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Manual of writing

Manual of writing
Tips to get good results when you write

By
Oscar Andrés Prada Moreno
Juan Diego Diaz González
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Manual of writing
Table of Contents

Abstract……………………………………………………………..…………2
Key words……………………………………………………………………..2
The tips………………………………………………………………………...3
 Our corner………………………………………………………………3
 The draft process………………………………………………………..3
 Parts of the text…………………………………………………………4
 The relations in the text………………………………………………7
 Problems of writing

Conclusion……………………………………………..
References………………………………………………
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Manual of writing

Manual of writing

Abstract
When we have to write, there are many things that we have to consider. This
is not an easy or fast process because the most of the times we will have to
proofread a lot of times to get the final text. Also, in the moment which we
have to proofread we must have clear several edit concepts since in the
elaboration of the writing you may find some questions about punctuation o
maybe about the sequence of a sentence. For these reasons we want to give
some advices that help you to do a good job.
Also, we must say that this manual goes more to the academic writing, but
several of the tips that we are going to give you can be applied to texts of
literature even to love letters if you want. Thus, we hope be a help to the
readers.

Key words
Coherence, cohesion, draft, APA, proofread, gather information, mapping,
conjunctions.
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THE TIPS
 Our corner
Other dimension is the desk, table or corner that the writers use to
create their writings. It is very necessary because the work of find the
rights words needs of a space that the most of the times is very quiet
where the flow of ideas isn’t disrupted with the cry of a child, the call of
a friend or the noisy of the streets. To write well is indispensable to be
concentrated, and an appropriate place help us very much.
The most of the writers look for that place. For example, Gabriel García
Marquez wrote in a room with a specific temperature and a yellow
flower; in the beginnings, Stephen King used a big desk in a room where
his children couldn’t enter, but nowadays he uses a smaller desk in a
corner of the living room; Isabel Allende needs a candle because of this
form she knows the time that she writes and George Vidal said that the
place didn’t care, the important is to write (Losada, 2015).
 The draft process.
Although we know about the theme that we are going to write, the extra
documentation never comes bad, so the first step to elaborate a text is
gather information. This with the target of support very good the ideas
that you want to show and to explain no matter if the text is of
literature, essays or articles. Once, we have the enough information we
can follow with the next step.
Before to write the text is good make us an idea of the topics and the
order that we will follow. That is way, to do a draft using a mapping
process is very important step because when we are writing would be
easier connect the ideas using the bridges and the transitions.
In this process, we can use different styles of mapping, so we can write a
list, do a graphic sequence or use key words. For example, if the topic is
about the advantages and disadvantages of play video games a draft
process could be these:
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Manual of writing

Advantages and
disadvantages of play
video games in English

Advantages Disadvantages

 Develop of  Lose time

creativy  Forget the reality
 Learn vocabulary  Become in adiction
 Entertainmet
 Learn to follow
rules

 Parts of the text

To have clear the
Title structure and sequence
of our writings, to know
the parts that compose
Introduction
it gives to the writer a
better perspective of the
complete idea to
develop. The basic
components in the text
Development are: the title, the
introduction, the
development and the
conclusion.
Conclusion
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1. The title: Usually, we give to the essay or tale the title at the final
when we finish of write because the main ideas are clearer.
Moreover, the title must be a sentence that catches the attention
of the reader. It could be a question, a mysterious sentence that
causes intrigue.

2. The introductory paragraph: It is a very important and complex

part of the text. In this paragraph we find “the hook”, “thesis
statement” and the “summary” of the all writing.
Example:

As we can see, the paragraph starts with a question that make to the
reader to want to know the answer, and the reader gives his own
opinion. Then, the readers compare the text with their thoughts to know
who the author is. That is the hook.
Other important part of the introductory paragraph is the thesis
statement. It is the sentence where we explain the main ideas of the text,
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Manual of writing

the purpose and we give the topics about we are going to talk in the
writing. We have the next example:
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3. The development: This is a set of paragraphs where we support the

ideas. Those paragraphs explain and give examples about the
topic. The construction of these paragraphs is very important
because depending the way that you do it, the arguments can be
stronger or weaker. That is way, we must write and read and write
again until we have the perfect coherence between our
paragraphs. Later, we will show you some techniques and rules to
do stronger arguments.

