An Introduction to Writing Skills

An Introduction to Writing Skills

Writing is a fundamental skill, essentially the activity of producing words on a surface to represent language visually or tactilely. It’s not just about putting words down; it’s about crafting meaning and conveying messages effectively. The process of writing involves a series of steps that writers typically follow while composing a text. These stages include: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing, and Publishing.

Understanding the Writing Process

The journey of writing begins with Prewriting, the crucial first stage where ideas are generated and organized before a rough draft is even considered. This phase involves various strategies to generate and clarify ideas, such as brainstorming, outlining, clustering (similar to mind mapping), diagramming, and storyboarding. Brainstorming, a term coined by Alex Faickney Osborn, is a creative method used to produce new ideas, often in a group setting, where the focus is on quantity, wildness of ideas, and building upon others’ suggestions without immediate criticism. In this stage, writers gather and evaluate ideas, deleting some, adding new ones, and grouping others to form a coherent plan.

Following prewriting is Drafting, the second stage where the writer creates a preliminary sketch or outline of their text. This “discovery draft” contains the main ideas and intentions, serving as a skeleton for the developed form. Writers often produce multiple drafts, organizing their ideas logically and developing them with suitable detail for their intended audience and purpose.

Next comes Revising, a critical phase that moves writing from one stage to the next. Revision is a comprehensive reworking and rewriting process. It’s more than just minor tweaks; it involves restructuring the paper, eliminating unnecessary details, adding new information, moving paragraphs and sentences, rewriting sections, double-checking evidence accuracy, and rephrasing awkward areas. Many writers adopt an ARRR approach: Add, Rearrange, Remove, Replace. The goal is to review, modify, and reorganize the work to ensure its tone, style, and content are appropriate for the audience.

Editing is an extremely detailed process that goes beyond merely correcting mistakes. While it includes proofreading for errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and word selection, editing also involves ensuring the narrative flows smoothly and that all elements fit cohesively with the overall message. It can require creative skills and a precise set of methods to clarify ideas and refine the text. There are two main types of editing: the ongoing edit, where writers make changes as they write, and the draft edit, where writers step back to review the entire work as a detached professional before rewriting.

Finally, the Publishing stage is where the writer’s work is shared with others, completing the writing process.

Key Elements of Good Writing

Several components contribute to good writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Sentence fluency and conventions are particularly important traits that make a paper presentable and easy to read.

• Writing style is a distinct way of expressing something, characteristic of a person, group, or period. It’s shaped by the writer’s word choice, sentence patterns, and voice, contributing to the unique quality of their work. The four main types of writing styles are Expository, Descriptive, Persuasive, and Narrative.
• Tone reflects the author’s attitude toward the subject, the reader, and themselves. It’s expressed through point of view, diction (word choice), syntax (sentence structure), and the level of formality. In contrast, mood is how the readers are made to feel.
• Cohesion refers to the grammatical and lexical linking of ideas at the sentence level, holding the text together. Coherence, on the other hand, means the connection of ideas at the overall idea level, ensuring logical flow.

Formal vs. Informal Writing

Writing styles vary significantly depending on purpose and audience. Formal writing is typically used for academic, institutional, and business purposes, maintaining a serious, impersonal, and polite tone. It generally avoids first and second-person pronouns, imperative voice, abbreviated words, clichés, colloquialisms, contractions, and slang. Sentences tend to be longer and more complex, often using passive voice.

Conversely, informal writing is used for communicative purposes, allowing for a humorous or casual tone. It freely uses first and second-person pronouns, imperative voice, abbreviated words, clichés, colloquialisms, contractions, and slang. Sentences are usually shorter and simpler, favoring active voice and a more personal tone.

Avoiding Plagiarism and Citing Sources

A crucial aspect of academic and professional writing is avoiding plagiarism, which is copying another’s work or borrowing original ideas without proper acknowledgment. It’s considered an act of fraud. To prevent plagiarism, writers must paraphrase borrowed information in their own words (using quotation marks for direct quotes of more than two words), cite sources properly (including author’s last name, publication date, and page number for direct quotes), and include a reference page or works cited at the end of the paper.

