The grammar exercises on clarity, concision, coherence/cohesion, and qualifiers helped me revise grammatical issues in my papers because each lesson gave instructions on ways to identify these problems and revise them. The exercises in Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace provided tools that helped me understand ways to improve the clarity, concision, and coherence of my writing. When reading through my first drafts of assignments I noticed that I often misplace subject and verbs, which affected the clarity of my sentences. For example, in the first draft of my research review my sentences lacked clarity because I used nominalizations in place of the names of researchers. I revised this issue by removing the nominalizations and inserting the correct researchers names. My draft of the research review also included sentences that did not enhance the point I wanted to make, to make my writing more concise I eliminated sentences and words that lacked any meaning. My first drafts of the TELA and personal statement lacked coherence and cohesion because I did not develop my coda well enough. In my revisions I worked on creating cohesion by tying ideas from my introductions into my conclusions. Also, to improve the coherence of my TELA I referred back to my grandmother’s diagnosis throughout my explanation rather than just stating it at the beginning of my explanation. Before these lessons I did not know what qualifiers were or how they affected writing style, but after the lesson I reviewed my papers and noticed that I do not use qualifiers or metalanguage very often; however, I noticed I needed to pay more attention to the appropriate use of active and passive voice. For instance, in the methods section of my research proposal I used passive voice to emphasize the procedures, whereas in the data management section I used active voice to strengthen my plan of obtaining data. The lessons and grammar exercises on craft helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses in writing. My biggest weakness is writing with clarity and cohesion because I have a difficult time developing a coda. My first drafts lack flow even if I have a strong beginning because I forget to continue writing with the same ideas in mind. Although my first drafts contained problems with clarity and cohesion I revised my writing to include sentences with clear thought and analysis to further develop my ideas. The lessons on craft gave me tools I can utilize to identify issues with clarity, concision, and cohesion when revising my future writings.
Craft Workshop Sheets WRI 116 Cohesion Exercises WRI 116 Questions Clarity Artifact Coherence-Cohesion Artifact Concision Artifact Qualifiers Artifact
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