One new insight into writing that I have gained is that good development of an essay is very important. I used to not think much about the development of an essay. After going through the writing lab, I fully agree that an essay that has a good development makes a big difference. Good development of an essay means key ideas are well expanded to form a coherent essay. Such an essay makes a difference because such an essay is able to express the topic ideas clearly in each paragraph and the entire paragraphs link well with each other. The essay is able to show great grasp of the particular topic through the concise elaboration of key ideas. The essay is well-expressed and flows smoothly. I will not need to waste time and effort trying to understand the gist of an essay that has a good development.
In the process of developing a good essay, I have to understand the essay question prompt properly, do brainstorming, a lot of research, and planning to get started with my writing project. More time has to be spent at the prewriting stage because this will make things easier as the essay is well-planned and well-researched. After that, I will move on to drafting. After multiple drafts, when I am satisfied with my draft, I will move on to revision. Revision is split into two major stages. Global revisions are needed when I am formulating the thesis and overall organization of the essay. Local revisions are necessary for coherence of the paragraphs and making sure that the paragraphs link well with each other. When I am satisfied with the overall view of the essay, I will proceed with editing. In editing, there are surface revisions to check for grammar, punctuation and spelling. I will edit the essay thoroughly for any errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling. When I am satisfied that the piece of writing is well developed, I will submit the essay to the teacher for grading.
In the development of an essay, I have to consider who my target audience is and what the focus of my essay is. Target audience is the group of readers who are reading this piece of writing. In this case, my target audience is my tutor who is grading my paper. I have to understand the needs, expectations and prior knowledge of my target audience in order to argue for my particular claim that a well-developed essay is very important. The focus of my essay is the key idea or my stand that good development of an essay is of outmost importance to me. I would support my stand by presenting the concept and elaborate why good development of an essay is important.
I also gleaned a couple of good strategies to develop an essay. A first example is Compare and Contrast. An example is referring the topic of developing a good essay to a spider web. They are similar because they both require lots of time and effort to complete the task. A second example is Cause and effect. This shows my target audience why something has happened or the consequences of a decision or event. For example, more English books are published to teach tertiary students how to write well as tertiary students generally need help in developing an essay (cause). As a result, more students benefit from this when they purchase the books and improve their writing. This drives the publishing industry (effects).
A third example is my personal experiences which can be used to show my first hand experience with the topic. A fourth example is visual representation by usage of charts, graphs, figures, drawings and mind maps. A fifth example is citing an authority which means quoting information form a respectable person in the field that I am writing. A sixth example is the internet. It is an excellent place to source for valuable sources online but I must have the discretion to cite reliable sources. The last strategy is the library. The library is a valuable resource to source for periodic journals and books. I totally agree that I have to use reliable resources in my writing because this conveys to my target audience that I have researched the topic well. This will also make my piece of writing a credible source. (Mike P., 2011)
(c) With reference to English Language, the online writing lab has helped in my assignment for AAE101 Introduction to the Study of Language. The assignment topic was: people vary their speech according to user factor and situational factor. Explain what is meant by each factor. Provide three examples of how speech can be vary for each of the two factors. From the online writing lab, I learned to interpret the question into parts. The instruction word or directive verb is "Explain" (Corrine E., 2011). "Explain" means elaborate on; give a detailed account of each factor like user factors and situational factors. The next instruction word is "Provide" which means listing three examples for each factor. User factor means "who the users are". Three examples are the users' gender, profession and ethnicity. For user's gender, females will use words that are more feminine. For example, a female may say, "These flowers are beautiful. I love them!" Males will say words that are more masculine. For example, a male might say to another male, "Training with dumbbells will strengthen my biceps, triceps and abs!" For profession, a chemist might use technical jargons like "sodium chloride" and "dihydrogen monoxide". However, a cook might use words like "salt" and "water" because he is a layman. For ethnicity, a Chinese who is bilingual and knows both English and Mandarin will say, "Wo Men go to food court, hao ma?" Situational factor means "what the users are doing". Three examples are in a courtroom, job interview and undergraduate essay. In a courtroom and job interview, the speech has to be formal and specific. One has to respect the judge, interviewer and teacher. For example, in a courtroom, the CCTV manager acting as a witness at the stand will say, "The incident happened at 9.10am, tracked by CCTV!" He will not say," Ya Lor! The incident happened around 9am", because the judge would take his testimony into consideration at all. In a job interview, when the interviewer asks which university the interviewee is from, the interviewee has to answer "Nanyang Technological University" instead of "Singapore University". For an undergraduate essay, the writing style is formal. One has to be serious in his writing as the essay will be submitted for grading.
I also learned how to do APA referencing for my English Assignment, from the website of Colorado State University. I will do referencing by indicating in the format: "Last Name, Initials of Author, followed by last names and initials of other authors if any. (Year of Publication). Title of work. Publisher or Organization that placed work online. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from the World Wide Web: URL". It is very important as it would affect my grade for my assignment by 10% if the format was wrong (Mike P., 2011). (1197 Words)