Common citation styles include:

• APA style (American Psychological Association) is widely used in psychology, education, and social sciences. In-text citations include the author’s last name and the date of publication, with a page number for direct quotations.
• MLA style (Modern Language Association) is common in the liberal arts and humanities. Its in-text citations typically use the author’s last name and the page number.
• Vancouver style is a numbered referencing style used in medicine and science, involving in-text numbers that correspond to a sequentially numbered reference list.

Other Important Writing Concepts

• A thesis or thesis statement is a long piece of writing based on one’s own ideas and research, forming a core part of a degree or scholarly work. It generally includes a title page, contents, abstract, introduction, body, conclusion, and bibliography.
• A topic is the general theme or subject of a written work.
• Writer’s block is a condition where an author loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.
• Writer’s guidelines are instructions a publication provides for its writers to follow.
• Academic writing adheres to a formal structure, specific tone, and traditional conventions of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Cognitive skills are the core brain functions for thinking, reading, learning, remembering, reasoning, and paying attention.
• Footnotes are explanatory notes at the bottom of a page referring to specific text parts.
• Skimming involves reading quickly for a general meaning, while scanning is reading quickly to find specific information.
• An article is a non-fiction written composition that forms an independent part of a larger publication.
• A case study is an in-depth investigation of a single person, group, event, or community.
• A central idea is the unifying theme of a story or article.
• Cluster analysis is an exploratory analysis that identifies homogeneous groups within data.
• Composition refers to the way different concepts and ideas are combined in writing.
• An outline is a plan or summary of a writing project.
• An overview is a general outline.
• Peer review is an academic quality control process where experts review an article or essay.
• A review is an orderly recall of past information to form a judgment.
• A dead copy is a manuscript that has been typeset and proofread.
• Formatting refers to the appearance or presentation of a writing.
• ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a 13-digit identifier for books.
• A speech is the communication of thoughts in spoken words, typically with an introduction, main part, and conclusion.
• Structure is the outline of a piece of writing showing the organization of concepts and ideas.
• A term paper is an essay or report a student writes on a subject studied during a term.

Introduction to Writing Skills

Part-A: Shortest Questions with Answers

1. What is writing? / What do you mean by writing?

Ans. Writing is the skill or activity of producing words on a surface. It is a method of representing language in visual or tactile form.

2. What is writing style?

Ans. Writing style is a way of expressing something that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period. It also refers to the arrangement of linguistic elements in a composition or discourse.

3. What are the things that form the style of writing?

Ans. The specific context, purpose, audience, word choice, sentence fluency, and the writer’s voice all contribute to the style of a piece of writing.

4. What are the four different types of writing style?

Ans. The four different types of writing style are: Expository, Descriptive, Persuasive, and Narrative.

5. What are the components of all good writing?

Ans. The six researched components of all good writing are: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.

6. What are the two important writing traits that make a paper presentable and easy to read?

Ans. The two important writing traits that make a paper presentable and easy to read are: Sentence fluency and Conventions.

7. What are the main stages in writing? [N.U. 2019, ’22]

Ans. The writing process has three main parts: Pre-writing, composing, and post-writing.

8. What is formal writing?

Ans. Formal writing is a particular pattern of writing which is meant for academic, institutional, and business purposes.

9. What is informal writing?

Ans. Informal writing is a pattern of writing which is used for communicative purposes.

10. What is meant by the ‘process of writing’?

Ans. The ‘process of writing’ means the steps that writers usually follow while composing a text.

11. What are the stages of the writing process? [N.U. 2017]

Ans. The stages of the writing process are: Prewriting, Drafting, Revision, Editing, and Publishing.

12. What is prewriting?

Ans. Prewriting means the first stage of the writing process. It is followed by drafting, revision, editing, and publishing.

 

13. What can be the components of prewriting?

Ans. Prewriting can consist of a combination of outlining, diagramming, storyboarding, and clustering (a technique similar to mind mapping).

