Resources

Chapter 2 How reading works

1. Do you read widely? Do you agree with Dr Seuss that

The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you know the more places you’ll go.

Many people think that ‘without books, we’re left with what we already know—and for some, that is nowhere near enough to sustain them’. Editorial, Country Life 22 June 2011, p. 83.

Read the quotes about the value of reading at the beginning of this Chapter. Which ones resonate with you and why? Discuss your responses to the quotes as an entry in your journal.

2. Do you think that the amount of reading that you do has affected the quality of your writing? Do you think that those who say that you can’t be a skilful writer if you aren’t a dedicated reader are overstating their case? Discuss as an entry in your journal.

3. Comment in an entry in your journal about whether you agree with the comments made by Carr, Wolf, and Baron that I have reported in The Last Word in this Chapter about the difficulty of engaging in ‘deep reading’ when you read onscreen. E-readers and tablets are becoming more popular as such technologies improve, but research suggests that reading on paper still boasts unique advantages. Are you happier reading on paper than onscreen? Does it depend on what you are reading?

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/

4. Questions for readers who read fiction for pleasure:

• What fiction are you reading at the moment?

• When is your favourite time to read?

• Where is your favourite place to read?

• What is your favourite book and favourite kind of book?

• What is your favourite bookshop?

• What are your three ‘desert-island’ books?

• What is the first book you can remember reading?

• What is your favourite children’s book?

• Who is your favourite fictional character?

• Is there a book you couldn’t finish?

• Do you have a comfort book that you reread?

• Which book do you love that not enough other people know about?

• Which author do you most admire and why?

• Who are your two ideal fictional dining companions?

• Do you have a favourite film of a book? If so, what is it?

• What book would you like to see filmed?

• Which book changed your life?

• What book are you looking forward to reading?

• Is there a book that you think you ought to read?

5. Some people reread certain books yearly, for example, each of Jane Austen’s six novels. Stephen Fry (like many others, including me) rereads P.G. Wodehouse books every year.

I also reread Madeleine St John’s four novels every year, as well as J.I.M. Stewart’s quintet A Staircase in Surrey.

Do you agree with the statement: ‘No book is worth reading that isn’t worth rereading’?

Use your response to this statement to write a paragraph in your journal about the value of rereading. If you want to follow up on this phenomenon, read the articles ‘The pleasures of rereading’ by Tom Lamont and ‘Rereading: Authors reveal their literary addictions’ by Chris Fenn, both in The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/apr/08/rereading-favourite-books-pleasure

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/apr/08/authors-reread-other-authors-novels

6. Re-read this Chapter and write a review of this book. Most high-quality published

reviews will include details about the book’s format, publisher, place of publication, price, availability, and an appropriate selection of the following elements:

• an intriguing headline that indicates the reviewer’s evaluation of the book
• an opening sentence that reveals the reviewer’s judgement of the attraction or otherwise of the book for a reader
• a summary of the book’s argument or contents
• for a work of fiction, observations about the plot, structure, characters, style, dialogue, and presence of humour
• evidence that the reviewer has read the book with a critical eye
• information on the author’s previous publications and their authority to write the book
• the reviewer’s opinion clearly distinguishable from fact
• short extracts to illustrate a point or to substantiate the reviewer’s opinion
• all the reviewer’s claims substantiated
• evidence of the reviewer’s broader reading on the book’s topic
• comparisons between this work and others previously published in the genre or on the same subject
• errors of fact, gaps in the material, irrelevancies, deficiencies in proofreading,   inconsistencies, infelicities of style, and triumphs or otherwise of design.

7. Read Ruth Franklin’s essay ‘How to read a book’ in The New York Times. Do you think that her title is misleading? Respond to her essay in your journal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/books/review/how-to-read-a-book.html?searchResultPosition=1

8. ‘Imagine you are asked what single alteration in people’s behaviour might best improve the lot of mankind. How foolish would you have to be to reply: “have them learn to read with a pen in their hands?” But I firmly believe such a simple development would bring huge benefits’. This is a quote from an article ‘A weapon for readers’ by Tim Parks in The New York Review of Books. Do you agree with the points that he makes?

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2014/12/03/weapon-for-readers/

10. Examine Electric Lit’s very detailed infographic ‘The science of speed reading’ and respond to it in your journal.

http://daniel-infografica.blogspot.com/2013/01/speed-reading-infographic.html

Chapter 3 How words work

1. Read and respond in your journal to the following articles that I have written for The Conversation about how words work:

https://theconversation.com/the-horror-and-pleasure-of-misused-words-from-mispronunciation-to-malapropisms-86323

https://theconversation.com/from-opening-the-kimono-to-incentivizing-the-war-against-corporate-buzzwords-rages-on-92657

https://theconversation.com/cancel-culture-cleanskin-hedonometer-im-not-sure-i-like-any-of-macquarie-dictionarys-words-of-the-year-128109

https://theconversation.com/when-we-needed-a-new-word-twitter-gave-us-milkshake-duck-90223

2. Read Lennox Morrison on the importance of good spelling, featuring Roslyn Petelin, BBC

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20170807-the-true-importance-of-good-spelling?ocid=global_capital_rss&ocid=global_bbccom_email_07082017_capital

3. Here is a radio interview that I did with Amanda Vanstone on Radio National Australia about buzzwords:

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/counterpoint/idea-sherpa/9874862

4. Here are two articles that I wrote about inclusive language:

https://theconversation.com/wordslut-a-new-book-aims-to-verbally-smash-the-patriarchy-but-its-argument-is-imprecise-119160

https://theconversation.com/renaming-of-red-skins-and-chicos-is-a-shaky-step-towards-leaving-discriminatory-ideas-in-the-past-150178

5. Here are two articles that I wrote about the making of The Oxford English Dictionary and the making of Australia’s Macquarie dictionary.

https://theconversation.com/book-review-the-dictionary-of-lost-words-by-pip-williams-132503

https://theconversation.com/youse-wouldnt-believe-it-a-new-book-charts-the-11-year-making-of-a-peoples-dictionary-for-australia-155366

