To Table of Contents of Notes                             To Tom Nickles's Home Page                             Contact Tom Nickles: nickles@unr.edu
 
 

WRITING PAPERS AND EXERCISES: SOME ADVICE


This guide is a modest effort to help you improve your writing in general but especially in Western Traditions courses, philosophy, and similar critical-argumentative contexts.

1. Essays; persuasive writing.  You should normally think of your writing for this class (and classes like this one) as brief, persuasive essays in which your purpose is to rationally persuade your audience of something, the thesis or central claim of the paper.  That is, your purpose is to defend, on the basis of reasons and evidence, an interesting and perhaps provocative thesis.  In this case your writing should not be deeply personal.  You are not telling part of your life story; and few or none of our class readings are "stories."  (See item 6 below, on genre.)

2. Organize your paper -- and your thinking!  The opening paragraph should get right to the problem or point at issue.  Do not begin by "considering the history of the world as a whole" or by saying how terrific and important Socrates, Descartes, Einstein, or Simone de Beauvoir are.  Everyone already knows that.  And do not try to solve all the big problems in one short paper.  Focus your paper on one or two related issues that you can comfortably handle, then make sure that you deliver what the introduction promises.  Normally, the opening lines of your paper should state the problem or issue you wish to address and the following sentences should indicate how you propose to deal with this matter in the rest of the paper.  The second paragraph might then state the problem more fully, if necessary.  Every paragraph of the paper should contribute to your overall case and should follow the preceding paragraph smoothly.  Paragraphs should be neither too short nor too long.  Begin a new paragraph for every new idea or development, or whenever a break is needed.  Avoid abrupt, rough transitions that disrupt the intuitive flow (and lose your reader!).  If there is a change of subject or of voice (see 14 below), indicate that clearly with a transitional phrase or sentence so that the reader can follow your train of thought.  Normally, the first sentence of each paragraph will function as a "topic sentence" indicating where that paragraph is headed.

Aim at the suggested length for the paper.  Write more only if you really have something to say.  Longer papers can actually lower your grade if the extra pages add little and harm the overall tight organization of the paper.  Of course, handwritten papers should be longer, in terms of number of pages, than typewritten papers, since readable handwriting is larger than type.  They should be about twice as long.

3. Avoid BS.  Each page, typewritten, double-spaced, is only about 300 words, depending on type font and margins.  Even a five-page paper does not give you much room to work with, and certainly no space to waste.  So get right to the point.  Formulate your problem briefly and get on to the job at hand, explaining ideas clearly and illustrating them with clear examples.  Avoid long quotations and never substitute a quotation for an explanation that you are supposed to supply (see 13 below).  Others cannot read your mind, so be sure to explain your own ideas clearly, too!  BS may add lines to your paper, but it detracts greatly from the quality of the paper because it immediately signals the reader that you have nothing important to say.  In a good paper, every paragraph, every sentence, leads the reader on and accomplishes something.  So whenever you find yourself starting to "blah blah," go back and try to say something more significant and precise.  E.g., there is little point in repeating bromides or platitudes with which everyone agrees, since the purpose of your paper is to persuade your readers of something interesting, to "teach" them something that they did not already know.  And when your task is to discriminate position A from position B, be sure that most of what you say about A and B reveals a difference between them.  You might begin by noting any main features that they have in common, but quickly proceed to highlight and explore the differences.  Often the best way to explain a position or idea is to contrast it with others, even if you are not explicitly asked to "compare and contrast."

4. Opening paragraph.  In particular, do not waste the first paragraph on high-flown rhetoric or long-winded verbiage, such as: "Since time immemorial, one of the most important questions facing man is blah, blah, blah." or "The more I read this essay, the more profoundly it affected my thinking about X."  It does not help to expand your opening paragraph with a lot of personal expression of how important you feel the topic is, or how it made you think.  Your opening paragraph is crucial, so make it tight, informative, and relevant to the task at hand!

5. Multi-pass writing.  Ideally, you should take a "multi-pass" approach to writing.  First, read the assignment carefully on the day that you receive it and, over the next several days, jot down any half-way interesting or relevant ideas on the topic that may occur to you, however rough they might be.  Then sit down, look over your notes, revise them, add to them, and begin drafting a very rough sketch of your paper.  Each day or so, "edit" your previous version, improving both the form and content.  Before long, with any luck, a good, readable paper will emerge.  You should try to finish a draft of your paper in time to have someone else (a friend or fellow student or someone at the Writing Center, 214 Ross Hall) read and critique it, so that you can revise it and set it aside for a day or two.  Then go back and reread it yourself when you have some "distance" from it, a more "naive" perspective.  If you are too "close" to the paper when you turn it in, you will likely take many things for granted that will not be clear to your reader.  The reader will not automatically "know what you mean" or meant to say.

