Write a 150 word reflection in email format about what you learned in the attached files

top-15-ways-to-improve-your-writing.docx

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MGT 309_Spring 2013

TOP 15 ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING

Self-editing is a difficult task. Good news is usually the first work does contain WHAT you want to say. The problem is that the key points are buried or jumbled in the sea of words. The following is a set of activities that applied, significantly change your work.

Directions:

Choose a paragraph, and carry out each activity to that paragraph. Treat each paragraph as if was a story.

	Activity	Because
1	Remove As, Like, To, When, If, Although, This, Once, At, (prepositions) from the beginning of each sentence.	This is because the subject, your main point, your argument is in the middle of the sentence, ‘hidden’ from the eye of the reader. These sentences are not easy to read, and makes ‘navigation’ of the text difficult. Check every one of your sentences and move the middle section of the sentence to the front.
2	Break up long sentences.	Make sure there is only one idea, concept, or fact per sentence. We comprehend sentences at 8 words, after that reading comprehension falls.
3	Make sure each sentence has the most important idea of key words at the front of the sentence.
4	Remove any unnecessary words.	Get rid of the clutter – which, when, in case of….
5	Be more explicit; don’t let the reader have to guess too much.	State the obvious.
6	Remove sentence starts with a word ending in …ing	For example, During my career….
7	Use Active Verbs	I study; I discovered. Eliminate the passive verb construction like I was taught, I have been writing
8	Walk around reading the paragraph out loud. Revise what is awkward.
9	Review the paragraph structure.	Take the main idea in the last paragraph and make sure the reader knows the connection to the first sentence .
10	Walk around reading the paragraph out loud. Revise what is awkward.
11	Repeat for every paragraph.
12	Repeat for each section.
13	Repeat for the whole paper.
14	Read from back to front to spot punctuation errors.
15	Read from back to front to spot spelling errors.

Dr. Mike Howard, Programme Advisor, Institute for Work Based Learning

Adapted from ‘Middlesex Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Engaging the Digital Generation in Academic Literacy, 29th June 2010. The Self-Editor: a strategy for improving reflective writing.