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REBECCA G. ADAMS

1. Home Page
2. Courses:
   1. SOC 101
   2. SOC 230W
      1. Syllabus
      2. Guidelines For Reading
         Ethnographic Studies
      3. Peer Review Guidelines
      4. Writing Prompts
      5. Friendship Vocabulary
      6. Introductory Writing Clinic
   3. FMS 108
3. Curriculum Vitae
4. Publications by Type:
   1. Books
   2. Journal Articles
   3. Chapters
   4. Prefaces
   5. Newsletter Articles
   6. Book Reviews
5. Publications by Topic:
   1. The Deadhead Community
   2. Friendship
   3. Gerontology
6. Major Roles:
   1. Professor of Sociology
   2. Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee
   3. Chair of the Faculty Senate
   4. Masthead Editor of Personal Relationships

UNCG Home > College of Arts and Sciences > Sociology > Rebecca G. Adams Site Location

INTRODUCTORY WRITING CLINIC

1. Planning
   1. Select a topic if one has not been assigned to you (e.g., definition of friendship)
   2. Narrow your topic (e.g., opinions about what friendship means, theoretical conceptualization of friendship, what researchers have discovered about how people define friendship)
   3. Find a thesis (you will have to do this for each part of your writing prompts)
      1. A thesis is not a fact that can be immediately proven by recourse to recorded information, but a hypothesis worth discussing, an argument with more than one possible conclusion.
      2. Your thesis will reveal your orientation to the topic and will foreshadow the conclusions you will eventually reach.
      3. The introduction of your essay should have a thesis sentence that expresses in a nutshell what you intend to accomplish.
   4. Make sure you understand the purpose of the assignment. Are you supposed to be informing or persuading? Usually writing involves a bit of both, but you should be clear on what the primary task is.
   5. Defining your audience.
      1. You must write with the intended audience in mind. In this case, the intended audience is primarily me and secondarily the other students in this class.
      2. Make your presentation as complete as possible, writing always as if to an audience whose previous knowledge of your topic is limited to information easily available to the general public. Do not leave out things you think the professor already knows or write in a way the professor might understand but the general public would not.
2. Using invention strategies
   1. Free writing-set yourself a time limit (e.g., three minutes) and keep writing for that amount of time regardless of what you are inspired to write. Try to stay on the topic, but don't let the difficulty of finding relevant things to say stop you from continuing. When you are finished, look over what you have written for useful tidbits.
   2. Brainstorming-make a list of ideas about the topic
   3. Asking questions-Who? What? Where? Why? How? When? Elaborate on these general questions in ways that make them relevant to the topic you are examining.
   4. Flexibility-Be ready to change your orientation when you notice your initial one is not working.
3. Organization by Outline
   1. Primary rule-ideas of equal weight are placed on the same level within the outline
   2. Your outline will reveal how your ideas are linked logically and will serve as a skeleton of the essay
   3. Formal outline (write on board)

First Main Idea

First subordinate idea

Reason, example or illustration

Reason, example or illustration

Detail supporting reason 2

Detail supporting reason 2

Second subordinate idea

Second Main Idea

1. Note that each level of the paper must have more than one entry; for there to be an A, there must also be at least a B
2. Writing Drafts
   1. Rough draft
      1. Not every word must be the exact right one
      2. Give yourself sufficient time to write.
      3. Stick to your plan, but be willing to change it.
   2. Authority-be convincing, sound like you know what you are talking about
      1. Avoid stilted sentences, weak phrasing, and cliches
      2. Select the right level of formality-even if you feel comfortable with a professor, make sure you let them know you take them and the assignment seriously
      3. Avoid jargon or at least define every term that you use clearly.
      4. Use descriptive language to engage the readers-provide details instead of merely making abstract generalizations
      5. Use bias-free and gender-neutral language
3. Revise your rough draft before you hand it in for the first time-using a word processor will make this easier
   1. Give yourself adequate time to revise. Sometimes this can take as long as writing the first draft.
   2. Read the paper carefully. I suggest doing it aloud or having a friend do it for you.
   3. Prepare a list of what to check: overall structure, paragraph organization, and sentence structure
   4. Check for unity
      1. make sure that every paragraph relates well to the whole
      2. and that it is in the right place
   5. Check for coherence
      1. make sure there are no gaps in your argument
      2. and that you have transitional elements wherever they are needed.
         1. Transitional elements may be one word or a sentence
         2. They indicate a shift to a new subject matter or how the writer wants the reader to interpret what they have written.
   6. Avoid repetition
      1. Don't use the same words or sentence structure repeatedly
      2. Don't cover the same content more than once.
4. Editing
   1. When you are sure your paper says what it is supposed to say, then you edit it.
   2. This is the stage at which you correct spelling and grammar, noting particular problems you know you typically have with your writing
   3. If you don't know or understand a grammar rule, look it up. The Grammatik and Spell checker within WordPerfect will help you some, but they are not as useful for the naive user as for the expert.
5. Proofing
   1. Check over your paper one last time before handing it in.
   2. Do a final spell check.
   3. Then read the whole thing with pencil in hand, noting mistakes as you go.

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