Formal email writing advice and examples

This blog does not get much attention, as you may note from the dates of the posts.  These days, though, I am seeing more visitors in the stats, and, more importantly, more commenters on the posts.  The commenters are always asking for more examples, but I really don't have them. 

This blog was intended for use with medical students in my writing classes at SNU.  The focus was more on academic writing than business writing. That's not to say that this blog couldn't be used for business writing (as it certainly can), but it was not the original intent, nor is it the current focus.  I have never conducted courses on business writing (though I may in the coming year), so I don't have any of those materials on hand.  I do, though, intend to add some of those materials both here and on a more general purpose writing blog, Email Writing, and a yet-to-be-created blog to be used for my new university (I no longer work with Seoul National University).

Until then, here are a few links to resources that provide more information on writing formal letters/email, which is what most people writing for business purposes are really looking for.

• Brief example here http://esl.about.com/od/businessenglishwriting/a/bizdocs_3.htm
• Some suggestions here: http://www.blurtit.com/q340643.html
• Nice PDF/learning activity here: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/email%20worksheet%201.pdf
• Some good advice and samples here: http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/letters/l/bl_block_p.htm

7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School | Copyblogger

7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School | Copyblogger

Some good suggestions for writing instruction/learning.

As teachers of the written form, we have to make a decision. The decision is on the level of structure our class takes as well as the level of structure we teach. Do you have a class that has very precise, explicit grammar instruction, prompts, rubrics, and so forth? Or do you have a class that is more fluid, creative, and subjective?

I'm not saying that we have to choose one, the art is really in the mix.

Google Books - Exporting Citations

Google Books is becoming one of the most useful tools for researchers out there. Pair this with Google Scholar and, if you are lucky, network authentication from a university that has deals with the publishing companies and article databases and many of us can avoid the physical library entirely (especially if you include document delivery service and interlibrary loan). This is fantastic news for scholars living away from their university, namely distance education students and master's/doctoral students finishing up their theses/dissertations (me, for instance).

Anyway, with more and more searches leading to Google Books I was going nuts trying to figure out how to export citations. I knew it had to be there. I don't know why this was so difficult to figure out or why Google doesn't directly have it on their page (not really geared toward scholars). Here is what I finally found (thanks New Mexico State University Library for the tip)

Once you find a book in Google Books this is what you do.

1. On the left side, under the "Get this book" category, click on the second to last link, "Find in a library"
   
2. Clicking on "Find a library" opens the book's information page on World Cat.
   
3. On the upper right, click on "Cite/Export"
4. In the window that opens, you can choose to copy a citation (cool function) or export.
5. Click on the export option that best works for you, "RefWorks" or "EndNote"

Of course, this doesn't make the process grabbing citations for edited chapters, but I guess they can't do all the work for us, can they?

Outlines and Outlining

The above link (click title) is a Google doc on creating an outline for a persuasive essay (good for general essays) and an example outline.

Learning the Language: Why Dolores' Essay Isn't Academic English...

Learning the Language: Why Dolores' Essay Isn't Academic English...

The example of ESL writing in this article is similar to what I see in many writing samples in my own classes. Teaching basic organization is easy, but teaching writers to adequately support their ideas is much more difficult.

Though there is no easy advice that I can give, one suggestion is to never make a statement that isn't supported further with either a citation, research, examples, observations, stories, or other ways that support the original idea. Too often, writers follow the organizational format and support the topic sentence, but fail to support the supporting sentences. This can be much more difficult. Supporting statements can stand on their own at times, but more often they require a little bit of their own support :)

Avoid weasel words

Avoid weasel words - Wikipedia

This Wikipedia guideline is a great guideline for academic writers in general. I really love the name that they give these, "Weasel Words". Great

Essentially, this entry/page is about hedging techniques and the problems that using them incorrectly can cause. As you read this, note that I don't agree with all of their opinions. However, their suggestions for siting your sources, even when hedging, is a great idea.

10 simple things you can do to improve your writing | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com

10 simple things you can do to improve your writing | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com

I don't agree with all of these and some are written for a non-academic audience, but I still think that there are some great suggestions here.