6. Genres.  The kind or type of writing or other presentation, its "literary form," is called the genre.  Examples of different written genres are narrative (stories, novels, epics), drama, tragedy, comedy, satire, essay, biography, dialogue, discourse, treatise.  Only rarely will our readings be a story (e.g., a novel) or a standard textbook.  Most will be more-or-less controversial essays that have an implicit dialogic form.  That is, the author is trying to argue for or against various claims and will consider objections raised by potential opponents.  Hence the writing usually takes the form of an implicit dialogue or intellectual conversation with others who are initially somewhat skeptical and need to be convinced.  In reading, therefore, it is obviously important to distinguish the views and arguments of the author from those of the people or positions that s/he is attacking or otherwise evaluating.  In your own writing, it often helps to lay out your thoughts and your paper in the form of an implicit dialogue.  Begin by stating and explaining your problem, provide relevant background, make your claim, explain it clearly, and defend it.  Then proceed to raise and answer one or two or three leading objections to your position (depending on the space available).  How would a critic of your position challenge you, and how would you respond?  When you do that, length takes care of itself.  You often run out of space before you run out of things to say.  I suggested above that you have a classmate or a friend read your first draft and raise objections to your position.

7. Critical/creative interpretation and evaluation.  Writing assignments for Philosophy and Western Tradition courses normally require you to do some interpretive and evaluative work.  Interpretation requires stating complex problems and positions in your own words, explaining and clarifying key passages, and perhaps spelling out an argument more fully than the author did (e.g., setting out the steps more explicitly and identifying a hidden premise that the author must assume to make the argument at all plausible).  Evaluation permits you to develop your own critical reaction to the texts and positions addressed in the course.  In philosophy and other humanities courses (unlike more cut-and-dried subjects, such as science courses), you have an opportunity to be critical and to be original.  In fact, your grade on the assignment will usually depend not only on your accuracy in expounding the text but also on the creativity and independence of thought that you display.  Of course, "off the wall" positions and mere opinions are not creative in this sense.  When you join in a critical debate or conversation, you are responsible for defending your position just as are the authors whom you criticize.

8. Subjective language should be avoided in writing for this class.  Your writing assignments will rarely call for "personal" writing about how you feel or how something affects you personally.  True, in many cases you will be asked or encouraged to state and defend your own position on an issue or to critique another's position, but even then you are not being asked merely about your feelings or impressions.  Such a task requires WORK -- providing reasons and evidence that others should find plausible -- and not just subjective expressions of your feelings.  The hard truth is that, when the relative merits of a position are at stake, no one really cares about your feelings.  What counts is whether you have an interesting viewpoint, evidence, or other reasons to offer.  In deciding intellectual issues, "votes" of how many people feel or even believe this way or that count for nothing.  It is not a popularity contest.  What counts is how good the reasons are for each side in the debate.  So whenever you begin to write "I feel," STOP and ask yourself whether you are doing more than gushing on about your feelings -- or whether you are reducing someone elses considered position or rational judgment to a matter of their "feelings."  To write "Descartes feels . . ." suggests that what follows is merely Descartes's subjective opinion, an expression of his taste, for which he has and needs no reasons.  And it actually contradicts his claim to suppress all emotion in favor of rational argument.

Remember, in our democracy, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, but that does not make all opinions right or equally good.  Not all ideas are equally good.  Your beliefs may be your own, but, then, it is not enough in this course just to express your beliefs.

Qualification.  Avoiding subject language of the sort indicated above does not mean that you have to write in an indirect, third-person style, or in the passive mood.  It is usually more natural to write in the first person.  For example, "I shall first state the problem which Machiavelli attempts to solve, then I shall state his solution and proceed to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses."

