjoyable by examining or correcting its body by following the guidelines.
SOURCE: E-book of Franklin and Marshall (Writing Centre)
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