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Elements of writing (part 3) - Coggle Diagram
Elements of writing (part 3)
Singular or Plural
Nouns should agree with verbs, and pronouns with nouns
Uncountable nouns and irregular plurals usually have no final ‘s’
General statements normally use the plural
Each’/‘every’ are followed by singular noun and verb forms
Two linked nouns should agree
if a verb has more than one subject it must be plural, even if the preceding noun is singular
Certain ‘group’ nouns (e.g. team/army/government) can be followed by either a singular or plural verb
Uncountable nouns
Remember :!:
A piece of advice
Three patterns of behaviour
An item of equipment
Six members of staff
materials
wood
rubber
iron
paper
used either as countable or uncountable nouns, often with quite different meanings
further examples: business/capital/experience
general concepts (love/fear/hope)
Style
Do not use idiomatic or colloquial vocabulary
use standard English
Use vocabulary accurately
Be as precise as possible when dealing with facts or figures
Avoid phrases such as about a hundred or hundreds of years ago
Conclusions should use tentative language
Avoid absolute statements such as unemployment causes crime.
Avoid adverbs that show your personal attitude: luckily, remarkably
Use the full verb forms
use the passive more than active
Avoid :!:
• like for introducing examples. Use such as or for instance.
• thing and combinations nothing or something. Use factor, issue or topic
• lots of. Use a significant/considerable number
• little/big. Use small/large.
• ‘get’ phrases such as get better/worse. Use improve and deteriorate.
• good/bad are simplistic. Use positive/negative
Do not use question forms such as Why did war break out in 1914? Instead, use statements
numbering sections of your text, except in reports and long essays. Use conjunctions and signposting expressions to introduce new sections
etc. or and so on. Insert and before the last item
using two-word verbs such as go on or bring up if there is a suitable synonym
repetition and redundancy
Varying sentence length
Short sentences are clear and easy to read
Long sentences are more interesting, but can be difficult to construct and read
Effective writing normally uses a mixture of long and short sentences
The use of caution
help avoid making statements that can be contradicted
Areas where caution is particularly important include:
outlining a hypothesis that needs to be tested (e.g. in an introduction)
discussing the results of a study, which may not be conclusive
commenting on the work of other writers
making predictions (normally with may or might)
to avoid making statements that are too simplistic
can be shown in several ways:
modal verb(may)
adverb(frequently)
verb(tend to)
Using modifiers
use quite, rather or fairly before an adjective
a fairly accurate summary
a rather inconvenient location
quite a significant discovery
Remember :!:
quite is often used before the article. It is generally used positively
rather tends to be used negatively
Visual Information
Types
Diagram
structure
Table
statistical display
Map
location
Pie chart
proportion
Bar chart
comparison
Line graph
changes in time