14. What is the five-step writing process? / Write down the names of the stages of the writing process. [N.U. 2015]

Ans. The names of the stages of the five-step writing process are: Prewriting, Drafting, Revision, Editing, and Publishing.

15. Define cohesion in writing. [N.U. 2016, ’18, ’21]

Ans. Cohesion is the connection of ideas at the sentence level. It is the grammatical and lexical linking within a text or sentence that holds a text together and gives it meaning.

16. Define coherence in writing. [N.U. 2020]

Ans. Coherence means the connection of ideas at the idea level.

17. What is bibliography? [N.U. 2015, ’20]

Ans. A bibliography is a list of all of the sources a writer has used (whether referenced or not) in the process of researching his/her work.

 

18. What is skimming? [N.U. 2015, ’18, ’22]

Ans. Skimming is reading a text quickly to get a general meaning. It provides a general overview of any piece of writing.

 

19. What is plagiarism? [N.U. 2014]

Ans. Plagiarism means copying another’s work or borrowing someone else’s original ideas without acknowledgment.

 

20. What is brainstorming? [N.U. 2016, ’20, ’22]

Ans. Brainstorming is a creative process to write down relevant ideas for a piece of text.

21. What is drafting? [N.U. 2017, ’22]

Ans. Drafting is a preliminary sketch or outline of a writing which contains the main ideas and intentions of a particular text.

22. What is revising or revision?

Ans. Revision refers to the process of reviewing, editing, modifying, and amending the previously written documents.

23. What is proofreading?

Ans. Proofreading means checking a document to detect errors.

24. What is editing?

Ans. Editing is a stage of the writing process in which a writer or editor strives to improve a draft.

25. What does the process of editing involve?

Ans. The process of editing involves adding, deleting, and rearranging words along with recasting sentences and removing the clutter.

26. What are the two types of editing?

Ans. The two types of editing are: a. The ongoing edit: When we edit as we write and write as we edit. b. The draft edit: When we stop writing, gather a number of pages together, read them, make notes on what works, and then rewrite.

27. What is Bibliography? What are the things that a bibliography should include?

Ans. A bibliography is a list of the written sources of information on a subject. In general, a bibliography should include: * the authors’ names * the titles of the works * the names and locations of the publishers * the dates when books are published

28. What is annotated bibliography?

Ans. An annotated bibliography is a kind of bibliography that contains bibliographic information followed by a brief description of the content, quality, and usefulness of the source.

29. What is the purpose of an annotated bibliography?

Ans. The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to provide a reader with information about the sources so that he/she can evaluate each and every source used.

30. How is a bibliography different from a ‘Works Cited’ or ‘References List’? Ans. The Works Cited or References List is comprised of references to those items actually cited in the paper. On the other hand, a bibliography is a list of all the sources used in the process of research in any field.
31. What is scanning? [N.U. 2022]

Ans. Scanning is reading a text quickly in order to find specific information, such as figures or names.

 

 

32. What is APA style? [N.U. 2021]

Ans. APA format is the official style of the American Psychological Association (APA) and is commonly used to cite sources in psychology, education, and the social sciences.

33. What three kinds of information does APA style include in in-text citations?

Ans. The three kinds of information that APA style includes in in-text citations are: a. Last name of the author. b. Date of publication of the work. c. The page number (only in a citation to a direct quotation).

34. Mention one point of difference between MLA style and APA style.

Ans. In the case of in-text citation, MLA uses the last name of the author and the page number. On the other hand, APA uses the last name of the author and the date.

35. What is GPO style?

Ans. Government Printing Office (GPO) style is a writing style or manual set by the United States Government.

36. What is Vancouver style?

Ans. Vancouver is a numbered referencing style for bibliographic citation commonly used in medicine and science. It follows rules established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

 

37. What does Vancouver style consist of?

Ans. Vancouver style consists of: * Citations to someone else’s work in the text, indicated by the use of a number. * A sequentially numbered reference list at the end of the document providing full details of the corresponding in-text reference.

38. What do you mean by target audience?

Ans. Target audience refers to the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message. In writing, the term suggests a group of people whom the writer wants to educate or persuade.