9. Formal vs. informal writing. Most of your writing for class and in your employment will be formal writing, which aims at a higher standard than the informal language you use when speaking or writing to friends.  Learning how to write formally is one part of learning how to act in the company of important, dignified people.  (How would you speak to the mayor of New York, Queen Elizabeth, or a Congressional committee, a court of law, or on any official occasion in which you are expected to wear formal attire?)  Formal writing employs proper English, avoids colloquialisms (such as "The impact of Plato on later thinkers such as Descartes was totally awesome."  "After Socrates did a number on him, Thrasymachus did not know which end was up."  "Descartes's attack on the arts really turned me off."), and certainly shuns vulgarity ("Vico rejected Descartes's crappy argument.  The Cartesians were pissed, but Vico didn't give a damn.")  If you do wish to use a colloquialism for a special effect, put it in quotes.  ("Thrasymachus ridiculed Socrates for doing his thing.)  Fully formal language even avoids contractions (use cannot instead of can't, it is instead of it's, would have in place of would've, etc.).  However, you may use contractions in this course.  In formal contexts, you should also spell out two-digit numbers, one to ninety-nine, except when reporting dimensions and the like.  Yet do not get the idea from these examples that formal language is inflated and pretentious.

10. Simple and direct language is better than pretentious language, including jargon.  In college you should indeed enlarge your vocabulary and take advantage of every opportunity to use new words you have learned.  But you should also be yourself.  Show your understanding of any relevant technical terms, but avoid using big words just because they sound big.  It adds nothing to characterize a book as "a sequentially paginated linear information retrieval system."  Just say book!  Do use technical language and large words to add precision and clarity to your writing; do not use them simply to sound "smart," lest you come off sounding like a "pompous ass."  Big words never make up for lack of interesting ideas; on the contrary, they call attention to vacuous passages.  No reader enjoys being blasted with hot air!

11. Sexist language should be avoided.  Better avoid the word 'man', even if you mean it generically.  You can always say 'human beings', 'humankind', or 'people' instead.  Rather than 'he' or 'she', you can say 'one' ("One will never succeed unless one tries.").  Some people retain the singular 'he' and 'she' but avoid sexist favoritism by using first one, then the other.  That is, instead of using the generic 'he' or 'his' ("A doctor should treat his patients with respect"), try using 'she' or 'her' half the time ("If a surgeon is on call, she must be careful not to drink any alcohol.")  You should of course retain gender consistency within related paragraphs.  The awkwardness of saying 'his or her' can usually be avoided by putting the sentence into the plural and using 'their'.  (Instead of saying "Each person should check over his or her paper before turning it in.", say "Students should check over their papers before turning them in.")  Instead of saying 'he or she', I often write 's/he', but that is hardly standard usage.  Finally, be sure to use parallel terms.  The term corresponding to 'men' is 'women' and not 'ladies' or 'girls'.  'girls corresponds to 'boys' and 'ladies' to 'gentlemen'.  If you use a title for a person of one gender (Mr.,, Mrs., Dr., Professor, etc.), use the corresponding title for a person of the other gender.

12. Accuracy and clarity.  When discussing difficult, abstract issues, clarity becomes a problem.  Avoid vague and unclear language.  Spell out what you want to say in explicit terms.  Do not assume that your reader will "know what you mean."  Give frequent, concrete examples and illustrations to help the reader follow your line of thought.

13. Quotations.  Use of frequent, short quotations will spice up a paper and may improve accuracy and clarity as well as provide support for your case.  Occasionally, a long quotation may be necessary, as when you analyze a passage in detail.  Normally, however, you should avoid long quotations and extended strings of shorter quotations.  Never substitute a quotation for an explanation that you are supposed to provide in your own words.  Remember that your paper should reveal your contribution to the subject, not someone else's.  Naturally, you should place quotation marks around quoted passages.  However, whenever a quotation is more than a few lines long, you should instead indent the whole quotation in your text and single space it so that the reader can immediately recognize its special status.  Incidentally, single quotes are used to indicate a word or phrase to which you wish to refer.  (E.g., "The English word 'justice' has a narrower meaning than the Greek word that it translates.")  Alternatively, you can put such special words in a different typeface (italics, bold, etc.) or underline them.  You should do the same for titles of books, articles, movies, and foreign terms: (Plato's "Republic" or The Republic or The Republic; Descartes's cogito).

14. Voice.  In reading it is important to distinguish the voice of the author from the voices of those whom s/he cites or critiques.  You cannot just dive into the middle of a page, read a few lines and write, "Locke says . . .," for he may be describing the position that he wants to reject, the position of his opponents.

Similarly, in your own writing it is important to distinguish your voice from those of the people or positions you are discussing.  When writing about X's position, be sure that the reader knows at every point whether you are speaking for yourself or whether you are merely expounding X's views.  Or are you doing both: stating a view that you yourself endorse?