6. Read my review of Matthew Parris’s book Scorn for an amusing set of famous insults by writers with a gift for cutting words.

https://theconversation.com/review-the-fine-art-of-scorn-from-twain-to-trump-70126

7. Here are some articles contrasting American and British/Australian English:

https://www.thoughtco.com/british-english-bre-1689039

https://www.thoughtco.com/standard-british-english-1692136

https://www.thoughtco.com/differences-between-american-and-british-english-1212216?utm_campaign=grammartip&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cn_nl&utm_content=16107936&utm_term=

8. What are your favourite words? List them in your journal and explain why you love them.

9. What words make you cringe? List them in your journal.

10. Describe your usual ‘voice’ in the different contexts in which you write. Do you vary your voice much?

11. Do you ever take on a persona as Jim Hoberman describes in the extract on p. 44 of the book, when he casts himself as TM (Teenage Me), ‘a teenage cinéaste’ who ‘falls in love with the Village Voice’s film pages’?

12. Have you ever written an e-mail that you suspect may have been in an inappropriate tone? Have you ever received an email that had a curt, unfriendly tone?

13. Are there some words that you are currently using that are new to you? Words that you would not have been using two years ago?

14. William Faulkner once said that Hemingway had never been known to use a word that would send anyone to the dictionary, and although it’s not usually a good idea to use foreign expressions, you may need to be familiar with some of the following expressions that people use: alma mater, aperçu, arriviste, ersatz, esprit de corps, manqué, parvenu, quondam, quotidian, soi-disant.

15. Can you detect any nuances between the words in the following list? Poppycock, flapdoodle, bollocks, piffle, crapola, codswallop, baloney, malarky, hooey, horse feathers, mumbo jumbo, jibber jabber. Can you add to the list?

16. Read the following message sent by a bookshop and select the word below that best describes the paragraph’s style.

We acknowledge with many thanks the receipt of your esteemed order of the 26th ultimo. We have already placed an order with the publishers for your book and will send it along to you as soon as it is to hand.

archaic   authoritative   esoteric   ambiguous

17. Read the following passage and select the word or phrase below that best describes the problem with this paragraph.

When I went to the meeting, I took the leaflets that my team had prepared, because I wanted to show my colleagues which flyers our team wanted to use. We had worked hard to produce pamphlets because we were aware that another organisation had used brochures very successfully. My colleagues agreed at the meeting that the booklets that my team had prepared were appropriate for our customers.

buzz expressions   hyperbole   colloquialisms   thesaurus syndrome

18. Read the following sentences and choose the word below that best describes the problem in all of them.

The chicken was roasted and left bacteria-tauntingly warm.

When I saw your ad, I said: ‘Hey! That’s my job!’

Judging from my career so far, I believe that I should get this job.

Can you just chuck me into a Tuesday night tutorial, PLEASE?

Some companies make artificial yoghurt to fool customers.

archaic language   inappropriate tone   abstract   ambiguous

You can find the correct answers to exercises 16─18 on page 288─289 of the book.