4. Conclusion: In this piece of text, we need to remember all things

that we write in the development and answer the question of the
text. With this, we finish the text, the essay or tale.
Also, is very important that all parts are connected with the bridges and
the transitions to be stronger the arguments. When we connect the
ideas among the paragraphs, we do the text easier to understand the
main idea, and to the reader is very comfortable to read the writing
without miss the attention.
 The relations in the text
We have mentioned two key concepts in the elaboration of a writing:
the bridges and the transitions. Both are intertextual connections, and
the difference between these is that the bridges gives jumps for all text
while the transitions is a link among the end of a paragraph and the
beginning of the next.
To illustrate the two concepts we are going to show a diagram:
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Manual of writing

The yellow lines represent the bridges

The green lines represent the transition
When we use the bridges, it is like cobweb because we knit the ideas
with the examples or with other ideas, and as result we have a resistant
text. Mai (2013) said that we can think that the many ideas are islands
without communication and we must join it, and that do the bridges.
By other side, when we use the transitions we give fluency to the writing
since the reader doesn’t lose the idea of one paragraph to other. The
reader can see the connection, and he know what comes. He can do to
himself an idea of the next topic, example or argument.

 Problems of writing
How we already know how the structure of the text is, we can star to
write it. With this tip, we enter to proofread the text. When we are
correcting a writing we have to check many things. So, we will show you
some rules and how to use it.
First, we need to know the rules of punctuation. There are three rules
about the use of comma.
1. When we use a coordinate conjunction, we have to put the comma
before of the conjunction and after a space.
Examples:
a. My father works everyday, but he is happy.
b. In the morning my brother runs, and my sister swims.
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Manual of writing

2. When we use a subordinate conjunction in the middle of the

sentences, we don´t use comma.
Examples:
a. She was very angry because her boyfriend didn’t arrive.
b. The doctor hit me when I was distracted.

3. When the subordinate conjunction is on the beginning of the

sentence, we have to use the comma.
Examples:
a. If you don´t love me, you will never see me again.
b. Although she broke his heart, he still loves her.

Having these rules in mind, we must check all the text looking for the
missing commas, or those sentences that have more of the necessaries.
This problem is called run-on, and it is a very typical mistake that we
make when write. For this reason is important to read again and again.

Other commons mistakes are: fragment, rambling, parallelism and

wordiness. So, we are going to explain each mistake.
Fragment is when we have a sentence flying alone in a paragraph, and
this doesn´t have sense for itself. To avoid this problem the best option
is a good use of the conjunctions because we can join the fragment with
other fragment to do a complete sentence, or simply with a complete.
Example:
If you do that again.
To fix this sentence we can join with other:
If you do that again, I will leave you.
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Rambling is when we use the same conjunction a lot of times. It is a

kind of redundancy, and the way to delete it is very simple. We only
need to use a different conjunction even we can give to the sentence
other form.
Example:
I hate Alfred because he always catch the attention because he
wants that the people see him because he feels alone because he
doesn´t have friends because everybody is scared with him
because he has schizophrenia.

One way to erase the mistake could be the next:

I hate Alfred because he always catch the attention. I know he

wants that the people see him since he feels alone, and he doesn´t
have friends. Alfred has schizophrenia, so everybody is scared with
him.
Now there is only one “because”.

Is very common to have problems with the linearity when we write.

Sometimes, we tend to change the time of the sentences, or we change
the form of the verbs. This is parallelism, and this problem can confuse
the reader in the moment that he reads because probably he feels that
he misses the thread of the idea. To correct this problem is enough with
read very careful to the changes of times, and it would be much better
that other person reads the document since in some occasions we don´t
see the mistakes, but a third person finds it.
Examples:
1.
Wrong
My brother like playing football, and my father like to play
basketball.
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Better
My brother like playing football, and my father like playing
basketball.
2.
Wrong

When the doctor arrived to the hospital, everybody was dead and
the hallways were full of silent, but in that moment, he sees a
shadow behind him, and he turns with his heart breaking his
chest.

Better

When the doctor arrived to the hospital, everybody was dead and
the hallways were full of silent, but in that moment, he saw a
shadow behind him, and he turned with his heart breaking his
chest.
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Manual of writing

- Be sure with the structure, cohesion (punctuation, spelling,

agreement, types of sentences)
- Analyze the reader. The reader’s expectation
- Decide the order that best suits your essay
- In the thesis statement include the subject that you’re going to
talk
- APA

References
Losada, E. (2015). “Escribe algo aunque solo sea una nota de suicidio”
Gore Vidal, Artículos La plaza de Poe.
Mai, K. (2013). Building bridges between your paragraphs, Writing
advice, Harvard DWC.