Your voice is the "you" the "persona" that you express or create in the paper.  Try to present yourself in a strong, confident voice.  Again, feel free to use the first person.  Texts that carefully avoid the first person are often awkward.  Science texts are a common example: "It will now be made evident that . . ." in which the authors use rhetorical techniques of self-effacement and objective-sounding language to make it seem as if nature herself (rather than the authors) is speaking to you.  But your use of the first person need not make your paper sound too personal, subjective, or biased, provided that you adhere to the advice in point 8 above.  Similarly, using the active voice makes you, the author, seem more "in control."  Use the passive voice rather sparingly.  E.g., "A better theory is seen to be necessitated . . ." sounds clumsy and weak compared with "We see, then, that we must search for a better theory."

You (and the people you are writing about) will also sound more active and agile if you avoid turning too many verbs into nouns.  E.g., you can often replace 'the Xing of' by simply 'Xing', as when we replace "The conferring of a higher social status on workers was the first act of the new parliament" by "Conferring a higher social status . . . ."  Which sentence of each pair sounds better?  "There is a need for a planning of future parking facilities."  "We need to plan future parking facitilies."  "The establishment of a theory of motion on the basis of central forces rather than action-by-contact and a rejection of the vortex theory of the universe were two main difference between Newton and Descartes."  "Newton based his theory of motion on central forces rather than Descartes's action-by-contact, and he rejected Descartes's vortex theory of the universe."

15. Audience.  You should always have a specific audience in mind when you write.  Are you writing to your instructor?  (Even if you are, do not address the reader as "you," as in "I do not need to convince you that Descartes is important.")  Are you writing to fellow students in the class, or perhaps those who are not familiar with the material of this class?  Choice of audience will help you determine how heavily the class material needs to be cited.  Your instructor may tell you what audience to write for.  If not, you may always ask.  It is usually safe to write for an audience of your fellow students.  Assume that you are writing to convince the better students in the class of your position.

16. Sentence structure.  Write in complete, structurally interesting sentences (subject, verb, and perhaps direct and indirect objects).  Do not model your writing on advertising copy, which often employs incomplete sentences or even single words followed by a period for impact.  ("The new Razzmatazz 500 is simple to operate.  Yet powerful.  And stylish!")  Also try to vary the structure of your sentences.  A series of short, simple sentences is boring and choppy and suggests a "Dick and Jane" mentality ("Spot chased Dick.  Jane chased Spot.  Bark, bark, bark went Spot.").  Interesting structure involves the use of dependent clauses and the like.  Here are a few examples of such patterns (where P and Q stand for sentence-like clauses): P; however (nevertheless, etc.), Q.  Despite the fact that P, Q.  P because Q.  Because Q, P.  Having rejected the view that P, Descartes attempted to establish that Q.

17. References.  In most Philosophy and Wester Traditions classes, you will be asked to think about the issues raised in the class texts and discussions rather than to consult outside sources.  Nevertheless, whenever you do employ ideas from another source, you need to cite the source, both to assist the reader and to avoid plagiarism.  This may be a reference to a television program, a radio interview, or a conversation with someone as well as an article or book.  References to texts and other materials used in class can be quite brief and perhaps indicated in parentheses at the end of a sentence rather than as a footnote (e.g., Meditations, p. 35, or Descartes, 35).  References to items not familiar to your audience should be given more fully as footnotes or endnotes.  Be sure to give complete information: author, translator (if appropriate), title of book, article, program, etc., edition, date, and publisher or source (e.g., CBS Evening News, July 17, 1991), and page number cited.  In short, give sufficient information that the interested reader could go to a good library and find the exact book or article cited.

18. Presentation.  Aim to produce a neatly written, easily read paper.  Use standard 8 and 1/2 by 11 white paper and double space everything except extended, indented quotations.  Typewritten work is much easier to read -- for you in clarifying your thinking about how to improve a draft as well as for the reader.  Do not bother with plastic covers or fancy title pages.  Just be sure that your name is on your work.

19. Grading.  The Student Handbook for the Western Traditions part of the Core Curriculum aptly describes an A paper as follows.  The idea behind the essay is solid and worth talking about.  The introduction is interesting, the thesis clear, and the focus tight and consistent.  There is ample development, with specific details, leading to a sound and insightful conclusion.  There are very few mechanical or grammatical errors; various sentence structures are used, and words are chosen for both precision and energy.  A specific audience is addressed by a strong, confident voice, conveying a clear sense of purpose.

