Writing well is difficult for many students. Some of them have great ideas, but struggle with presenting them in an eloquent fashion. I admit that I make many writing mistakes. I am not an English teacher. I try to take time to edit my work. However, I have several jobs and it is difficult to find the time to perfect each blog entry. It was difficult for me to let go of the notion that my writing had to be perfect. My father and sister were English teachers. My daughter is an English teacher. I would love to have the time to work on perfecting my writing skills. I understand that my students may feel the same way.
That is why I have sympathy for my students who make common writing mistakes. In the article The Top 10 Links for Help with APA, there is a link that I hope the readers of this blog have time to examine. The link is to the Owl Purdue’s Exercise Page. On this page, there are some very valuable exercises that help teach some very important writing skills. I wish that there was more of an explanation as to the reason why these rules are in place. However, sometimes the explanation regarding the rules may be confusing.
I highly recommend checking out some of the more helpful exercises from that page. These include:
- Identifying adjectives and adverbs – Check out this link if you have difficulty understanding when to use words like correct vs. correctly.
- Understanding Appositives – Check out this link if you don’t know how to use a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun right beside it. For example: My daughter, the English teacher, will join us.
- When to use A or An – Some students have difficulty with a and an. This exercise will help demonstrate when to use each one.
- Understanding Account and Noncount Nouns – In an article by ChompChomp the author explains, “Nouns name people, places, and things. Many nouns have both a singular and plural form: a surfer/surfers, a restaurant/restaurants, a pickle/pickles. Some nouns, however, have only a singular form; you cannot add a number to the front or an s to the end of these words. This group of nouns is called noncount.”
- Identifying Prepositions – Prepositions connect nouns and pronouns. You may have been told not to end a sentence in a preposition. Some experts claim this is a myth. Check out Grammar Girl’s article Ending a Sentence in a Preposition. It may be acceptable to some professors. However, I still prefer that my students do not do this.
- Tense Consistency – Many students have difficulty with recognizing shifts in sentences. Some students switch back and forth from present to past to future tense within the same sentence. If you have difficulty with this, please check out this link.
- How to Punctuate Correctly – I have had many students who have difficulty with semicolons and other punctuation issues. This link has some very helpful exercises.
- Spelling Exercises – Students often rely on spell-checking devices. Unfortunately, the choices offered are not always correct. Check out the article Can Spell Check Make Things Worse? The Most Commonly Misspelled Words.
- Sentence Structure Issues – Check out this link, if you have difficulty with sentence structure, fragments, independent and dependent clauses, and subject-verb agreement.
- Eliminating Wordiness – It is very easy to write in overly long sentences. This exercise can help determine which words can be eliminated.
- How to Paraphrase – It is extremely important to learn how to paraphrase correctly. Learning how to do this may eliminate many instances of plagiarism.
- Rules for Writing Numbers – Many students may be unaware of the rule that numbers under 10 may be written as a word like one or three. Numbers over 10 may be listed as a number like 11 or 17.
I also recommend checking out Grammar Girl’s website for additional writing and grammar assistance.
