social capital

Top 10 Tips for Writing in All Your Classes

By Communications Lab Supervisor

Rachel Olsen

1. Understand the Purpose of Your Writing Task: Each type of writing carries with it unique traits based on its nature. A concert report for Music Appreciation will require very different preparation and expression of ideas than a nursing care plan. Be sure you understand the objectives of your writing task. If not, don’t be afraid to ask a teacher, tutor, or supervisor about how to proceed.

2. Pre-Write. Then Pre-Write Some More: It’s not enough to simply know your topic by name; writers must plan out the specific claims, reasons, ideas, and details they intend to express. Likewise, pre-writing allows writers to experiment with ideas early on in the writing process, thus the final version of a writing task will contain more specific and original thoughts.

3. Know Your Audience: Whether you are writing a Rogerian argument for an English class or a critical analysis for Political Science, it is crucial to become acquainted with the individual(s) who will read your writing. Every audience has a unique set of values, and showing readers that you understand what is important to them is one of the most powerful positions a writer can occupy.

4. Allow Plenty of Time for Research: Writers who devote a significant amount of time to research for a writing project will be able to locate higher quality sources, and perhaps even track down information that can only be acquired through an interview or interlibrary loan. Rushing through a Google search will likely yield less complete information from a less reliable source.

5. Cite Your Sources: Attributing ideas and data to the original source is imperative! Accurate citation of sources is a skill that takes practice, but your credibility as a writer is at stake if you plagiarize—even by accident.

6. Understand Your Writing Process: Different writers use different approaches to complete a writing assignment, and that is okay! Don’t beat yourself up because you crash through a rough draft while your classmate drafts meticulously. Relish the messy paths of your cluster diagram, or admire the neatness of your outline. Accept your approach, and be mindful of completing a writing project that is on time and of high quality.

7. Stay Organized: Just like your writing process, your methods of organization may also be unique, but they also need to work for you. Develop a system that helps you keep track of your writing materials, research, notes, and copies of drafts. Save multiple copies of your work.

8. Seek Feedback: Sharing writing with others can be uncomfortable, but skilled writers know that gathering feedback from readers is an invaluable part of the writing process. Ask a colleague, classmate, instructor, or tutor to read your work and discuss it with you. An outside perspective will help you identify areas that need clarification, development, or revised organization. Furthermore, writers who take the risk of asking for feedback will likely receive positive encouragement as well!

9. Revise. Then Revise Some More: Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are essays, reports, and proposals. Revision is a tough task to execute, but your writing will benefit tremendously. After an initial draft is complete, writers often see areas that could be re- organized, teased out, or even deleted. Give yourself feedback about your work, and then make a plan to implement it.

10. Address the Global before the Local: Only after you have revised and re-worked global concerns such as your content, style, and organization is it then time to polish the grammar and mechanics, or local concerns, of your writing project. True, writing that is free of grammatical errors will showcase a writer’s credibility, but these local concerns are constantly in flux while the global aspects of the writing are being solidified. Save the commas and typos for last!

Bettertogether: Conclusion – Changing the Wind – 100 Things You Can Do 1

Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America. John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 JFK St., Cambridge, MA 02138

What to do: 100 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BUILD SOCIAL CAPITAL

Social capital is built through hundreds of little and big actions we take every day. We’ve gotten you started with a list of 100 ideas, drawn from suggestions made by many people and groups. Try some of these or try your own. We need to grow this list. If you have other ideas, post them at: http://www.bettertogether.org

You know what to do. Build connections to people. Build trust with others. Get involved.

