One thing that I have learned a lot this semester is that there are many ways to improve your writing. What I mean by this is that someone’s essay isn’t better then someone else’s because they are by nature a good writer; they just have more practice and have made more errors. Throughout this class I have been called out on my errors in a way that I am able to see them clearly, and then be effective in my corrections. Paralleling to the concept sheets from UW-Madison Writing, I can see some common mistakes that are easy fixes that have just not been pointed out until now. For example, in one of the concept sheets it talks about an active versus a passive tone. This has been a problem for me throughout my writing career and even in my rebuttal essay. By having a passive voice, I tend to drag my sentences out longer than they need to, and in turn, weakening my argument. I can learn from this concept sheet and implement this active, strong voice into my research paper to help me convey my stance on my topic. There would be nothing worse then sounding weak and uncertain on a research paper.
The second concept sheet that I noticed would help my writing greatly, was the one regarding expletive constructions. On the sheet it mentions that expletive constructions are phrases like “it is” or “there is” and they tend to divert the attention from the subject of the sentence, causing choppy sentences. In my research paper, I will be discussing something along the lines of COVID-19’s impact on our economy which can tend to get quite confusing; this requires me to have clear sentences where the subject is known by the reader in order to get my point across. After I understand this idea of reducing expletive constructions to help me provide clear sentences, I can then translate that into having a more active and stronger voice. Overall, I will diffidently be using all of these concept sheets to assist me with my research paper to make my writing as clear and as active as possible.
Reduce Expletive Constructions
Expletive: It is true that the United States borders Mexico.
Correction: The United States borders Mexico.
Expletive: It was the team’s first game of the year today.
Correction: Today was the team’s first game of the year.
Expletive: There are surprisingly many people who like crunchy peanut butter.
Correction: Surprisingly, many people like crunchy peanut butter.
Active Voice
Active: Medicare should be provided for all Americans.
Passive: Many people believe that Medicare should be provided for all Americans.
Active: The lawyer won his case.
Passive: The case was won by the lawyer in court.
Active: Economists support the stimulus bill.
Passive: The stimulus bill is supported by some economists.
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