In evaluating your work, I place a premium on your display of independence of thought and critical creativity.  Competence requires that you be able to regurgitate accurately the positions and criticisms that we read and discuss.  However, it is better to be able to go somewhat beyond this level of competence, to develop your own position or variation on the position.  You are free to criticize any of our texts or points made in class.  But with this freedom comes an important responsibility.  As emphasized above, merely personal statements of your feelings count for nothing in most cases.  Everyone who wants to be taken seriously in the discussion has the responsibility to defend their positions in ways that others should find at least interesting and somewhat plausible.  It is rarely possible to "prove" a complex position, so plausibility is usually all that can be expected, especially in a short paper.

Some Common English Errors to Avoid

20. Proof reading.  The single most important thing you can do to avoid errors is to proof your paper carefully before turning it in.  It is irritating to your professor, professional colleagues, or supervisor, to find grammatical errors, frequent typos, awkward phrasings, obviously misplaced or omitted punctuation and the like in your work.  Such mistakes indicate that you are hasty and careless, that you did not take the task seriously, that you do not really care.  If you have trouble spelling, check doubtful words in a good dictionary, or use a computer spelling checker.  Always read over the "final" version of your paper and make any necessary corrections before turning in the paper.

In preparation for the final draft, read your piece of work aloud and imagine that you are presenting it to a group of your fellow students (as audience).  This exercise will help you to improve the logical and rhetorical "flow" of the piece, identify awkward places, and punctuate properly.  Where your voice naturally pauses or lowers in reading, you probably need some punctuation -- a comma, semicolon, or period.  If you run out of breath reading a sentence, it is probably too long.

21. Run-on-sentences consist of too many clauses strung together by commas, 'and', or other simple conjunctions.  Run-on sentences are not structurally interesting; on the contrary, they are irritating and even confusing.  Mere length does not make for structural interest.  Normally, no more than two clauses that can stand alone as separate sentences should be coupled with a conjunction or semicolon.  (Bad example: "After finally finding a parking place, Julie walked to the clinic and arrived twenty minutes late, but she was still in time for the most important part of the meeting, which concerned the new policy on indigent patients, and she was quick to make her own views known even though she was not sure what had happened before she arrived.")  Some people use only a comma to join to sentence-like (independent) clauses, but it is better to use a conjunction such as and or but.  (Example of what not to do: "Julie arrived in time for the most important part of the meeting, she was able to voice her objections to the new policy on indigent patients.")

22. Consistency.  If you have to make a choice in spelling a name, forming possessives, putting quote marks inside or outside commas and periods, etc. one way rather than another, then be consistent.  Do it the same way throughout your paper.

23. Possessives.  Do not confuse possessives (showing ownership) with contractions (which combine two words into one, using an apostrophe).  The simplest possessive rule is to add apostrophe s to the end of nouns (and some pronouns) even if the word has two or more syllables and ends in s, with the exception of plural nouns ending in s, in which case a simple apostrophe will do.

    singular possessive                                           plural possessive
    the woman's shoe                                                the women's gym
    the secretary's pen                                              the secretaries' lounge
    its (warning: it's = it is)                                         their, theirs
    his, her, hers                                                       their, theirs (not they're, which = they are)
    Thomas Jefferson's chair                                     the Jeffersons' dog
    Socrates's (or Socrates') pug nose                       the Greeks' view of slavery
    Descartes's method                                             the witnesses' rights

Do not use an apostrophe to make a mere plural.  Many people (and much advertising) makes this mistake.  The plural of house is, of course, houses.  Similarly, the plural of the name Jefferson is the Jeffersons, not the Jefferson's or the Jeffersons'; the plural of Jones is the Joneses, not the Jones's.  This rule holds also for such expressions as the 1980s, the ABCs, and the 49ers.  No apostrophe is needed here.

24. Some commonly misused words.

lead and led.  The past tense of lead (the verb) is led, not lead (the metal).

imply and infer are not interchangeable.  "The author implied that P."  To imply that P is the case is to suggest that P without saying so explicitly.  In other words, the author (the text) leaves it to the reader to infer that P.  The speaker (or text) implies; the reader or listener infers.  In the strongest sense of 'imply' and 'infer', the implication is logical: the inference can be logically deduced from what is said.  If I assert that all Asians are smart and later mention my Asian friend Zhang Shirong, then you, the reader, may (logically) infer that I believe Zhang Shirong to be smart.  In ordinary language, 'imply' and 'infer' are usually weaker than strict logical implication and may amount to a mere suggestion or hint or innuendo, by association.  Politicians and advertisers are very good at this, inviting us to draw (logically fallacious) conclusions.  ("Look!  The car with gasoline containing Platformate goes further than the car without Platformate!" invites you to infer that the Platformate gasoline is superior to other commercially available brands, when in fact the competing brands also have their own additives similar to Platformate.)

