Prepared Readings For Journ Workshop

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WRITING LIKE A PRO: Effective Writing for Beginners Enrichment A: FORMS OF WRITING: PERSONAL, DESCRIPTIVE, EXPOSITORY Intimate Voice: Personal Writing
Provides the most enjoyable opportunity for exploration of self;
Statement of your ideas, feelings, emotions and impressions about your own experiences, written either for your own pleasure or for the enjoyment of family and friends;
It can be in a form of diary, journal, autobiographical narrative, friendly letter or poem;
A self-portrait – a picture of your life, set in your personal world;
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writing is “being conscious of living”. Because when we put our thoughts about life into words, we become more aware of life itself;
Eldridge Cleaver, Soul in Ice, “to save myself”. Personal writing may also be therapeutic, a means for self-analysis that allows you to understand yourself better;
Personal writing may also allow you to realize your failures as well as your successes, your weaknesses as well as your strengths, your disillusionments as well as your dreams;
Prepares you for a more difficult writing assignments;
It is more fun writing it because you are naturally concerned with yourself, finding pleasure and fulfillment in reflecting and reminiscing about your experiences. Forms of Personal Writing: Journal writing, Autobiographical Narrative & Personal Essay Journal
Diary – the underwear of personal writing. Intimate affairs are comfortably functional but not for public exhibition.
Journals, on the other hand, are street clothes. Needs rewriting and polishing of each entry.
Journal is a writing practical book – an effective tool in learning to write well enough to let the private you “go public.” Why Keep a Journal?

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People keep journals to help them remember the details of their lives that might otherwise be forgotten. Being able to see how and why we acted and reacted in the past enables us to live more effectively and perceptively in the present.
Writers keep journals for preserving their impressions of their experiences and to improve their writing ability.
A journal entry can create a picture as graphically descriptive as a photograph; it can capture the essence of a moment as effectively as a tape recording; and it has the ability of a souvenir to trigger a memory.
It can capture you, your personality, your thoughts and your emotional reactions to the experience.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh – a journal is kept “not to preserve the experience but to savor it, to make it more real, more visible and palpable, than in actual life.” Characteristics of Journal Writing
Captures an impression and instills a touch of personal philosophy;
It should recreate a situation through inclusion of specific details. Autobiographical Narrative
Journal writing is like jumping into the water in order to become less fearful of the experience and to accustom yourself to it while,
Autobiographical narrative – a story about a personal experience – requires more of a commitment to a plan. Characteristics of Autobiographical Narrative
The incident should be interesting to the readers.
A short narrative should have a single, unifying action.
The characters should seem real. Describe only feature important in establishing personality or the character’s link to the situation.
The setting should contribute to the narrative. Descriptive details that establish the place of the action or indicate the importance of the setting are necessary. Discourse Techniques of Autobiographical Narrative 1. Dramatic and Descriptive Approaches

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Dramatic - relied heavily on dialogue; the action moves forward and characters develop through direct discourse; the characters speak as they might in real conversation.
Descriptive – relying primarily on description of the action and conversation. 2. Creating suspense
Narrative writing builds suspense by creating a conflict or obstacle to be overcome. 3. Maintaining consistency
Exhibits consistency of character, resolution of the action and setting (historically accurate and suitable to the purpose). Personal Essay
Less intimate and more public than journal writing and autobiographical narrative;
Deals with personal experience and expresses a personal attitude toward the subject but the emphasis is on explaining the effect it has rather than re-creating an experience;
Writer focuses on some generalization or conclusion than presenting the story in a definite order;
Focuses on a central idea or theme observed in a series of incidents or as some emotional response to a particular incident;
Opening generalizations or these focusing statements can usually be found on the first and second sentence of the opening paragraph. Aside from introducing the theme, it also establishes the tone of the essay and indicates the writer’s attitude toward the subject;
Essential ingredients used for writing a personal essay: opening statement and brief narrative examples;

In journal writing, you gain fluency and confidence. Retelling an experience strengthens your ability to add colorful details and helps you find your writing voice. Learning the organizational skills of the personal essay

4 will aid you inmaking the transition to the more complex structure of expository andpersuasive writing.

Informative Voice: Descriptive Writing
Purpose: to share with readers some object, scene, activity, person or mood that you have experienced;
Description emphasizes some other person, place or object in order to provide information and convey a sense of it;
Description adds to our enjoyment of life;
Descriptive writing will help you develop a more discriminating sense of language by realizing the descriptive qualities of words, understanding the importance of selecting the right one and recognizing the different effects created by their different shades of meaning.
Learning how to expand sentences, rearrange elements and reword for greater sentence variety. Forms of Descriptive Writing: Personal Description and Factual Description Personal Description
It can be compared to a painting; artists portray only what they observe and choose to represent – may enlarge, diminish, discolor or otherwise distort or transform the subject as they wish;
Assumes that material substances have no innate reality because each is transformed by the minds and senses of people;
Description, like other forms of discourse, is determined by the purpose, audience and occasion;

Purpose Approach Appeal Tone Coverage Language Uses

FACTUAL

PERSONAL

to present information objective, dispassionate to reason matter-of-fact complete, exact simple, clear writing in science industry, government

to present an impression subjective, interpretative to the senses emotional selective, some facts rich, suggestive novels, short stories, plays poems, personal narratives,

5 professions, business

some essays

WRITING

DESCRIPTION

PERSONAL


Deal with your response to the external world
Involve your impressions and feelings occupy center stage mainly reveal something about yourself

share it with something else mainly portray something else

Organization
Begin similarly as personal essays with an expression of the writer’s main impression;
Aside from stating the dominant impression, you must consider point of view – static or moving observer;
The usual way is to rely on a time sequence and details may be organized spatially; Style
Should be concerned about how to interest readers – strong, dramatic, intriguing, controversial or provocative statements in the introduction or at the beginning of paragraphs can help;
Effectiveness stems from its wealth of detail that mainly relied on the writer’s senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste; richness of language (evocative); and well-developed sentences;
Attempts to create and maintain reader’s interest are stylistic qualities of personal descriptions. Tone
Must clearly indicate your attitude toward your subject, which can be established by how the writer treats factual information.

6 Factual Description
Factual description is to a photograph; although photographers do select the angle, light, composition, lens opening and shutter speed, their function is greatly limited by the subject; and generally their purpose is limited: to represent the subject as it exists to most people.
Assumes that material substances exist independently of the beholder;
Purpose: to present information objectively and clearly. The writer’s attitude toward the subject is not revealed. Tone is matter-of-fact, the language simple, clear and exact. Organization
Mainly concerned with physical data, although other information maybe included;
Sometimes it follows a prescribed pattern that is established in a particular publication, company or book;
Begins with what readers can see proceeding then to what they can hear and so on with other sense perceptions that will help to identify the subject. Style
Bear in mind the reader’s purpose for reading;
Language is simple and specific;
Sentences are relatively short and simple;
Most begin with subject-verb combinations and omit the first-person pronoun (I). Tone
Must be appropriate to the objective, straight-forward presentation of the material;
Readers should be unaware of the writer;
No judgment should be rendered, no opinion stated, no feeling expressed;
Factual, impartial quality is best achieved by a matter-of-fact tone with no excesses, no emotions; Descriptions Of People: Factual Description

7 Character Sketch
More common and difficult;
Referred also as profiles, literary portraits, or biographical sketches;
May be used in recommendations, testimonials and statements about people;


Delineates a person’s main personality traits; it may include some factual details about a persons’ appearance, but it does more than tell what people look or seem like; it shows what they are;
It may be about a type – campus jocks, cheerleaders, art students, religious fanatics or TV devotees – rather an individual revealing the characteristics common to the members of a group;
Serious or satirical;
Treat the subject as a composite of most members of the particular group;
Anecdotes, personal narrative and dialogue are all important in vividly portraying someone or some type;
A formal structure: introduction, body, conclusion; Introduction – when a character sketch is an independent piece, the introduction should serve both to interest readers in the person and to present his or her most striking characteristic. Body – should be organized according to either a chronological or an analytical pattern.
Flashback technique could be used to review the subject’s birth, family and early life;
Biographical approach should be used cautiously because often it is uninteresting, inappropriate or irrelevant;
Second option: analytical pattern consists of dividing the main trait into parts and elaborating on each;
Don’t declare, prove it if your subject is foolish or fascinating;

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Lack of specific detail, proof and evidence results in an unconvincing paper. Conclusion – necessary to give readers a sense of completion and a final glimpse of the character’s main trait.
It can be in the form of quotation, short anecdote, brief observation and reference to the subject’s future.

Explanatory Voice: Expository Writing
Referred to as explaining, informing or sounding off;
Exposition meaning “setting forth”;
Purpose: to explain by classifying, defining, analyzing, exploring, interpreting and evaluating;
Can be relatively objective or highly subjective (reflect personal opinion);
Writing for the working world. Forms of Expository Writing: Process Description, Classification, Definition & Analysis Process Description
Describing a process traces the steps involved;
How-to-do-it description; 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Do I need to interest readers in the process? What must they know or obtain before beginning the process? What essential steps must they take to complete it? In what order should they take these steps? What is the purpose of each?


Factual but can be personal;
Appropriate approach depends on the subject. Classification

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Explaining what something is composed of – requires that you divide a broad subject into its component parts;
Important aspect of definition;
Can also be useful in papers in which evaluation is the objective. Techniques 1. You should have a clear-cut basis for establishing class. 2. You should be able to divide your class into at least two subclasses. 3. You should determine subclasses according to the subject matter and the purpose of your paper. 4. You should include all pertinent subclasses. Definition
Crucial to clear communication;
Connotative meaning of a word depends on numerous factors: context, age of the user, geographical dialect, used in specialized language;
Choice of definition depends on purpose, complexity, or difficulty, of the word. Synonym Definition
Simple method of defining by adding one or more similar terms which can clarify an unfamiliar word quickly and easily;
Particularly helpful in supplying a brief explanation for those readers who need it without boring or offending those who do not;
Should not be used with key or complex terms which needs more complete explanations; Illustrative Definition
Relies on examples to explain terms;
Consists of naming or pointing to a specific person, place or thing to illustrate the meaning. Negative Definition
Defining a term by indicating what it is not (e.g. widow: a woman who has not remarried although her husband is not living);

10 Formal Definition
Begins by describing your term as part of a larger group and then indicate how it differs from other members of that group. Extended Definition 1. Establishment of a class
Using the method of formal definition: can be to examine historical origin and meaning of a word and to examine some crucial aspect of the item in great detail. 2. Extended discussion of the term
Subclassification, discussion of the history of the word, extensive comparison with a similar item, historical or sociological analysis of the term; Analysis
Concerned with the why demand that you rely on your personal domain – drawing inferences, making judgments, expressing your opinions about the subject;
Sorting process but goes one step further; it deals with the relationship of each part to the others and to the whole;
Asking questions as these: 1. Why is each part or step important to the others? How related? 2. In what ways are the part similar? In what ways different? 3. Do they have an effect on ____? Why? 4. Why are the parts important to the whole? Describing Relationships in an Analysis
By comparing and contrasting – pointing out the similarities and differences between the items that make up the subject, or comparing them with items more familiar to your audience;
By showing the causes of a certain effect – often used in reporting a scientific experiment or observation; also used when writers set forth their opinion about something.

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Tips/Hints for writing in different forms Personal Writing: Journal
Buy a special notebook, particularly wide-lined with a stiff back and small enough to carry it with you.
Try to write something everyday, even if only a few sentences. The entries can be about any subject especially if the incident is fresh.
Try to restrict each journal entry to an account of only one major or unusual subject.
Be more concerned with capturing every significant detail of the experience than with the mechanics of writing.
Tell it in your own language. Try to avoid slang and idiomatic expressions, which may not be understood by readers.
Read your entries a day or two later. Rewrite the ones you think were most successful in re-creating the experience to see how you can improve them. Autobiographical Narrative
Choose a situation that makes a point about human relationships that contains some key idea.
Try to limit your paper to a single action—that is one incident or situation that includes several closely related events. Try to develop your characters through their dialogue and action.
Before you start to write, choose the narrative technique—dramatic or descriptive—that best suits your purpose.
Keep characters, setting, and action consistent throughout the narrative.
Choose details and events carefully.
Try to add interest and suspense by including some kind of conflict in your narrative. Personal Essay
In the opening statement or paragraph, introduce your theme which reveals your attitude toward it.

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Provide focus by expressing this attitude throughout the paper.
Include briefly sketched narratives or anecdotes to add life and interest.
Remember that it often ends with a humorous twist or sardonic observation that reinforces the content and tone of the opening statement, sometimes serves as a link to the introduction. Prewriting Tactics for Personal Writing and other Tips
Freewriting – coming up with a possible subject by writing down whatever enters your head. Let your subconscious mind ferment. If not successful in the first try, rest and do it again.
Focused freewriting – second step of the prewriting technique. Write without a pause for about ten minutes, rest, then read what you have written, looking for ideas that you might develop further.
Asking sets of systematic questions about your topic – a discovery technique.
Journals can serve as a source for ideas for writing longer papers and as writing practice.
Use natural, clear and lively language but avoid using overworked verbs, worn-out nouns, tired adjectives and petrified phrases. Prewriting Tactics for Descriptive Writing and other Tips
Find a subject: through descriptions based on memory, observations, or a combination of these methods, noting (if a subject for a description fails to come to you, then go to it, and charting (put into columns possible topics with the general themes such as people, occasions, locale and others).
Testing for details: through sketching, individual senses, changing perspectives through division (divide places into its separate parts), angle and time.
Restrict the subject.
Formulate an overall impression of your subject, one that will give it shape and focus. Personal Descriptions
Organization: Clearly organized by space, time or both. But opening statements should attract readers and establish the dominant mood. The writer may be static or moving; if moving, clearly notify readers of position changes.

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Style: Details are essential in picturing whatever is described. Also vital are rich and suggestive words and phrases to evoke emotional responses in readers. Listing details accordingly to their sensory appeals is helpful. Sentences may be lengthy and involved, and the first-person pronoun may be used.
Tone: the description should be written with feeling. The writer’s voice—casual, warm, enthusiastic, caustic, bitter, or whatever—should be heard. The implication: Here is how I feel about it. Factual Description
Organization: Usually spatial: top to bottom, left to right, large to small, and so on. Be logical, consistent: Do not shift back and forth.
Style: No need to attract reader interest. Language should be simple and specific. Technical words that readers would understand may be used. Emphasis on nouns, adjectives—not verbs. The passive may be effective, the first-person pronoun ineffective. Sentences should be short and simple.
Tone: Factual, serious, formal. The writer’s voice should not be heard. The description should sound as if it were written by a scientific, objective, detached authority. The implication: Here are the facts, only the facts. Prewriting Tactics for Expository Writing
Select a subject: use the prewriting techniques of personal writing or viewpointing (considering your subject from different perspectives).
Generate ideas about a subject by jotting down ideas on paper.
Limit your subject.
Adapting the subject for readers.
Formulate a thesis sentence or working statement with conviction.
Develop a plan: make an outline using either cause-and-effect organization or comparison-and-contrast organization.

END OF ENRICHMENT A

Reference: The Writing Commitment third edition by Michael E. Adelstein and Jean G. Pival

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