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Tips from an Online Writing Instructor

Developing an Outline

Ever sit and just daydream? You look out the window and notice a weird cloud formation … then a car driving by … then a girl on a bicycle … then the postman delivering mail … then a billboard in need of repair. Suddenly, all of these sights have you thinking about your summer vacation when you WILL be outside, on a family trip to the mountains – and with THIS thought, your mind has now taken you to fishing out of a canoe … hiking up a mountain … swimming in a clear mountain lake … sitting around a campfire at night. Oops – your mind has done yet another switch, now having you mull over the kind of careers that would allow you to have this type of vacation every year, after you've left college, and moved out of your folks' home … and so a whole new set of thoughts emerge.

Welcome to the wonderful world of outlining.

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Don't Think Spellcheck or Grammarcheck are Always Correct

GRAMMAR/PUNCTUATION. When the sentence below (from a student’s paper) appeared in Microsoft Word, the word “it’s” [highlighted] was underlined in green by the computer; the suggested change made by the software was that the word be written “its” – without the apostrophe. This is, of course, wrong because the form of the word written – “it’s” or “it is” – is the correct form:

But it’s better than the harsh reality of what could have happened had he still held a high-ranking political office in the Iraqi republic.

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Quote of the Week
“The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald