Teachers and Learners: This is for you
How to become a good academic writer
This post might be clearer if you are studying in university or are an advanced learner of English. But even if you aren’t preparing for your IELTS, TOEFL or TOIC exam or studying in university, you might find these suggestions useful. Teachers of English could also use these tips if they are preparing a writing course.
Below, you’ll see some examples of poor writing with answers that hint at how you might want to improve them.
1. Don’t abbrev.
Answer: I do not is better than I don’t.
2. Check to see if you any words out.
Answer: Check to see if you have left any words out.
3. Be carefully to use adjectives and adverbs correct.
Answer: Be careful to use adjectives and adverbs carefully.
4. About sentence fragments.
Answer: Do not use sentence fragments. Visit this site to learn more about sentence fragments.
5. Don’t use no double negatives.
Answer: Do not use double negatives.
6. Don’t use commas, that aren’t necessary.
Answer: Do not use commas that are not necessary.
7. Its important to use apostrophe’s right.
Answer: It is important to use apostrophes correctly.
8. Only Proper Nouns should be capitalised. also a sentence should begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop .
Answer: Only proper nouns should be capitalised. Also, a sentence should begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop.
Use hyphens in compound-words, not just in any two-word phrase.
Answer: Use hyphens in compound words, not just in any two-word phrase.
There are, of course, more golden rules. Try these grammar and punctuation suggestions and let me know how it goes.
Good luck,
Grammar Girl
Grammar Girl, the answer to number 3 is “Be careful to use adverbs and adjectives CORRECTLY” not carefully. Those are good tips, though.
Well done, Becky. It’s good to know you’re reading through the tips ‘carefully.’ :-)
- Grammar Girl