39. What is arrangement?

Ans. Arrangement refers to the particular order in which details of any piece of writing are organized.

40. What is an article?

Ans. An article is a written composition in prose, usually non-fiction, which forms an independent part of a book or other publication, such as a newspaper or magazine.

41. What is a case study?

Ans. A case study refers to in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event, or community.

42. What is a central idea?

Ans. A central idea is the definitive and unifying theme or idea of a story or article encompassing all the aspects necessary to create a coherent main idea, generally mentioned at the very outset of a piece of writing.

43. What is cluster analysis?

Ans. Cluster analysis is an explorative analysis that tries to identify structures within the data. More specifically, it tries to identify homogeneous groups of cases, such as observations, participants, or respondents.

 

44. Why is cluster analysis used?

Ans. Cluster analysis is used to identify groups of cases if the grouping is not previously known.

 

45. What is composition?

Ans. The word ‘composition’ comes from the Latin ‘componere’, meaning ‘put together’. It is a way of combining different concepts and ideas into any piece of writing.

46. What is an outline?

Ans. An outline is a plan for or a summary of a writing project or a speech which contains its main features.

47. What is an overview?

Ans. An overview refers to a general outline of a piece of writing.

48. What is peer review?

Ans. Peer review is an academic term for quality control. It is a process of reviewing any article or essay by a panel of expert reviewers.

49. What is a review?

Ans. A review is the orderly recall of past information in summary form for re-examination of any subject so that the writer can come to a judgment.

50. What is a dead copy?

Ans. A dead copy is one of the copy editing terms. It refers to the manuscript that has been typeset and proofread.

 

 

51. What is format?

Ans. Formatting refers to the appearance or presentation of a writing.

52. What is ISBN?

Ans. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It consists of 13 digits which are calculated using a specific mathematical formula.

53. What is speech?

Ans. Speech is the communication or expression of thoughts in spoken words. A speech has a strong introduction, a main part, and a strong conclusion.

54. What is structure?

Ans. Structure is the outline of a piece of writing that shows the organization of concepts, ideas, and contents.

55. What is a term paper?

Ans. A term paper is an essay or report which a student writes on a subject that he or she has studied during a term at a school, college, or university.

56. What is thesis? / What do you mean by thesis statement? [N.U. 2021] Ans. A thesis is a long piece of writing based on one’s own ideas and research that one does as part of a degree.
57. What are the parts of a thesis? Ans. The parts of a thesis are: the title, title page, list of contents, preface, abstract, introduction, body text, conclusion, bibliography and references, footnotes, appendices, etc.
58. What is a topic? Ans. A topic is the general theme, subject, message, or idea expressed in a speech or written work.
59. What is writer’s block? Ans. Writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.
60. What may be the effects of writer’s block? Ans. The effects of writer’s block may be that the condition ranges in difficulty from coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce a work for years.
61. What are writer’s guidelines? Ans. Writer’s guidelines mean a particular set of instructions that a publication intends/desires its writers to get acquainted with or adhere to.
62. What is academic writing? Ans. Academic writing refers to such writing that is organized around a formal order or structure and follows a particular ‘tone’ and adheres to traditional conventions of punctuation, grammar, and spelling.
63. What do you mean by cognitive skills? Ans. Cognitive skills are the core skills our brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention.
64. What are footnotes? Ans. Footnotes are explanatory or documenting notes or comments at the bottom of a page, referring to specific parts of the text on the page.
65. What is tone? Ans. Tone is the author’s attitude towards the topic.
66. What are the types of tones/attitudes in writing? Ans. Tones/attitudes can be of different types. These types are serious, formal, informal, sad, cheerful, optimistic, and pessimistic, to name a few.
67. How is tone expressed? Ans. Tone can be expressed by the author’s point of view, the author’s diction, the author’s syntax, and the level of formality in the author’s writing.
68. What are the three main strands of tone? Ans. The main three strands of tone are the writer’s attitude toward the subject, the reader, and self.
69. What are the basic questions that establish tone? Ans. The basic questions that establish tone are: a. Why am I writing this? b. Who am I writing it to? c. What do I want the readers to learn, understand, or think about?
70. What is the difference between tone and mood? Ans. Tone is the author’s attitude toward a subject, but mood is how we are made to feel as readers.
71. Write down five positive mood words. Ans. Five positive mood words are: cheerful, confident, passionate, optimistic, relieved.
72. Write down five negative mood words. Ans. Five negative mood words are: annoyed, anxious, depressed, cynical, painful.
73. How many skills are there in a language? Ans. There are four basic skills in a language which are: speaking, reading, listening, and writing.
74. What are the prewriting strategies? Ans. Prewriting strategies use writing to generate and clarify ideas. The strategies are freewriting, brainstorming, outlining, and clustering.
75. What is freewriting? Ans. Freewriting is a prewriting technique in which a writer writes continuously for a period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic.
76. What do the five ‘W’s refer to? Ans. The five W’s are questions whose answers are considered basic in information gathering. (Typically: Who, What, When, Where, Why).
77. What is a discovery draft? Ans. A discovery draft is the first step in the process that a writer takes to write their paper all the way through.

