Essay Tips AND Grading Symbols

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• Essay Tips AND Grading Symbols

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Title

• Have a title for your essay and make it
  interesting and specific to your essay.
• Heres a typical academic one
• The Book of Daniel Multiple Perspectives of
  Prophecy

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The Essay
Introduction (w/thesis)
Body Paragraph Explain Develop Ideas

• An essay must have an introductory paragraph,
  several body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Body Paragraph Explain Develop Ideas
Body Paragraph Explain Develop Ideas
Body Paragraph Explain Develop Ideas
Conclusion
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Thesis
The thesis is the main point that you make in
the essay
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The Body Paragraph

• A body paragraph contains approximately 7-8
  sentences and has a topic sentence.
• What is a topic sentence?
• The key point that you make in the paragraph.

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Basic Sentence Structure

• This is the minimum required for a simple and
  complete sentence with no errors.
• 1. Subject
• 2. Verb
• 3. Complete thought

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Spacing Format

• Indent 5 spaces to indicate a new paragraph.
• Double space your essay.
• Do not put extra spaces between paragraphs.
• Put two spaces between sentences.

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Specificity

• If you are specific in your writing, your
  communication will be more clear and powerful.
• Use details, examples, and precise language.

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Avoid

• Using the second person point of view (p.o.v.)
  you.
• These phrases I believe, I think, In my
  opinion, I personally, I myself personally
  believe that
• Writing like you speak

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Avoid

• Words such as thing, a lot, basically, nice,
  just, something, would, like
• Contractions Use cannot (not cant), I am (not
  Im), I will (not Ill), it is (not its)

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Avoid

• Directly addressing the reader
• Ex You are going to learn about how (or I am
  going to tell you about how) after our family
  trip to Oregon, I realized how dysfunctional my
  family really is .
• Correction
• After our family trip to Oregon, I realized how
  dysfunctional my family really is.

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Avoid

• Announcing your purpose and plan
• Ex In this essay, I am going to discuss how
  MTV has had an enormous impact on the spending
  habits of young people.
• .
• Revised MTV has had an enormous impact on the
  spending habits of young people.

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Avoid

• Abbreviations, and symbols do not use or L.A.
• Using sentences from the prompt.
• Assuming the reader knows the prompt or your
  topic.

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Grading Symbols

• 1. sp.spelling error
• 2. pr.error in using a pronoun
• 3. s/vlack of agreement between the subject and
  the verb.
• Example The student love poetry.
• Correction The student loves poetry.

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Grading Symbols

• 4. frag.sentence fragment, a part of a sentence
  punctuated as a sentence.
• Example Before leaving for work this morning. I
  drank a pot of coffee.
• Correction Before leaving for work this morning,
  I drank a pot of coffee.

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Grading Symbols

• 5. RO (run-on) or CS (comma splice)two or more
  sentences incorrectly punctuated as one.
• Example My cousin invited many of her friends, I
  did not know all the people who were running
  around preparing for the party. (CS)
• Correction My cousin invited many of her
  friends, so I did not know all the people who
  were running around preparing for the party.
• Correction My cousin invited many of her
  friends therefore, I did not know all of the
  people who were running around preparing for the
  party.

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• Example The James Brown concert was amazing I
  couldnt believe a man of his age could dance and
  sing with such energy. (RO)
• Correction The James Brown concert was amazing.
  I couldnt believe a man of his age could dance
  and sing with such energy.

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• Mm misplaced modifier. The modifier is not
  close enough to the word it is modifying.
• Example The phone almost rang ten times.
• Correction The phone rang almost ten times.

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• 7. Dmdangling modifier. There is no word to be
  modified.
• Example Driving down the road, the dog was hit
  by the truck. (Who is driving?)
• Correction The driver of the truck hit the dog.

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• 8. vtlack of verb tense consistency,
  unnecessarily switching from one tense to
  another.
• 9. aerror in using an apostrophe
• 10. cerror in using a comma
• 11. cap.make it a capital letter
• 12. lcmake it a lower case letter

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• 13. red.unnecessary repetition.
• 14. trans insert a transition
• 15. create a new paragraph
• 16. insert something that I specify
• 17. separate (example alot a lot)
• 18. ? bring together
• 19. q error in using quotation marks

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• ww wrong word. The word doesnt make sense in
  the context. It probably means something other
  that what you think it does. Look up the word in
  the dictionary.
• fp faulty parallel structure.
• Example In the mountains, we went fishing,
  biking and walked.
• Correction In the mountains, we went hiking,
  biking, and walking.

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• pass passive voice.
• Example Mistakes were made.
• Correction The quarterback made mistakes.
• mw missing word
• 24. red. redundancy, omit something that is
  unnecessarily repeated
• 25. ? After much effort and time, I cannot
  understand what you are trying to communicate.

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Review these notes before you turn in your first
assignment. Look at the grading symbols after
you have received your first graded work.