19. Here’s a helpful table that summarises the key advice in this Chapter about how words work:

Creating credibility at the word level

Words to use	Words to avoid	Note
Concrete words that link to specific objects. Not We installed a new facility in the office BUT We installed a new printer in the office.	abstract (resource, aspect, item, facility)	You can visualise concrete words. You can’t visualise abstract words with confidence unless they are connected to concrete words. For example, ‘The first item (abstract word) on the agenda about the new way of claiming payment (concrete) needs urgent attention’.
Concise, economical, not pompous words or redundant words.	verbose (scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific) redundant (recur again, cooperate together)	Use words economically. Don’t say the same thing twice (or more). This is called ‘redundancy’. For example, ‘Let’s collaborate together’ because ‘collaborate’ means ‘to work together’. Another example is ‘free gratis’. Yet another: ‘Once more, revisiting Anne Bolelyn yet again’ (Janet Maslin in The New York Times.) Can you guess the nursery rhyme in the verbose example?
Clear words: Use ‘because’ rather than ‘as’, because ‘as’ can refer to time rather than reason.	ambiguous (as/since, and/or)	Avoid ambiguity. Instead of ‘As I was late’, use’ Because I was late’.
Current words, not old-fashioned ones that very few people use these days.	Archaic, pompous (we deem it advisable, we hereby acknowledge, amongst, whilst, perusal, the said document)	Avoid using archaic words, that is, words that people don’t use anymore, such as ‘erstwhile’ and ‘quondam’.
Formal words, not casual, spoken expressions.	abbreviations (e.g., etc., i.e., viz) colloquialisms (a stint with, in the throes of) contractions (I’d, it’s, we’d, you’ll, don’t)	When you are writing in academic and professional settings, avoid using words that are casual and conversational–words that you would use colloquially in speaking with your friends or when you are on social media. For example, ‘whatever’.
Words that are already in the dictionary.	coined words (crowdsourcing, criticality, biosimilar, relatable)	Words are constantly coined, but use words in formal, professional writing that people use and that are already in the dictionary. For example, avoid words such as ‘influencible’and ‘efficator’ because they are not yet widely used.
Acronyms and initialisms that your readers are familiar with	unfamiliar initialisms and COIK acronyms (clear only if known to the reader)	Acronyms can be pronounced as words. For example, QANTAS for Queensland and Northern Territory Arial Services. Initialisms are pronounced letter by letter. For example, the CIA. Avoid them, unless you know that your readers are familiar with them.
Original, fresh words and expressions.	buzz expressions/clichés (synergy, ballpark figure, gameplan, revenue driven, going forward, at the end of the day)	Buzz expressions are words and phrases that are used in the workplace, such as ‘ballpark figure’, ‘let’s kick this into the long grass’, ‘level playing field’, ‘hindsighting of credit decisions’. Clichés are expressions that are tired and stale. For example, ‘through thick and thin’, ‘a viable alternative’.
Simple words. Don’t use big words to ‘sound smart’.	pompous (Sedulously eschew all polysyllabic profundity.) esoteric (quotidian)	Avoid being esoteric, that is, using words that are obscure and that you need an unabridged dictionary to locate the meanings of. For example, ‘Lusby would have been sure of an aegrotat’ (J I M Stewart).
Appropriate jargon that you know your readers will be familiar with.	unnecessary/unfamiliar jargon (to the arboreal primates)	‘Aegrotat’ in the row above would be jargon for many people.
Consistent terminology. Once you start to use a noun, keep using it for consistency. Don’t vary it for variety.	‘thesaurus syndrome’ (firm, company, organisation, corporation; program, project, job, assignment)	Teachers often say: ‘vary your vocabulary’, but don’t use variations of nouns just because you think that your reader will be bored if you use the same word twice. For example, using variations such as ‘openings’, then ‘vacancies’, then ‘positions’ in a job application letter will confuse your readers. This is called the ‘thesaurus syndrome’ or ‘elegant variation’. NB: It's OK to vary verbs when you are listing your tasks in your CV/ résumé.
Authoritative, not ‘wishy-washy’. Convince your reader that you are an authority on the topic that you are writing about.	apologetic (due to time constraints) equivocal (tends to stem from) defensive (After reading this report, I hope you find it satisfactory)	Be authoritative. Convince your reader that you know what you are talking about, that you are an authority.
Sincere/genuine: I would appreciate a reply.	presumptuous (I presume you will do me the courtesy of a reply.)	Don’t be presumptuous. For example, you would not write in a request to a person whom you want to write a reference for you for a job: ‘I know that I can count on your support’ or write in a job application: ‘Judging from my career so far, I believe I should get this job’.
Measured, not exaggerated: Those statistics are well established.	hyperbolic (Those statistics have been around for decades.)	Don’t exaggerate, even if you think that your reader will know that you are doing it just for effect. This is called ‘hyperbole’ (pronounced ‘highperbollee’). An advertiser might use it to make a point, such as in ‘Only two things really matter: Light chocolate and dark chocolate’, but you should avoid it.
Impartial, not biased	biased (Obviously, we prefer to use our own experts.) polemic (Everyone should be able to read statistics.)	Aim to be objective when writing informatively.
Positive tone This shop stays open till 8 pm rather than This shop closes at 8 pm.	negative (bar, fail, decline, reject, exclude)	If you do have to give a negative response to a request, soften your tone by, perhaps, using passive voice.
Correct spelling	incorrect spelling, confusable words (affect/effect; lead/led; principal/principle, stationary/stationery)	Always use a spelling checker, but don’t rely on it to distinguish between ‘form’ and ‘from’.
Familiar, not foreign	foreign (modus operandi, quid pro quo, fait accompli, chutzpah)	Avoid using foreign expressions such as ‘bien pensant’, ‘soi-disant’, ‘au contraire’, ‘chutzpah’, ‘schadenfreude’.
Inclusive of gender (Every employee enjoys their time off. All employees enjoy their time off.)	discriminatory (the generic ‘he’ or ‘she’) (Every employee enjoys his time off. Every employee enjoys her time off.) Unless you are writing about organisations that employ only female or only male staff.	Use the singular ‘they’ or the plural instead.
Avoid the ‘weasel’ words in the opposite column.	weasel (‘crutch’) words (absolutely, actually, apparently, as it were, basically, certainly, clearly, definitely, essentially, frankly, fundamentally, generally, highly, literally, merely, naturally, obviously, quite, really, simply, somewhat, to be honest, very, virtually, with all due respect)	Weasel words are words that suck meaning out of accompanying words. ‘Basically’ is probably the one most commonly used.

Chapter 4 How sentences and content words work

1. Watch the following extract from an interview that I did with Professor David Crystal at the Oxford Literary Festival and comment in your journal about any points he makes about grammar that surprised you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=8wrzJ0qqZHg&feature=youtu.be

Read Simon Jenkins’s article in The Guardian, ‘Ever-changing dialects keep English moving – but grammar is its north star’ for his strong defence of grammar: ‘Clarity of language is crucial to the presentational skills now so important to a young person’s career’.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/25/dialects-english-grammar-accuracy

2. Do you agree with Philip Pullman’s opinion on page 69 of the book that ‘Knowing the rules of grammar can give you greater power over your writing and make you into a confident and accomplished writer’?

3. Do you agree with Dot Wordsworth’s comment on page 69 of the book that ‘It’s cruel not to teach grammar to children . . . Grammar sets them free. No one would think it a kindness to give a teenager a car without teaching her [sic] to drive, and that includes the rules of the road. Or, as Alexander Pope observed: “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, /As those move easiest who have learned to dance”’.

N.B. I have put the word ‘sic’ in square brackets to indicate that Dot has used the generic ‘she’. Not all teenagers are female.

4. Do you agree with Harry Mount’s belief on page 70 of the book that if you ‘Know your grammar . . .  you can produce every kind of fantastic verbal construction and—this is the crucial bit—be understood’?

5. Read the following articles by David Marsh and Steven Pinker.

David Marsh: ‘10 grammar rules you can forget: how to stop worrying and write proper’

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/30/10-grammar-rules-you-can-forget

Steven Pinker: ‘10 “grammar rules” it's OK to break (sometimes)’

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/15/steven-pinker-10-grammar-rules-break (sometimes)

Were you surprised to learn that it’s OK to break any of the ‘bogus’ or ‘zombie’ rules that Marsh and Pinker say it’s OK to break?

Have you ever been expected or required by teachers or employers to follow the Latin-based ‘false’ rule about not splitting an infinitive?

6. Read my article, ‘Crimes of grammar and other writing misdemeanours’ about how to avoid eight common grammar errors.

https://theconversation.com/crimes-of-grammar-and-other-writing-misdemeanours-67558

SENTENCES

The answers to all of the exercises in this Chapter are on pp. 288─289 of the book.

1. Identify any of the following sentences that are not simple sentences.

Writers write.

Writers write books.

Writers write books for readers.

Writers write books, while readers read books.

Writers are inspired to write.

2. Identify any of the following that are not sentence fragments.

After going to town.

Unless you do extra reading.

The director addressed the meeting.

The New York Times site.

