Welcome Professional Writing students! Both Olivia and Cheyenne (that’s us!) are here to help you with your courses and succeed in your chosen field. For those in:
- English 230 Foundations of Writing and Editing
- English 362 Grammar of Standard Written English
- English 364 Style: Principles and Practices
We are available for tutoring and study groups. Just drop by Laurentide 3rd floor with any questions!
Times we are available:
Monday: 2:00-6:30 (230 & 362)
Tuesday: 11-Noon & 4:00-6:00 (230, 362, & 364)
Wednesday: 2:00-6:00 (230 & 362, 364 from 4:00-6:00)
Thursday: 11-Noon & 3:30-6:00 (230, 362, & 364)
Friday: 12:00-2:00 (230, 362, & 364)
Can you explain how to find the subject of a sentence? I find this task very difficult depending on the sentence.
Sure thing! The subject of a sentence, as you know, is a noun: person, place, thing, or idea. When there’s is multiple nouns in a sentence, it can be hard to determine which is the subject. Often the subject is the word that is doing the action. In passive voice construction, the subject is what is being acted upon. (Ex. in “John throws the ball,” John is the subject. In “The ball was thrown by John,” the ball is the subject even though John is the one doing the action.) The subject will generally be close to the beginning of the sentence. For more complicated sentences, a good rule to follow is that if the noun immediately comes after a preposition (of, by, at, with, etc.) it is NOT the subject, but just a noun that describes the subject.
If you have any other questions or would like further clarification, feel free to message us on Facebook or tweet at us by clicking the links at the top of the page. Hope this helps!
Can you please explain cohesion and provide an example?
Cohesion means that something from the last few words of your first sentence becomes the first few words of the next, or the comment of one becomes the topic of another. Williams provides the example on page 66: “Some astonishing questions about the nature of the universe have been raised by scientists studying black holes in space. A black hole is created by the the collapse of a dead star.” As you can see, the first sentence ends with the phrase “black holes in space” and the next sentence begins with “a black hole.” The last few words of the first sentence became the topic of the next, and so it is cohesive.
Can you explain the difference between hyper topic and hyper comment?
Both terms deal with general words that will encapsulate the more specific topics of the next sentence. A hyper-topic will be the topic of the sentence, and so it will be near the beginning of that sentence. A hyper-comment will be the comment of the sentence, so it will be near the end.
Dealing with concision, how do you differentiate double words that need to be deleted in a sentence?
My advice is that if you see any two words connected by the word “and,” ask yourself if the two words mean the same thing or are very similar in meaning. If they are the same, one can be deleted. The best question is “Are both of these words necessary?”
Can you explain what a “sprawl” is in regards to the “shape” stylistic form?
Sprawl is when a sentence may get to the subject, verb, and object quickly, but the author keeps adding more phrases that follow. A good indicator of multiple phrases is if the sentence has multiple words like “which” or “that.” If it multiple of those after the verb and object, chances are it has sprawl.
Could someone explain the cohesive principle to me? What is an example sentence where it’s a problem and what would a revised sentence look like? I struggle with this style principle quite a bit.
Basically cohesion means that the last few words of the first sentence should become the first few words of the next. A good example of this can be seen on page 66 of the book. “Some astonishing questions about the nature of the universe have been raised by scientists studying black holes in space. A black hole is created by the the collapse of a dead star.” The first sentence ends with the phrase “black holes in space,” and the next sentence begins with “a black hole.” Because the last few words of the first sentence becomes the first few words of the next, it is cohesive.