 

 

 

Part-B: Short Questions with Answers

1. What is drafting? [N.U. 2015] Ans. Drafting is the second stage of the writing process. It is a preliminary sketch or outline of a writing which contains the main ideas and intentions of a particular text. It is just a skeleton of a developed form. Writers approach drafting in various ways. “Some writers like to start drafting before they develop a clear plan,” notes John Trimbur, “whereas others would not think of drafting without a carefully developed outline.” (The Call to Write, 2014).

In any case, it’s common for writers to produce multiple drafts. This stage should be thought of as a free writing exercise, just with more direction. Though it is a ‘rough draft,’ here the writer should organize his/her ideas in a suitable way so that the audience can understand the message.

2. What is Brainstorming? [N.U. 2012] Ans. Brainstorming refers to the process of producing new ideas. A popular thought is that the meaning of Brainstorming is somehow related to generating a storm of ideas in a brain. Though it makes sense, the inventor had something slightly different in mind when he came up with the term. The word ‘Brainstorming’ was coined by Alex Faickney Osborn (1888-1966) in his book ‘Your Creative Power’, published in 1948.

In this process, a group of people takes a specific problem and creates as many ideas as possible in a limited time. In a brainstorming session, it is expected that every group member will speak out all ideas that come to his/her mind, no criticism is allowed, and the wilder an idea, the better. Members are encouraged to use others’ ideas as triggers (input) to create/associate further ideas and to combine ideas. Freewriting, listing, clustering, and mapping are a number of useful techniques for brainstorming. A writer brainstorms before he/she starts any piece of writing.

3. What is plagiarism? [N.U. 2012, ’20, ’22] Ans. Generally, plagiarism means copying another’s work or borrowing someone else’s original ideas. If one translates the work of another person into another language and does not cite the source, this is also plagiarism. But terms like ‘copying’ and ‘borrowing’ can disguise the seriousness of the offense; it is actually to steal and pass off the ideas or words of another as one’s own. To use another’s production without crediting the source is to commit literary theft.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterward. Plagiarism is a disciplinary offense.

4. How can we avoid plagiarism? [N.U. 2012, ’20, ’22] Ans. Simply acknowledging certain material that has been borrowed and providing the audience with the information necessary to find that source is usually enough to prevent plagiarism.

Ways to avoid plagiarism:

• a. Paraphrase: One needs to paraphrase borrowed information in his/her own words. If one copies more than two words together, he/she will have to use quotation marks.
• b. Cite: Citing is one of the effective ways to avoid plagiarism. Citing usually entails the addition of the author(s) and the date of the publication or similar information. Not citing properly can constitute plagiarism.
• c. Quoting: Quoting a source should be exactly the way it appears. No one wants to be misquoted. Quoting must be done correctly to avoid plagiarism allegations.
• d. Citing quotes: Citing a quote can be different than citing paraphrased material. This practice usually involves the addition of a page number or a paragraph number in the case of web content.
• E. Referencing One of the most important ways to avoid plagiarism is including a reference page or page of works cited at the end of a research paper. This information is very specific and includes the author(s), date of publication, title, and source.