3. What type of error does the following sentence exemplify?

Gripping a pencil tightly, Sally scribbled her answers, she was running out of time to complete the test.

Comma splice?  Run-on sentence?  Sentence fragment?

4. What form does the following sentence take?

Whether I end up working for an organisation or whether I end up as a freelance writer, only time will tell.

Loose?  Periodic?

5.What is the structure of the following sentence?

Their dog, who was rescued from the pound, became a faithful companion to their children, who all loved him.

Compound?  Complex?  Compound-complex?

6. In the following sentence, what part of speech or word class does the italicised word belong to?

Sweet peas flower every year early in spring.

Verb?  Noun?  Adverb?

7. In the following sentence, what sort of modifier does the italicised phrase exemplify?

To apply for the job, his résumé had to be completely revised.

Squinting (or ambiguous)?  Dangling (or unattached)?  Misplaced?

8. In the following sentence, what sort of modifier does the italicised word exemplify?

People who cook for themselves rarely need cookbooks.

Squinting (or ambiguous)?  Dangling (or unattached)?  Misplaced?

9. What problem do the following sentences exemplify?

• The purpose of this test is twofold: firstly, to make sure students understand the content.
• Helping students prepare for the final test is the second purpose.

Is-ness?  Sentence fragments?  Lack of parallel structure?

VERBS

1. Did you find it useful to construct sentences from the chunks provided for you on page 99 to practise constructing sentences based on the core sentence ‘Sherlock Holmes waited’?

Are you surprised to learn that you can potentially construct thousands of sentences based on those chunks? Maths students, can you see how to work that out?

2. Read the following sentence and identify the function of the italicised phrase from the choices below. After inheriting a fortune, she generously contributed to charities.

Verbal phrase  Appositive  Verb phrase

3. Identify the transitive verbs in the following sentences.

The story creeps to an end.

War remains the decisive human failure.

His eyes gleamed angrily.

Time stretched on, indifferently.

The stairs trembled under his feet.

The room alarmed him.

Her narrative grew less coherent.

They ached with ambition.

They finally reached the end of the road.

4. Identify the auxiliary (helping) verbs in the following passage.

I have attached a short note to this document. While a clean uncluttered copy for submission was desired, upon final draft yesterday, errors were still found.

5. Identify the active-voice verbs in the following passage.

Time has not permitted the production of a final, polished draft. I have edited all of the errors that were able to be located. I appreciate that this mars the presentation.

6. Identify the passive-voice verbs in the following passage.

Time has not permitted the production of a final, polished draft. I have edited all of the errors that were able to be located. I appreciate that this mars the presentation.

7. Which of the following sentences are truly passive? Remember that you need to have a part of the verb ‘be’ (‘is’, ‘are’), a past participle (and not one used as an adjective), and an agent (though the agent may be only implied).

• Room 21A is newly built and painted.
• This room is located in the new building.
• The rows of chairs are placed the wrong way.
• Here is a course of action that I believe should be taken.
• There is also a limited amount of parking.
• The building is divided into two types of seminar spaces.
• To accommodate the employees, desks are jammed together.
• There was only one thing that needed to be taken seriously.
• Restrooms are conveniently located in the building.
• The walls are painted cream.

How widespread do you think the ‘exonerative’ passive favoured by politicians, such as  ‘Mistakes were made’, is? Can you find examples?

8. Verb phrases, phrasal verbs, and verbal phrases. Were you able to work them out by using alternative terms for them, such as compound verbs for verb phrases, prepositional verbs for phrasal verbs, and non-finite verb phrases for verbal phrases?

Did you create a mnemonic for yourself to help remember the differences between these similar terms?

In the sentence ‘Jack ran up the hill’, is ‘up the hill’

a verb phrase?  a verbal phrase?  a phrasal verb?  none of them?

9. How do you feel about the fact that many people believe that the days of the subjunctive mood are numbered? What do you think about the expression some people use about it—that it’s ‘circling the drain’?

NOUNS

1. Can you reduce the noun-to-verb ratio in the following sentence?

The effect of the overuse of nouns in writing is the placing of excessive strain upon the inadequate number of verbs and resultant prevention of the flow of thought.

Can you see that the noun-to-verb ratio is 11:1? (Eleven nouns and one lone verb ‘is’.)

This example is from Linda Flower’s Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing. p. 232, 3e.

She re-writes the sentence and substantially reduces the noun-to-verb ratio to 3.5:1.

Using too many nouns in writing places strain on verbs and prevents the flow of thought.

(Seven nouns and two strong verbs, 'places' and 'prevents'.)

Note that using and writing are verbal nouns, so have been counted as nouns.

Find some sentences that you have written that you suspect may benefit from this exercise and see if you can reduce the noun:verb ratio, as Flower has done.

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives have come in for praise and dismissal from many quarters.

1. Clémenceau, who was French Prime Minister twice, as well as being a physician and a journalist, is reported to have said to his amanuensis (his writing assistant): ‘For you, there are only nouns and verbs; I will take care of such adjectives as may prove necessary’. (quoted by Clifford Geertz, p. 60 Works and Lives.)

Isaac Asimov warns writers against having ‘a thick layer of fatty, adjectival froth’ in their work. (Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s, p. 179 , Doubleday, 1974)

Are you concerned that ‘fatty adjectival froth’ might be a characteristic feature of your writing?

2. In an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education 20 February 2004, ‘The Adjective—So Ludic, So Minatory, So Twee’, Ben Yagoda claims that ‘some writers’ abuse of adjectives has led to the defamation of an entire part of speech’. He believes that ‘a resourceful and creative use of adjectives is one of the most important, if not the most important, marks of the first-rate essayist or critic. It is an indication of originality, wit, observation—indeed, the cast and quality of the writer’s mind’. Do you agree with Yagoda?

3. Read an example of a creative use of adjectives in a music review in The New York Times by journalist Jon Pareles, who opens his review with a ten-adjective sentence: ‘Frenetic and offhand, deranged and savvy, funny and brutal, crisp and wayward, the Pixies brought their calmly schizophrenic, firmly dislocated rock to the Ritz on Friday night’. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/09/arts/reviews-music-deranged-and-savvy-rock.html

Only a very accomplished writer can get away with this. Are you impressed by Pareles’s proliferation of adjectives? Can you find examples of a creative use of adjectives by other contemporary writers?

