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The following reading and practice material focuses on advanced writing strategies:
- Content (development)
- Structure & organization
- Coherence with topic strings (transitions)
- Topic sentences
- Introductions
Most of this material applies both to the paragraph level and to the document level.
Please be aware that at this point I'm just writing the programs. Very little real exercise text/material is in place—just dummy stuff so that I can get the programs to work.
The following discussion and practice exercises are very different from anything out there for the teaching of writing. Well, maybe that's too strong: the material here takes the scant coverage in mainstream rhetorical-and-composition study materials way further than anything I am aware of. To get an overview of what's going on here, read the conceptual introduction available from the link below.
When writing teachers talk about content or development, they are referring to the "stuff" that you put in your documents. Less-developed writers tend to under-develop their writing projects!
To do any sort of advanced analysis and revision, you must be able to identify topics, subtopics and the focus of those topics and subtopics—and at various levels of a document. For now, you'll study topics and focus at the sentence and paragraph level.
If you can identify the topic and focus of a paragraph (covered in the preceding unit), it's easy to identify topic sentences.
This unit gives you practice identifying topic sentences and their various types as well as choosing topic sentences.
If you can identify subtopics and the focus of those subtopics in paragraphs, you're all set to see how "topic strings" can be used to strengthen the continuity of paragraphs. In this unit, you practice identifying topic strings in paragraphs and identifying those points at which those topic strings break down.
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Analyze topic strings within paragraphs coded/
Analyze topic strings within paragraphs for disruptions coded/
These protein machines, called restriction enzymes,
“read” certain DNA sequences as “cut here.” They read
these genetic patterns by touch, by sticking to them, and
they cut the chain by rearranging a few atoms. Other
enzymes splice pieces together, reading matching parts
as “glue here” — likewise “reading” chains by selective
stickiness and splicing chains by rearranging a few
atoms. By using gene machines to write, and restriction
enzymes to cut and paste, genetic engineers can write
and edit whatever DNA messages they choose.
Topic strings: strengthening parallelism
BEFORE: Proteins, like DNA, resemble strings of lumpy beads.
But unlike DNA, protein molecules fold up to form
small objects able to do things. Some are enzymes,
machines that build up and tear down molecules (and
copy DNA, transcribe it, and build other proteins in the
cycle of life). Other proteins are hormones, binding to
yet other proteins to signal cells to change their behavior.
Genetic engineers can produce these objects cheaply by
directing the cheap and efficient molecular machinery
inside living organisms to do the work.
AFTER: Proteins, like DNA, resemble strings of lumpy beads.
But unlike DNA, protein molecules fold up to form
small objects able to do things. Some proteins are enzymes,
machines that build up and tear down molecules (as well as
copying DNA, transcribing it, and building other proteins in the
cycle of life). Genetic engineers can produce these objects cheaply by
directing the cheap and efficient molecular machinery
inside living organisms to do the work.
Other proteins are hormones, machines that bind to
yet other proteins to signal cells to change their behavior.
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In the preceding unit, you saw how topic strings can be reworked to strengthen the continuity of a paragraph. That reworking typically involves rewriting sentences so that they begin with a better topic. This unit gives you practice rewriting sentences to achieve that stronger continuity.
Sometimes, reworking topic strings is not enough to achieve good continuity in a paragraph. Sometimes, neither the old-to-new topic method nor the same-topic method does enough. That's when transitional words and phrases (for example, however) come in handy. In this unit, you practice identifying the logic connecting sentences and then using that logic to choose transitions in order to strengthen continuity.
To this point, you've focused on topics, subtopics, topic and subtopic focus, topic strings—and how you can use these things to strengthen the continuity of your writing within paragraphs. However, all the continuity in the world will not help a document that is weak in content. You have to have adequate "stuff" out there before you can start strengtening its continuity!
One of the early units in this course showed you how you can use different kinds of text (for example, description, definition, examples, comparison) to generate good, useful content—not just padding—into your writing. However, understanding and using the concepts of coordination and subordination, presented in this unit, give you a more organized and powerful way of analyzing the structure of paragraphs and knowing how to improve their content.
With these powerful tools involving topics, subtopics, topic focus, topic strings, transitions, coordination, and subordination, you are in an ideal position to identify text that is out of sequence. In this unit, you take a quick look at the traditional patterns of organization in paragraphs. Then you study paragraphs to identify sentences (or parts of sentences) that disrupt the overal pattern of those paragraphs.
With this unit, you move from the sentence and paragraph level to the whole-document level—or at least big chunks of documents. You'll be happy to know that everything you've learned to this point is almost completely applicable at this largeri, higher level.
Between paragraphs, topic strings are typically not enough to ensure that readers sense the continuity of the discussion. Strong topic string xxxxs and transitional words and phrases (for example, however) xxxx. In this unit, you practice identifying the logic connecting sentences and then using that logic to choose transitions in order to strengthen continuity.
Provided by hcexres@prismnet.com.
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