Decisions
1. Tense (Dominant)
| Past:
Present: |
telling a story
describing past occurrences, events, conditions giving information, relating facts describing regular occurrences making comments, giving opinions, drawing conclusions |
Present progressive/continuous:describing action in progress (now)
2. Vocabulary
Choice of words depends on:
audience (Who are you writing to?)
self (What are you comfortable with?)
appropriateness (What are the best words to express your ideas?)
3. Sentence structure
| Simple
Compound Complex |
S V (O)
S + V, and S + V Extra Word S V, S + V |
John read a book.
John read a book, and Mary wrote a letter. While John read a book, Mary wrote a letter. |
4. Paragraph/Essay organization
Time order (chronological)
Spatial order
Order of importance
Steps
Point: Example
Topic: Support
5. Your decisions depend on:
A. Purpose
Why are you writing this?
to inform
to tell a story
to persuade
to instruct
to entertain
B. Audience
Whom are you writing to?
children
experts
your peers
educated people
laborers
the general public
REMEMBER:
You control the language you use.
It does not control you.