4. Identify the words functioning as adjectives in the following sentences:

This is a ridiculously easy test.

The robots stared at the strange phenomenon.

Avoid unnecessary and clichéd adjectives.

A creative use of adjectives can enhance your writing.

5. Identify the words functioning as adjectives in the following phrases:

a black cat, the city proper, the heir apparent, a gloomy outlook, the sheer richness of the material.

6. Identify any of the following adjectives that are absolute (that is, cannot be compared).

absolute, complete, equal, excellent, happy, infinite, interesting, minimum, perfect.

ADVERBS

1. Professor David Crystal in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language calls the adverb ‘the most heterogeneous of all the word classes in English grammar’ because adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and whole sentences.

As with adjectives, some authors have mixed feelings about adverbs. Stephen King says that ‘the road to hell is paved with adverbs’ but says that he ‘can be a good sport about’ them (2001, p. 125). The novelist Henry James liked adverbs: ‘I’m glad you like adverbs— I adore them; they are the only qualifications I really much respect’, he wrote in a letter to Miss M. Betham Edwards (5 January 1912).

2. Ben Yagoda says that ‘adverbs and adjectives tend to work best together when they’re previously unacquainted and cut against each other’s grain in a salutary way’. I have listed examples of these on page 98 of the book: blisteringly clever, calculatedly spontaneous, disgracefully enjoyable, exhilaratingly dull, flamboyantly sparse [rooms], gobsmackingly incoherent, infallibly stunning, ludicrously appropriate, madly funny, menacingly well-educated, nostalgically interesting, stimulatingly vague, stupefyingly vulgar, swoopingly understated, and unwaveringly complacent. Can you suggest other examples? How about ‘witheringly cute’.

3. Identify the words functioning as adverbs in the following sentences.

This is a ridiculously easy test.

I would certainly have loved to be there.

Something had to drastically change.

We ask you to stay safely in your seats.

Drive safe.

4. What is the example of the flat adverb in the list in 3 above?

The answers to all of the exercises in this Chapter are on pp. 289─292 of the book.

5. There’s a great article on adverbs in Slate Magazine in which Colin Dickey ‘Lovingly, Stridently, Unapologetically’ defends the adverb. The article contains terrific examples of writers’ use of adverbs.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/06/abolish-the-adverb-you-seriously-must-be-joking.html

Chapter 5 How structure words and paragraphs work

The answers to all of the exercises in this Chapter are on pp. 289─292 of the book.

PRONOUNS

1. There is still some resistance to the singular ‘they’ in the UK and in the USA. Research resources relating to it and comment in your journal on whether you think it should be adopted more widely. See pp. 111─112 of the book.

1. Correct, where necessary, the pronoun-case problems in the examples below.

a I like any person who has nous.

b To whom should we complain?

c Whomever you choose for your team needs to be fit.

d Whom do you think you’re kidding?

e Who do you think will win the election?

f My mood will determine whom I’ll speak to.

g Want to know whom to blame for karaoke?

h I am she through whom enquiry can be made.

i Bob and me travel a good deal.

j He gave the flowers to Jane and I.

k Let’s you and I go to the library.

l Us travellers like comfort.

m They provided vouchers for we passengers.

n They like movies more than me.

o Eating vegetables keeps them—John and he—healthy.

p Herself and me went to dinner.

q Susan and myself are twins.

r when it comes to we girls

s between you and I

t Why is the government not listening to we, the people?

DETERMINERS

Check the table of determiners on p. 113 of the book. Do you think that the statement that determiners express relationships, while adjectives express attributes is helpful in distinguishing adjectives from determiners?

PREPOSITIONS

 Which preposition would you use in each of the following examples? NB: Some of these expressions may take both of the suggested prepositions; check in your preferred dictionary.

a I have no qualms with/about the project’s aims.

b a hotbed of/for gossip

c fluent at/in

d suitability to/for an event

e take umbrage at/to

f dance to/with

g devastated by/with

h drizzle over/down

i parallel with/to

j conform with/to

CONJUNCTIONS

Is the comma FANBOYS a useful mnemonic for remembering coordinating conjunctions?

PARAGRAPHS

1. The following paragraphs disregard the need for a focused discussion of a topic, a consistent tone, or a consistent point of view. Read the paragraphs and write a couple of sentences in your journal about how each flouts the advice given in this Chapter.

a. In this essay, your coverage of your topic is not detailed enough. You list various social media platforms but, instead of discussing their benefits, you give many examples of writers who have stopped using Facebook. Many Facebook users do tend to overshare and this can be very annoying, but maybe you should be more tolerant than those who have abandoned Facebook. They may be too busy with aspects of their lives. I have heard of people who belong to more than 100 Facebook groups. I don’t know how they can keep up. Can you go back through your essay and revise it to reflect on the benefits of social media?

b. I have great pleasure in informing you that your application for a scholarship to do your PhD at this university has been successful. If you decide to accept this scholarship, which carries a generous stipend, you will need to contact us immediately so that we can make the necessary arrangements. Your allocated supervisor will then contact you to inform you about your accommodation in our student wing. And you’ll have a cool time hanging out with the buddies you’ll make here.

c. You will need to fill out the Application for a Visa form before you leave. Take it to your current supervisor for signing. Once this has been done, the student may make travel arrangements.

2. After reading the section in this Chapter on paragraphs, answer the following quiz. There may be more than one correct answer to some of the questions.

a Which of the following sentences best defines a paragraph?

i A paragraph is an arbitrary block of text in a document.

ii A paragraph is a series of sentences one after the other.

iii A paragraph is a group of sentences relating to a central

idea and appearing in a logical sequence.

b An opening sentence . . . (tick all that apply)

i states the central idea or focus of the paragraph

ii tells the reader what to expect

iii develops or justifies the main idea of the paragraph in

detail.

c A well-developed paragraph should . . . (tick all that apply)

i contain more than five sentences

ii reinforce the main idea

iii lead the reader logically through a series of points.