1. Organize a social gathering to welcome a new neighbor

2. Attend town meetings 3. Register to vote and vote 4. Support local merchants 5. Volunteer your special

skills to an organization 6. Donate blood 7. Start a community garden 8. Mentor someone of a

different ethnic or religious group

9. Surprise a new neighbor by making a favorite dinner–and include the recipe

10. Tape record your parents' earliest recollections and share them with your children

11. Plan a vacation with friends or family

12. Don't gossip 13. Help fix someone's flat

tire 14. Organize or participate in

a sports league 15. Join a gardening club 16. Attend home parties when

invited 17. Become an organ donor 18. Attend your children's

athletic contests, plays and recitals

19. Get to know your children's teachers

20. Join the local Elks, Kiwanis, or Knights of Columbus

21. Get involved with Brownies or Cub/Boy/Girl Scouts

22. Start a monthly tea group

23. Speak at or host a monthly brown bag lunch series at your local library

24. Sing in a choir 25. Get to know the clerks

and salespeople at your local stores

26. Attend PTA meetings 27. Audition for community

theater or volunteer to usher

28. Give your park a weatherproof chess/checkers board

29. Play cards with friends or neighbors

30. Give to your local food bank

31. Participate in walk-a- thons

32. Employers: encourage volunteer/community groups to hold meetings on your site

33. Volunteer in your child's classroom or chaperone a field trip

34. Join or start a babysitting cooperative

35. Attend school plays 36. Answer surveys when asked 37. Businesses: invite local

government officials to speak at your workplace

38. Attend Memorial Day parades and express appreciation for others

39. Form a local outdoor activity group

40. Participate in political campaigns

41. Attend a local budget committee meeting

42. Form a computer group for local senior citizens

43. Help coach Little League or other youth sports – even if you don't have a kid playing

44. Help run the snack bar at the Little League field

45. Form a "tools cooperative" with neighbors and share ladders, snow blowers, etc.

46. Start a lunch gathering or a discussion group with co- workers

47. Offer to rake a neighbor's yard or shovel his/her walk

48. Join a carpool 49. Employers: give employees

time (e.g., 3 days per year to work on civic projects)

50. Plan a "Walking Tour" of a local historic area

51. Eat breakfast at a local gathering spot on Saturdays

Bettertogether: Conclusion – Changing the Wind – 100 Things You Can Do 1

Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America. John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 JFK St., Cambridge, MA 02138

52. Have family dinners and read to your children

53. Run for public office 54. Stop and make sure the

person on the side of the highway is OK

55. Host a block party or a holiday open house

56. Start a fix-it group–friends willing to help each other clean, paint, garden, etc.

57. Offer to serve on a town committee

58. Join the volunteer fire department

59. Go to church...or temple...or go outside with your children–talk to them about spirituality

60. If you grow tomatoes, plant extra for an lonely elder who lives nearby – better yet, ask him/her to teach you and others how to can the extras

61. Ask a single diner to share your table for lunch

62. Stand at a major intersection holding a sign for your favorite candidate

63. Persuade a local restaurant to have a designated “meet people” table

64. Host a potluck supper before your Town Meeting

65. Take dance lessons with a friend

66. Say "thanks" to public servants – police, firefighters, town clerk…

67. Fight to keep essential local services in the downtown area–your post office, police station, school, etc.

68. Join a nonprofit board of directors

69. Gather a group to clean up a local park or cemetery

70. When somebody says "government stinks," suggest they help fix it

71. Turn off the TV and talk with friends or family

72. Hold a neighborhood barbecue

73. Bake cookies for new neighbors or work colleagues

74. Plant tree seedlings along your street with neighbors and rotate care for them

75. Volunteer at the library 76. Form or join a bowling

team 77. Return a lost wallet or

appointment book 78. Use public

transportation and start talking with those you regularly see

79. Ask neighbors for help and reciprocate

80. Go to a local folk or crafts festival

81. Call an old friend 82. Register for a class – then go 83. Accept or extend an invitation 84. Talk to your kids or parents

about their day 85. Say hello to strangers 86. Log off and go to the park 87. Ask a new person to join a

group for a dinner or an evening

88. Participate in pot luck meals 89. Volunteer to drive someone 90. Say hello when you spot an

acquaintance in a store 91. Host a movie night 92. Exercise together or take walks

with friends or family 93. Assist with or create your town

or neighborhood's newsletter 94. Organize a neighborhood litter

pick-up – with lawn games afterwards

95. Collect oral histories from older town residents

96. Join a book club discussion or get the group to discuss local issues

97. Volunteer to deliver Meals-on- Wheels in your neighborhood

98. Start a children’s story hour at your local library

99. Be real. Be humble. Acknowledge others' self- worth

100. Tell friends and family about social capital and why it matters