Politics And The English Language by George Orwell

Politics And The English Language by George Orwell

Interesting advice/opinions from George Orwell on clarity in writing. In my opinion, some of what he writes about is outdated, but much of it is as true today as when it was written.

Here are his recommendations/guidelines

i. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
ii. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
iii. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
iv. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
v. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
vi. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Talking about a process: making a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich

EPT Writing Prompts

These writing prompts are great examples of prompts that you might see in an English test (in this case the EPT) that requires written responses.

I encourage you to write responses to some of these to test yourself and to get more comfortable responding to prompt such as these.

Formatting Guidelines for Bio-Medical Journals

Here are some resources on formatting guidelines for bio-medical journals.

* http://www.icmje.org/
* http://www.mlanet.org/publications/style/
* http://jama.ama-assn.org/misc/ifora.dtl
* http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
* http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citama.htm

CiLL Writing Links/Resources

Writing

This is really an incredible collection. Much more than bits and pieces put together in other websites. I'm very impressed with the scope of tutorials, resources, and assessments (mostly javascript quizzes) presented here.

Anyone putting together an academic writing course for ESL students (or even native English speakers) should refer to this site instruction or extra work in a writing classroom.

Dan

5 Embarrassing Grammatical Mistakes - MSN Encarta

5 Embarrassing Grammatical Mistakes - MSN Encarta

I'm not sure which blog to put this one in, so I guess I'll just do it in a few (sorry for the duplication if you read more than one).

This post just agreed with my inner English teacher. Now, I don't freak out over these mistakes, but they are certainly one that I commend on. Many people might not even notice these mistakes but those who do are often unforgiving about such errors.

She starts out describing typographical errors, which, lets be honest, happen to everyone. I can't believe that some typos on his Web page sealed his fate. If it were a piece of past professional work, I'd understand. So, I hope this it was more than just his blog :)

Of the 5 errors, the most difficult are the misplaced modifiers for both native and non-native speakers (writers) of English. The rest are strictly grammar rules, but knowing where to put the modifier is not. Grammatically, it can go just about anywhere in the sentence; however, pragmatically, it certainly cannot. Their aren't any set rules for this that I'm aware of.

Take a look at these. It may save you from future embarrassment.

Also, did you notice that I made one of each of these mistakes in my post above. Though, the misplaced modifier isn't too awkward. See if you can find them.

Dan

Writing Topic Sentences for Paragraphs

Writing Topic Sentences for Paragraphs

Here are a few activities that will help you to choose/write good topic sentences.

Dan

Paradigm Online Writing Assistant

This is a site that I visited a few time about 7 years ago. I was surprised to see that it not only exists, but has gotten much better.

In addition, it seems as if they are attempting to start a community of learners, but it doesn't seem to be getting off the ground.

There are resources here that provide information on steps in the writing process from thinking of topics to revising and editing your writing. There are also pages dedicated to specific types of writing and a little (though sparse) on documenting your sources.

MLA Formatting and Style Guide - The OWL at Purdue

And here's a Modern Language Association (MLA) formatting and style guide.

APA Formatting and Style Guide - The OWL at Purdue

The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a great writing resource. Included in their site is an APA Formatting and Style Guide that is very useful. Check it out.

Understanding Plagiarism: School of Education, Indiana University at Bloomington

This is a good tutorial/quiz aimed at judging elements of plagiarizm. Work through the tutorial and see if you can pass the quiz at the end.

Advanced Composition for Non-Native Speakers of English

This is an interesting site for help with academic writing. It's essentially a free class. However, I don't think that there is any feedback.

However, that's why you have me. If you'd like to try any of these out, I'd be happy to look over your work.

Welcome to SNU Writing I

Welcome to SNU Writing I

The Web is a wonderful place to practice writing. There are so many opportunities online to interact with the world from email to discussion forums to blogs and beyond.

This blog is meant to provide one of those opportunities to you and well as for pointing out other opportunities. I will use this blog to post links to writing resources, provide brief tutorials, and write prompts to which you can respond.

Check here often for new posts.