| Basic Skills English Laboratory |
| FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS |
|
|
| 1. What should I write? I don't
know anything about the topic. |
The key is to write about yourself and the "topic"
at the same time. Instead of thinking "I don't know anything
about that", you might ask yourself "How do I feel about
that?" The only way you know how you feel about anything is to
think of any connection or experience you might have related to the
topic. In other words, the professors do not want to know how much
you know about the "topic". They want to see some writing.
You are not in a sociology class; you are in a writing class.
In the English 088 final exam, you are usually asked to write about
experiences from your life. In other words, tell a story. In the ACT
final, it is a good idea to be thinking about your life and experiences
as it relates to anything in the situation or scenario that will be
presented to you. It is from your experience that you will come up
with the reasons why you support one proposal or the other. |
|
| 2. How long should it be? |
| The professor will usually tell you the length that
he or she is expecting. Generally, however, you are expected to write
a page and a half to two pages. For THE eng 088 final, you are expected
to write at least a page and a half. For the ACT exam, you are expected
to write at least two pages. |
|
| 3. How many paragraphs should
it be? |
| Nobody is counting. However, if you are writing a page
and a half to two pages, you are probably going to have at least three
to four paragraphs. When you get to the ACT writing test you might
even end up with five paragraphs. However, once again nobody is counting. |
|
| 4. What is a thesis? |
| Your professor will probably explain this many times
during the semester. Also, use the index in your grammar book. Generally
speaking, if you can sum up what you are writing about in one sentence
- that is the thesis. |
|
| 5. What about errors? |
| The first thing you must know if your writing is ever
going to get better, is that writing is at least two steps. First,
you write it. Then you fix it. If you stop and try to figure out if
something needs to be changed in your writing you have done two incorrect
things. First, you have interrupted the flow of your thoughts. Secondly,
when you go back to proofread for errors, that is exactly the word
you won't check, because you will say to yourself, " I already
fixed that one." And of course that will probably be the place
where you made an error. |
|
| 6. What is the best way to proofread? |
| The best way to proofread is to read out loud. That's
right - out loud with your voice above a whisper. You have to coordinate
your voice, your eyes and your ears so that you are looking at the
same spot on the page that you are reading. Don't let your eyes get
ahead of your voice or you will miss some of your errors. |
| Remember most errors are at the ends of words. Listen
for the "s", and "ed". You may be pronouncing
the very letter that is missing from the end of the word. |
| When you read your writing over, you sometimes hear
a word that you are not sure about; instead of dealing with it, you
go right by it. You can not afford to do that. If something doesn't
"sound" right, there is probably a reason. Go back to the
sentence. Identify the word you are not sure about, and try different
possible choices until you find the choice that sounds the best. You
may not hear it the first time. Remember each time you read the sentence
over with each choice, you must read the sentence from the beginning.
If you hear the different choices three or four times, one of those
choices will sound better than the others. Try it. See if it works
for you. |
| Most of the time, the word that is not going to "sound
right" will be what is known as an irregular verb - that is,
"have", "has", "had" or "was",
"were" or "do", "did", and "done".
The number of choices is usually two or three. How long does it take
to say a sentence? 5 seconds? Remember when you read out loud and
listen to the choices, the odds of you getting it correct increases.
When you guess the correct choice, the odds are only 50/50. |
|
| 7. What do I do about run-ons
and fragments? |
| First of all a sentence can contain one word, "Hello",
or it can be two hundred words. It depends on how complicated the
thought is. It does not depend on how many words you are dealing with.
Right now, when a student is told that they have a problem with run-ons
what usually happens is the student will say to him or herself "I
have to make my sentences shorter". That is not the way to go.
You will probably make more mistakes. |
| Writing is "talking to the page." If you
make your writing "talk" again by reading it out loud, you
will be more likely to hear where the period goes. The issue is not
how many words are on the page. The issue is: does it make more sense
to stop or more sense to keep going? In other words, you can never
be certain of any period until you've passed it. Only then will you
realize whether it makes more sense to stop or more sense to keep
going. You have to stop being afraid of short sentences and stop being
afraid of long sentences. You have to trust yourself and listen to
your words to hear whether it makes more sense to stop, or more sense
to go on. Like anything else, practice makes perfect. |
A helpful technique is to tap on the table every
time you hear a period as you read your writing out loud. If none
of these techniques appeal to you go to the following web sites
for additional help: |
| |
|
|
| |
 Back
|
| |
The City University
of New York