A good paragraph conclusion should . . . (tick all that apply)

i remind the reader what the paragraph was about

ii summarise the paragraph’s main points

iii develop a new idea that has not yet been mentioned

iv provide a logical link to the next paragraph.

e In certain styles of writing, a paragraph may sometimes consist of only one sentence. True or false?

f Pronouns, repetition, and punctuation are examples of:

i introductory phrases

ii cohesive ties

iii common writing errors.

g When constructing an effective paragraph, a writer should . . . (tick all that apply)

i plan what they are going to write

ii decide on the most coherent sequence of ideas

iii be mindful that too many long paragraphs may overwhelm a reader visually

iv apply a formulaic structure no matter the type of text or idea

v develop the main idea by amplifying, elaborating, and reinforcing

vi state the main idea repeatedly without providing evidence

vii move abruptly from one point to the next.

h In conclusion, clearly, finally, and in short are examples of what type of transitional expression?

i summarising

ii exemplifying

iii contrasting or qualifying.

i What linking word or phrase could you not use instead of likewise?

i by the same token

ii similarly

iii however

iv also.

j The sentence Grammar goblins are busy creatures: they pounce on punctuation, sort through spellings, and clear out clauses contains . . . (identify all that apply)

i an introductory clause

ii a pronoun linking to an antecedent

iii a parallel list

iv phrasal verbs

v a compound noun

vi an adjective.

3. Read the passage below that I wrote about plain language and identify the ‘cohesive ties’ that I used to bind the sentences and the paragraphs. Just to remind you, the ties include punctuation, word choice, and sentence structure—using connecting and summary words, relative pronouns, and repetition. Use coloured highlighters to help you with this exercise.

Plain language, still called ‘plain English’ in the United Kingdom, has been the focus of extensive discussion, research, and legislation since the 1960s in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia. More recently, the plain language movement has been taken up in Europe. In Europe, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden have adopted plain language; other countries such as Mexico have adopted it, as well as New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa.

The key principle of plain language is that the intended reader can use the document for its

intended purpose. The key aims of plain language are that the reader can understand and use the document. The researcher Bryan Garner regrets that the set phrases ‘plain language’ and ‘plain English’ contain the word ‘plain’, because he thinks that it suggests the idea of ‘drab and ugly’. However, the term has no serious competitor, so advocates of plain language need to continually explain what they mean by it. Another researcher, Balmford, argues that the term ‘plain language’ is inaccurate because it places too much emphasis on words and sentences. He says that plain language involves elements of the whole document: content, language, structure, and design. No plain language proponent would argue with his statement.

Chapter 6 How punctuation works

The answers to the exercises in this Chapter are on pp. 292─294.

1. Do you agree with the following advice about punctuation from Ernest Hemingway?

My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible. The game of golf would lose a good deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. You ought to be able to show that you can do it a good deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements. (Ernest Hemingway, letter, 15 May 1925)

2. Are you a fan of the Oxford (or serial) comma? Read my articles in The Conversation

and come up with a rationale based on your informed and considered opinion that you can write up in your journal. Fans of Vampire Weekend may know their song about the Oxford Comma.

https://theconversation.com/comma-again-philip-pullmans-oxford-comma-rage-doesnt-go-far-enough-130699

https://theconversation.com/grammarians-rejoice-in-the-10-million-comma-74824

3. Here is another article that I wrote about punctuation: ‘All hail apostrophes─the “heavy lifters” who point a sentence in the right direction’. Can you understand why so many people have a problem with apostrophes?

https://theconversation.com/all-hail-apostrophes-the-heavy-lifters-who-point-a-sentence-in-the-right-direction-128218

4. Read the article by the Press Association, along with the comments, about how Cambridge City Council reversed its ban on apostrophes in place names and decide whether you agree with its decision. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/06/council-reverses-ban-on-apostrophes

Write a paragraph in your journal.

5. I mentioned at the beginning of this Chapter that some punctuation marks have become ‘extinct’. If you are interested in checking on these, read Shepherd’s article and create examples of how you would use some of these extinct exclamation marks in a sentence.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/13-punctuation-marks-that-you-never-knew-existed

6. I also mentioned that there are uncommon punctuation marks that people would like to see used. If you are confident about your ability to punctuate, interested in unusual punctuation marks, and have some time to spare, you could read Crezo’s article in Mental Floss and write your thoughts in a paragraph in your journal.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/500801/13-little-known-punctuation-marks-try

7. Read the following inadequately punctuated sentences, then try to correct them. Can you explain why you have corrected each one? Explanations are provided in the answers section on pp. 292─294 of the book.

a. That which is is that which is not is not is that not it it is.

b. His grasp of the world of economics, found him writing for the financial pages.

c. The lecturer asked if we had done our reading?

d. Improvement works may affect your journey particularly at weekends.

e. Check before you travel look for publicity at stations.

f. The Pet Shop Boys have loads of fans including me.

g. We suspect however that those names are pseudonyms.

h. The food arrived however it looked inedible.

i. Though usually happy people get sad sometimes.

j. Coincidentally several visitors arrived at the door.

k. Mary whereas her teacher had had had had had had had had had was approved by her teacher.

l. As the work pressure becomes more intense, your partner may become preoccupied apprehensive and worried about their prospects.

m. This university prides itself on its unique ability to offer students of just about every profession a balance of theory and practical experience to prepare them for careers in

the real world.

n. Study may be undertaken in the fields of marketing strategic management or writing editing and publishing.

8. Test your punctuation virtuosity by correcting the following sentences where necessary (and, in each case, explain to yourself why you have made a change).

a. Only in recent years, have I improved my writing skill.

b. The curtain which had been exposed to the sun was badly faded.

c. Johnny Tremain is a wonderful guy, he has so many talents.

d. Our favourite films are: the films made by Video Arts.

e. Please make a list of: staff eligible for leave.

f. The software they chose had one advantage it was easy to use.

g. She produced a large expensive glossy brochure.

h. The comma splice is a common error, it is a fault of many writers.

i. She said ‘thank you for your help.

j. I wish to heartily thank the members of the Working Party who within tight time constraints imposed by vacation schedules have worked constructively diligently and

harmoniously on this extensive task.