 

 

5. Explain with examples the differences between formal and informal writing? [N.U. 2017] Ans. The differences between formal and informal writing are as follows:

Formal Writing	Informal Writing
1. A serious tone is maintained.	1. Humorous and casual tone may be used.
2. Passive voice is often used.	2. Active voice may be used.
3. The tone is polite but impersonal.	3. The tone is more personal.
4. Use of 1st and 2nd person pronouns is often avoided.	4. 1st and 2nd person pronouns are used freely.
5. Imperative voice is generally avoided.	5. Imperative voice can be used.
6. Most often, longer and more complex sentences are preferred.	6. Most often, short and simple sentences are preferred.
7. Usually, abbreviated words (e.g., info, photo, TV) are avoided.	7. Abbreviated words may be used.
8. Cliches are avoided.	8. Cliches may be used.
9. Use of colloquial words/expressions is not acceptable.	9. Colloquial words/expressions are used.
10. Generally, contractions and slang are avoided.	10. Use of contractions and slang are acceptable.

 

 

 

6. What are the basic stages of the writing process? Ans. Every writer follows his or her own writing process. Often the process is a routine that comes naturally and is not a step-by-step guide to which writers refer. Here are five stages of the writing process:

• i. Prewriting: Prewriting means doing something needful before doing the rough draft. Brainstorming, outlining ideas, planning, structuring, and collecting information relating to the ideas are done at this stage.
• ii. Drafting: At this stage, a writer writes down all the ideas from the prewriting stage, organizing them logically. He develops his ideas with suitable detail for his audience and purpose.
• iii. Revising: When revising their work, many writers naturally adopt the ARRR approach: Add, Rearrange, Remove, Replace. Thus, in order to improve the draft, they review, modify, and reorganize their work by making the tone, style, and content appropriate for the intended audience.
• iv. Editing: Editing is an extremely detailed process. At this phase, the task includes proofreading and correcting errors in grammar, sentence structuring, punctuation, capitalization, word selection, checking for spelling, repetition, clarity, citation, and document format.
• v. Publishing: In this final stage, a writer’s writing is shared with others.

7. How does one gather ideas in the pre-writing stage? [N.U. 2019] Ans. Pre-writing is the most important step in a writing process, and a writer gathers ideas in this step. Once the writer decides on gathering ideas, he may change the focus if necessary. Then he needs to organize the ideas that have been generated and evaluated as well. At this stage, some ideas will be deleted and new ones will be added. Some will be moved, and some will be grouped together.
8. Why and when brainstorming is used? What do you need to do for brainstorming? Ans. As a creative method, brainstorming can be used to solve all kinds of problems. It may be a business, public administration, military, family, or personal issue/problem. It is important to have a problem that is specific and can be made into a question. For brainstorming, we need to find a specific problem/challenge expressed as a question. A group of 5 to 10 people are needed. The members should be both men and women, experts, and non-experts. The group can contain members from different strata of society. Everyone might have ideas that solve the problem.
9. What is the process of brainstorming? Ans. Brainstorming is done usually following certain processes. They are:

• a. The leader or another member introduces the problem. The problem is expressed as a question.
• b. The problem is explained in a way that all group members understand its essence.
• c. The group meets in a half-circle and starts writing down ideas. Everyone just speaks out his/her ideas. All ideas are welcome here. The more ideas, the better. No group member, including the leader, is allowed to criticize any idea. Everyone is allowed to use other group members’ ideas to come up with another idea.
• d. All ideas are recorded by a note-taker. He/She may be the leader or another person at a place where all group members can see the ideas. The easiest way to record the ideas is in the form of a list on a flip chart or whiteboard. The ideas should not be noted word by word; rather, keywords or short phrases should be used.

