GEOL 102-6 Section 20: Geological Impacts on Civilizations

Comments on Writing Assignment #1

The following comments on problems evident in the first writing assignment are keyed (in parentheses) to the relevant section in the twelfth edition of the Harbrace College Handbook.

• "Title?": While perhaps not strictly necessary for such a short autobiographical essay, selection of a title will be important for future papers. (33f[3])
• "Reference?": Include full bibliographic entries for your references at the end of your text. See the Reading List for this class for some examples of a common format, and study the Note on Literature Citations for this course. (34g)
• "Andrews (1991, p. 25)": Some of you may have been taught the MLA system of references and citations. Using MLA, you might write the preceding citation as "(Andrews 25)". Much of the scientific literature uses a slightly different system. To cite a specific paper, the following two forms are commonly used: "as noted by Biddle (1974), the excavations ...", and "the subsequent excavations (Biddle, 1974) revealed ...". To cite pages from a book, the following forms are commonly used: "as noted by Andrews (1991, p. 25), the ...", "it has been shown (Andrews, 1991, p. 25) that ...", and "Potter and Johns (1992, pp. 30-32) write that ...". Try to use this style of citation in this class. Study the Note on Literature Citations for the course. (34f)
• "e.g.": This abbreviation for the Latin exempli gratia was traditionally italicized (or underlined) like any foreign word or expression. However, the abbreviations "cf.", "e.g.", "et al.", "etc.", "i.e.", and "vs." now have become so common in English that many publishers no longer italicize them. Adopt a consistent usage. (11d)
• "affect" vs. "effect", "sight" vs. "site": Do not confuse different words with similar pronounciations. (18b)
• "phenomenon" vs. "phenomena": Some words (especially those derived from ancient Greek) possess unusual plural forms. (18d[5])
• "the earth" vs. "Earth" vs. "Mother Earth": Use capitalization correctly, especially with regard to planetary names and personifications. Note, however, that some publishers recently have ceased to capitalize "Earth" under any circumstances. (9, 9b[8])
• "the city's response" vs. "the cities' responses": Use the apostrophe correctly in constructing the possessive case of singular and plural nouns. (15a)
• "class of 1995 " vs. "class of '95 ": Use the apostrophe correctly in marking omissions. (15b)
• "this class, with its emphasis on ... , will be": Set off nonrestrictive parenthetical elements with commas. (12d)
• "For whatever reason, ...": Use commas after introductory phrases. (12b)
• " ; ": Use semicolons correctly to link independent clauses without coordinating conjunctions. (14a)
• " , and" and " , but": Use commas correctly with coordinating conjunctions that link independent clauses. (3a, 13b)
• "And ..." and "But ...": It used to be considered incorrect to begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction, and some people still find it annoying. However, it is now becoming an accepted practice. (30b)
• "in the long term" vs. "long-term effects": Hyphenate compound adjectives. Similarly: "tenth-choice class", "twenty-mile walk". (18f[1])
• "a lush, green forest": Use commas between coordinate adjectives. (12c[2])
• "mountain pine forest" vs. "forest of mountain pines", "soil moisture loss" vs. "loss of soil moisture": It is becoming increasingly common in American English to string together long lists of nouns used as adjectives. This is still considered bad practice in British English. Consider using the preposition "of" to break up these strings. (4d)
• Write concisely. Avoid liberally sprinkling excess adverbs and adjectives throughout your text. (21)
• "this is a thought that I have considered" vs. "this was a thought that I had considered": Use consistent verb tenses within any given sentence. Similarly: "received ... had been", "thought ... was". (27a)
• "a person who is" vs. "a thing that is": Use the appropriate relative pronoun. (5, 5a)
• "looking forward to continued learning and to further developing": Use parallel structure with prepositions. (26, 26b)
• "I see myself not only as a recipient but also as a contributor": Use parallel structure with correlatives. (26c)
• Review the general concept of parallelism. (26)