9. Insert an apostrophe (or apostrophe-s) where necessary in the following phrases and sentences to convert them to possessive case. You may have to Google some items such as Brisbane Writers Festival and Queensland Writers Centre because these are specific organisations that many of you will not be familiar with.

a. the boys nose

b. the mices tails

c. Jennys books

d. James father

e. the mens wives

f. the ladies husbands

g. Its yours, isnt it?

h. seven weeks holiday

i. a minutes silence

j. Johns and Marys books

k. John and Mary’s house

l. Sydneys beaches

m. the Joneses house

n. Brisbane Writers Festival/Queensland Writers Centre

o. the companies line of work

p. Decisions generally follow

q. Joness approach

r. Astrophysics gain is linguistics loss.

s. Whose is this book?

t. the flight schedules of Qantas

u. the programming of SBS

v. One must choose ones words carefully.

w. There are three ls in lollipop.

x. The 1980s were good years.

y. In the twenty-first century, fewer writers are using ands

and buts.

z. Las Vegass obvious disdain for the written word.

Chapter 7 How structuring and design work

STRUCTURING

1. If you are a student writer, or a workplace writer thinking about going back to further study, graphically structure the brainstormed notes below (using the devices covered earlier

in this Chapter) into an outline that you could use for a report to the student services unit at your university on considerations for mature students returning to study. Make sure that

you ‘chunk’ (categorise), arrange, and label (coordinate and subordinate levels) your points.

• Improve financial situation
• Fill in the gaps in my education
• Find a mentor/make human contact with lecturers and make a good impression
• Be committed
• Be aware and wary of pitfalls such as underestimating the required time commitment
• Get serious
• Postgraduate standards intimidating/competitive
• Coping with study (again)
• Get organised
• Skill up in word processing, email, and the internet
• Poor choice of course/not knowing the options
• Financial strain
• Long-term commitment (several semesters)
• Fear of failure/fear of not making it
• Get accurate information from proper sources
• Change career to get out of a dead-end job or a quarterlife crisis
• Uncertainty about end job
• Enhance self-esteem
• Extend current work capabilities
• Thirst for new knowledge
• All my children have a degree
• Get guidance when you need it
• Personal fulfilment
• Unrealistic expectations
• Pressure of understanding ‘university-level’ postgraduate content
• Need developed study skills
• Balancing family, work, social life, free time
• Find out what is expected of you
• Get exemplars of all assignments
• Being ‘ghettoised’ with other mature-age students
• Lack of support from family
• Meet new people, so have more social options
• Self-development
• Make a contribution to society.

3. Your manager has asked you to prepare a background briefing note that can be used to convince your CEO of the need for policy guidelines that your colleagues can follow when using email and social media. Brainstorm reasons in favour of such a policy and the topics/issues/guidelines that you think should be included in such a policy. Structure your brainstormed information into an outline to present to your manager.

DESIGN

1. Watch the excellent five-minute animated short by Barrett-Forrest on the history of typography. The comments on the animation from many people are hugely complimentary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=wOgIkxAfJsk

2. Find and analyse samples of good (i.e., simple and transparent) design, and of poor design that ignores the guidelines.

3. Peter Norvig’s famous spoof of PowerPoint is worth watching: ‘The making of the Gettysburg PowerPoint presentation’. http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm

Chapter 8 How genres and workplace documents work

1. Interview a workplace writer to obtain the material you’d need if you were to write an article on ‘A day in the life of a workplace writer’. You can choose a working writer or a writing worker. Their observations will reflect their background.  Write the article and try to get it published.

2. Write an unsolicited proposal to a company to convince them to hire you as a freelance technical writer/editor.

3. Write a letter to a company complaining about a product or a service that you are dissatisfied with. Your best chance of getting a satisfactory reply will depend on how clearly you explain the problem, what you want (an apology, replacement of a product, compensation), and the tone (courteous and reasonable) that you use in your letter to the company.  Provide details and maybe photos. Aim to communicate, in the ‘nicest possible way’, what you want from them.

4. Write a set of instructions for new students about how to get the most out of university life.

5. If you are setting out on a job hunt, write a letter to a former lecturer or manager who is familiar with you and your work, asking them whether they are prepared to act as your referee in your search. You can also ask them if they are prepared to act as a referee for any subsequent jobs that you may apply for. Promise to send them the job specification and the application for each job that you apply for.

6. Analyse the part of the media release below (pp. 197─198 of the book) and ascertain whether it follows the advice given in this Chapter on media releases. Why was it so successful?

Massive enrolment shows the clamour for grammar

More than 40,000 students from around the world began a grammar course this week at the University of Queensland. The free, online UQx subject, WRITE101x – English Grammar

and Style, has been developed by Associate Professor Roslyn Petelin, from the School of English, Media Studies, and Art History.

“Students range in age from 11 to more than 80 and come from Paris, France, to Paris, Texas, from Argentina to Venezuela, and from New York to Noosa”, Dr Petelin said.

“Since grammar disappeared from primary-school classrooms

in the late 1950s, generations of students have been  deprived of the utilitarian and recreational pleasure of understanding just how words work to create grammatically correct sentences.

“Clearly, there is a clamour for grammar”.

In developing the course, Dr Petelin was supported by “a crack team of young grammar-loving students” who present many of the course videos.

In developing the course, she interviewed world-leading grammarians Professor David Crystal and Professor Geoff Pullum, who has provocatively claimed that “public discussion

of grammar is in roughly the same state that public understanding of aeronautical engineering would be if educated adults believed that airplane wings flapped and had feathers”.

Dr Petelin also convenes UQ’s postgraduate Master of Arts (Writing, Editing, and Publishing) Program.

7. Analyse Deânne Sheldon-Collins’s graduation ceremony speech on pp. 202─204 of the book to see whether it fulfils the criteria for speeches given in this Chapter.