affect and effect are not interchangeable.  To affect means to influence as an agent-cause; an effect is a result, not a cause.  The affecting agent is the cause of the effect or result.  X affects Y.  The effect of X on Y is Z.  Affect is normally a verb and effect normally a noun, but effect can also function as a verb meaning to accomplish or to bring about, as in, "The administration effected the change of policy by imposing a uniform regulation on all the states."  (Affect can also be a noun when used as a technical term of psychology.)  Just to make things confusing, however, 'effect' can function as a verb that implies agency, as in: "Once the dissenters were eliminated from the committee, the remaining members effected many changes.

among and between are not interchangeable.  Something holds between two things and among three or more.

fewer and less are not interchangeable.  If you can count the items in question, use 'fewer'.  If you are dealing with uncountable "stuff," use 'less'.  (You can count trees, people, rabbits, credit hours, days until winter vacation, gallons of oil.  You cannot count oil, peanut butter, air, water, smog, and other masses of stuff.)  E.g., "Fewer students flunk out of college than when I was a student."  "Thin people eat less food and exercise more."

which and that.  Use 'that' unless you really need 'which'.  (Most people use too many 'whiches'.)  Examples: instead of saying 'the horse which won the race' or 'the book which was lost', say 'the horse that won the race', 'the book that was lost'.  Try to restrict 'which' to such contexts as: "That horse, which won the Wood Memorial last year, has just been sold." and "This book, which is overdue at the library, has a good chapter on Descartes."  A good rule for elegant writing is to replace 'which' by 'that' whenever the result sounds right.  For example, it is better to say, "Abraham Lincoln is the greatest President that this country has produced" than "Abraham Lincoln is the greatest President which this country has produced."  "The river that flows through London is the Thames" is better than "The river which flows through London is the Thames."  But 'which' is sometimes appropriate, as in: "The river, which is here very shallow, gets much deeper downstream."

When referencing persons, 'who' or 'that' should be used rather than 'which', which relates to things rather than person.

due to.  Better avoid this expression in favor of 'because of', 'through', owing to', and the like.  (An example of correct use: "The accident was due to bad weather.")

etc.  No need to add 'etc.' to a list prefaced by 'for example' or 'such as', as you have already indicated that you are not mentioning all possible instances.  In formal writing, use etc. sparingly.  In fact, it appears too often in this guideline to writing.

questions and problems.  Problems are solved, questions are answered, issues are debated and resolved.  It is awkward to say that problems are answered, questions are solved.

unique.  Avoid overused terms such as 'unique' and certainly avoid redundancies or nonsense phrases such as 'very unique' and 'rather unique'.  It is also best to avoid Washington and Pentagon jargon ("governmentese"), expressions such as "at this point in time" and "the individual was terminated."

very.  This is another word that is overused.  Whenever you find yourself using it or saying it, ask if it is really necessary.  After all, if you emphasize everything, then nothing really stands out.  Compare the person who puts one or more exclamation points after every sentence, or the student who underlines everything in the text.

In general, avoid overkill by unnecessary use of emphasis words such as 'very' and 'particularly'.  Common examples are 'very real' and 'very true'.

principal (first, most important, director of a school) vs. principle (a rule or guiding thesis).

then and than.  If . . . then.  "Then [next, later], Sara took a train to Madrid."  "Ellie is taller than Sara."

Some commonly mispelled words

    a lot (two separate words)
    complementary (completes or fills gap left by another), complimentary (gives praise)
    develop (no e on the end)
    occurrence, occurred (double r)
    separate
    it's = it is (the possessive is simply its, without the apostrophe in this case)

Additional help with grammar and word usage.  For a more complete guide to writing, you ought to obtain a copy of one of the following books or something similar.  Both are standard reference works, have run through many editions, and are available as inexpensive paperbacks in most bookstores.

William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, Macmillan Pub. Co.

Kate R. Turabian, A Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press.

[Thanks to Dr. David Bantz, Dartmouth University, Dr. Phillip Boardman, and Dr. Gaye McCollum, University of Nevada, Reno, and the Strunk and White book just mentioned for some of the material contained herein.]
 


Back to top

To Table of Contents of Notes                             To Tom Nickles's Home Page                             Contact Tom Nickles: nickles@unr.edu