Autobiographical facts

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Autobiographical facts

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Autobiography Assignment

Autobiography

For your first assignment, you are to write an autobiography of between 700 and 800 words. While this story should contain key autobiographical facts, it’s most important that it have a central theme. To determine what that might be, ask yourself what has characterized your life up to now.Thus, you might conclude your life has been uninterrupted bliss, utter tedium, constant struggle against all odds, or something else entirely. Just be sure to make clear what the theme of your life is.

Again, key autobiographical facts should be incorporated so long as they relate to your central theme.

The story should be in media format. Thus, set out the theme in the first sentence, or lead. Doing this successfully is a challenge. As you write this paragraph, ask yourself if it would provide readers with an accurate summary of who you are.
Many of us believe that good writing is a gift, much like the ability to paint
portraits or compose music. The truth, however, is that factual writing is a
learned skill. As in all learning, there are multiple steps to be followed.
Repetition, with an eye toward steady, incremental improvement, also is
crucial to becoming a strong and even superb writer.
Here are the steps and tips that will help you substantially enhance your
writing.
1) Know precisely what you want to communicate. While this sounds
like unnecessary advice, in fact often writers start work without a
clear idea of their main point. In most cases, they believe that as
words flow, the central idea will emerge. This is faulty reasoning; it
is much like setting off driving to find a place with no map or written
directions. Maybe you will stumble on the destination, but it is
faster and more certain if you have a sharp picture of how to get the
desired location. In writing, the journey will be greatly eased by
spelling out the key fact you wish to communicate. This will focus
the lead and greatly aid the entire organization.
2) If you feel stuck at the first paragraph, or lead, you will need to jot
down key points of your story. It is important to have just one idea per
paragraph. This will make your story lots more readable.
2) As you write, be sure every word serves a purpose. This exercise
will ensure you don’t fall prey to wordiness or redundancy. How
does this work? Analyze this sentence:
In today’s modern and often troubled world, men like Felipe, utterly
dedicated to his family are, to my mind, truly and absolutely a rarity.
The same thing can be communicated using far fewer words:
Dedicated family men such as Felipe are a rarity.
Unless otherwise indicated, it is clear you are writing about today’s
world. So, you can eliminate the introductory clause. Utterly adds
little to the sentence. The same is true of phrase to my mind: it’s
apparent this is an opinion and need not be noted as such.
Redundancy is a common writing flaw. It does nothing to advance your
ideas and most often wastes your time and the reader’s. If you find
yourself writing such phrases as in other words, or, as stated
previously, you are going to repeat what you’ve already written.
4) Use sentence variety. In doing this, you will mix short, declarative
sentences with longer complex sentences. Too many long sentences
will produce a difficult read.
5) Use the active voice whenever possible and avoid the passive voice.
There is a grammatical definition of the active and passive voices, but
examples are the best illustration.
Active voice: The men ate all of the food on the table.
Passive voice: The food on the table was eaten by the men.
Active voice: Police arrested three suspected drug dealers.
Passive voice: Three suspected drug dealers were arrested by police.
Note that in the active voice, the subject performs the action
expressed in the verb; the subject acts. In the passive voice the
subject receives the action expressed in the verb; the subject is acted
upon. The active voice makes for livelier writing and makes your paper
move along quickly. Conversely, the passive voice makes for sluggish,
dull writing.
6) Limit the use of jargon; do not use euphemisms. Every professional
field produces jargon. Usually it is not plain English. For instance, in
law enforcement, prisons have become correctional facilities. City
officials have dubbed dumps sanitary landfills. These and other bits of
jargon have migrated into mainstream English. Euphemisms are meant
to soften what are judged to be harsh words or expressions. These
include: passed away for died and environmentally impacted for
polluted.
7) Keep out slang. It’s fine for informal conversation, but detracts from
an academic or other professional paper.
8) Use transitions. These words and phrases smoothly connect one
idea to another. Transitions of continuity add to an idea. They include:
also, moreover, in addition and furthermore. Transitions of cause and
effect include: as a result and consequently. Words and expressions
that include by contrast, conversely and on the other hand indicate
differences.
9) Steer clear of grammatical errors. Run-on sentences and sentence
fragments tell readers you don’t have a firm grasp of proper written
English. If you are uncertain of what constitutes sound grammar,
brush up. One of the best sites for online grammar drills is
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
10) Use attribution. This simply means indicate the source of your
information. Not using attribution can leave a reader wondering if
what you wrote can be believed. Here are two examples:
John Smith is a serial killer.
John Smith is a serial killer, the Orange County District Attorney said
today.
11) After you write, rewrite. After long hours writing, one is tempted to
submit a paper just to be done with it. However, doing that deprives
you of the chance to elevate your paper. Think of your newly
completed paper as a draft. Let the draft sit for eight to twenty-four
hours. When you next read your paper, you will spot deficiencies—
from inadequate substantiation to overly long sentences and
redundancy. The final draft will represent a marked improvement over
the first version. Running a spell check does not equal doing a
revision.
By no means does this summary exhaust the topic of good writing.
Remember that constant practice with attention to improvement will
inevitably lead you to greatly improved writing.

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