Chapter 9 How academic research and writing work

1. At the end of this Chapter in How Writing Works, I praise a brilliant little book by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They say. I say. The moves that matter in academic writing. Graff and Birkenstein provide templates that they claim ‘represent the deep, underlying structure, the internal DNA as it were, of all effective argument’. In their preface, they emphasise that templates ‘focus writers’ attention not just on what is being said, but on the forms that structure what is being said’. I cannot recommend this valuable book highly enough.

Here are a couple of their key templates to use in your academic writing:

a. In discussions of --------------------- , a controversial issue is whether-------------------- . While some argue that ---------------------, others contend that--------------------------- .  This is not to say that ------------------.

b. Of course, some might object that--------------------. Although I concede that ------------------,I still maintain that -------------------------.

Can you use these templates to construct an argument about an academic topic with which you are familiar?

2. Select one of each of the following:

• a feature article from a newspaper
• an advertisement (with a reasonable amount of text) from a magazine
• an article from an academic journal (or one of your own successful pieces of academic writing).

It is useful if your three pieces relate to a similar topic, but this is not essential. Read the text of each, and compile a matrix (see Figure 7.3 in Chapter 7) to demonstrate the similarities and differences between academic and non-academic writing in relation to:

• intended readers
• purpose of the piece of writing
• title (evocative? dramatic? descriptive?)
• necessity for readers to have prior knowledge of the topic
• paragraph structure
• use of headings
• methods of proof and reasoning
• connections among ideas
• documentation (if used, which style?)
• sentence structure
• use of active and passive voice
• stance (first, second, or third person)
• word choice and use of jargon
• presence of humour and/or irony
• visual layout.

Use your matrix to write three fully developed, coherent paragraphs that contrast the readerships, structures, and styles of academic and non-academic (popular) writing.

3. Compile a list of seminal writers in your field of study.

4. Compile a list of key journals in your field.

5. Prepare an index card for a written assignment that you have to submit at a later date.

On the card, list:

a. your research question

b. why you chose it

c. the names of five key researchers in this area

d. five key issues you’ve come across in your research on the topic

e. why, in the light of your research, you think your chosen topic is significant

f. your thesis statement.

4. Write an entry in your journal about what you believe you need to know to write effectively in your discipline.

Chapter 10 How digital writing works

1. If you are a workplace writer, were you aware of the number of potential pitfalls in the use of email, as discussed earlier in this Chapter? Have you experienced other challenges in using email for communication that you could add to the list?

2. Does your organisation use social media to communicate with its customers? If it does, what challenges has it faced?

3. Do you tweet? Who are your favourite tweeters? Analyse the content and style of some of their tweets to work out what makes them appealing to you.

4. Do you use social media apps such as TikTok? If you do, can you see why they may be more popular with teenagers than Facebook, or, as it is now called, Meta? Compare the features of Meta and TikTok.

5. Do you follow any blogs? If you do, which ones do you regularly read? What do you like about them? Analyse the content and style of some of your favourite blogs to work out what makes them appealing to you.

6. Do you blog? If you do, does your blog follow the principles suggested in this Chapter? If you don’t blog, what expertise do you have that you might be able to develop into a blog with some further research?

7. Many media stories have pointed to research on the negative effects of social media, particularly that of Instagram, on teenagers. Explore this issue and write a short opinion piece appropriate for your journal, or perhaps for publication on a blog.

8. Can you remember being impressed/excited by a website’s design? Why? Find three or four websites for the same sort of organisation (e.g., airlines, banks, hotels, or universities).

Compare the websites by constructing a matrix (see Figure 7.3 in Chapter 7) of their similarities and differences and see which one your matrix reveals as the best. You would need to consider features such as ease of navigation, usefulness and quality of content, and appropriateness of style.

Chapter 11 How revising, editing, and proofreading work

1. In Chapter 8, I mentioned getting a surprisingly error-riddled letter from a bank (errors in capitalisation, facts, grammar, passive voice, punctuation, spelling, unfamiliar jargon). Read the letter and its background, edit it, and then write a polite and apologetic letter to me.

The bank’s letter:

Dear Mrs Petelin,

MASTERCARD ACCOUNT NO. 1234567

We refer to your enquiry regarding a disputed amount of $494.31 debited to your account from BUSYTOWN HOTEL, BUSYTOWN, CALIFORNIA.

As previously advised, action was taken to credit your account pending receipt of the vouchers from the merchant’s bank.

The merchant’s bank have now supplied us with two vouchers which are enclosed for your perusal.

Unfortunately we are unable to assist you any further as rental/lodging agreements are subject to final audit.

As details appear valid, we wish to advise you that action will be taken to reprocess $494.31 to your Account.

If you still dispute this matter, the only avenue for you to try and retreive $494.31 is directly

from the merchant.

If this proves unsucessful you may seek the assistance from the EMBASSY.

We apologise for the inconvience.

Yours sincerely,

Customer Services

The background to the bank’s letter:

Prior to participating in a conference, I sent my HillEnd Bank MasterCard number to the Busytown Hotel to guarantee a room reservation. I stayed at the hotel for three nights.

On checking out, I paid my account with the same credit card as I had used to guarantee my reservation.

Several months later, I noticed on my credit card statement that I had been charged an identical amount twice for my stay at the hotel. I rang the bank, explained to them how I believed the error had occurred, and asked them to deposit the second amount back into my account. They did.

Nearly a year later, I received the letter above out of the blue. It was accompanied by a photocopy of the slip I had signed on checking out and a hand-filled-in slip with no signature

on it that said ‘signature on file’. The problem was eventually sorted out, but it took several years to be finalised.

3. The following sentences will test your ability to edit at the sentence level. Identify and correct the problem in each sentence.

a. People are always impressed by her smooth manner, elegant clothes, and being witty.

b. The rural towns are dying. One of the problems being that young people are leaving.

c. Having argued all morning, a decision was finally reached.

d. The situation is quite different than that of previous years.

e. The army moved my partner and I to Melbourne last year.

f. It is late in his term and inflation is worse and no one has a solution.

g. When a person moves every year, one cannot expect them to develop civic pride.

Answers are on p. 295 of the book.