 

 

10. What are the basic rules of brainstorming? Ans. There are some basic rules of brainstorming. They are:

• a. No criticism is allowed during brainstorming. Evaluation of ideas will be after the brainstorming.
• b. Quantity is important. The more the ideas, the better. The group members should not be worried about speaking out only ‘good’ ideas.
• c. Wildness is good. Crazy ideas are welcome. It is because many times the craziest ideas turn out to be the best ones.
• d. Combining other ideas – and taking another person’s ideas a step further or using them for yet another idea is good.

A brainstorming session lasts between 30 minutes and an hour. After the meeting, the list of ideas is copied and distributed to all group members.

11. What is revising/revision? Ans. Writing is a process that goes through many stages, and revision is what makes it move from stage to stage. Revision is reworking and rewriting; it is not merely changing a few words, adding a sentence here or there, or taking out material that is unnecessary. To revise a paper is to restructure the paper, eliminate unnecessary details or information, add details, move paragraphs and sentences around, rewrite paragraphs and sentences; double-check the accuracy of the supporting evidence, reword awkward areas, edit, and proofread.
12. What is editing? Ans. Editing is actually quite a complicated process. Editing is not just looking for mistakes in the writing, such as spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, etc. It also involves looking for anything that doesn’t fit with the story, or anything that stops the story from flowing smoothly. Editing can involve creative skills, human relations, and a precise set of methods.

 

 

12. What’s the process of editing? Ans. The process of editing involves adding, deleting, and rearranging words, along with recasting sentences and cutting the clutter. This is how tightening a piece of writing and mending it in terms of its remarkably creative activity is done. Its goal is to clarify ideas, fashion fresh images, and even radically rethink the way we approach a topic. Thoughtful editing can inspire further revision of our work.
13. What are the two types of editing? Ans. There are two types of editing: i. ‘the ongoing edit’ and ii. ‘the draft edit’.

• i. The ongoing edit: Most of us edit as we write and write as we edit, and it’s impossible to slice cleanly between the two. For example, while writing, we may change a word in a sentence, write three sentences more, then back up a clause to change that semicolon to a dash; or, we may edit a sentence and a new idea suddenly spins out from a word change.
• ii. The draft edit: For the draft edit, we stop writing, gather a number of pages together, read them, make notes on what works and doesn’t, then rewrite. It is only in the draft edit that we gain a sense of the whole and view our work as a detached professional.

14. What is proofreading? Ans. Proofreading means checking a document for errors. Proper proofreading is more than just a quick check for spelling and grammatical correctness. It’s the final chance to polish a work. Proofreading requires the use of a dictionary to verify the meaning of words. A proofreader always has to check the use of words if there is any doubt a word is used correctly.

A good proofreading is not complete without a careful survey of the document to ensure it is well organized and the information is presented clearly, completely, and accurately. Documents should be proofread a couple of days after they are written. This helps identify unnecessary words and phrases that should be deleted.

15. What is writing style? Ans. Writing style suggests how the writer chooses to express himself or herself through writing. A writer’s style is what sets his or her writing apart and makes it unique. Word choice, sentence patterns, and the writer’s voice all contribute to the style of a piece of writing. How a writer chooses words and structures sentences to achieve a desired effect is also an element of style.
16. What do you mean by cognitive skills/abilities? Ans. Cognitive skills are psychology-based skills that we need to carry out any task, from the simplest to the most complex. They have more to do with the mechanisms of how we learn, remember, solve problems, and pay attention, rather than materializing our actual knowledge.

For instance, answering the telephone involves perception (hearing the ring tone), decision-making (answering or not), motor skills (lifting the receiver), language skills (talking and understanding language), and social skills (interpreting tone of voice and interacting properly with another human being). Cognitive skills are more abstract.

17. What is MLA style? Ans. Recommended by the Modern Language Association (MLA), MLA style is a system for documenting sources in scholarly writing. For over half a century, it has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used worldwide by scholars, journal publishers, and academic and commercial presses.

MLA style was updated in 2016 to meet the challenges facing today’s researchers. It recommends one universal set of guidelines that writers can apply to any type of source.

MLA style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the ‘MLA Handbook’ (Eighth Edition), offers examples of the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the works-cited page.