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Serving Sentences: Twelve Ways to Break Out a Better Writer

Serving Sentences: Twelve Ways to Break Out a Better Writer

Author(s): Randy Koch

Edition: 2

Copyright: 2019

Pages: 174. LSI page count does not change

Edition: 2

Copyright: 2019

Pages: 174

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The aim of this book is simple: to provide students—regardless of their past writing experiences or current skills— specific, mostly objective techniques that can help them produce better writing. Students should not have to depend on nor should they necessarily trust the subjective opinions of other students, teachers, or any so-called experts who cannot diagnose the source of specific problems or weaknesses. Given the right tools and methods, students can learn to identify their own tendencies and assess strengths and weaknesses in their own and others’ writing. This book is meant to help them do just that.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Most Humane of the Humanities

1. The Desperado’s in the Details
a. Technique #1: Use primarily specific, concrete details rather than vague abstractions
i. How to distinguish among vague abstractions, abstract facts, and concrete details
ii. My try
iii. Your turn: from abstract to specific
b. Remember: Use primarily specific, concrete details rather than vague abstractions
i. Your turn: draft #1
ii. My try: Without Doorbells

2. Acting Like Adam
a. Technique #2: Distinguish people, places, and things with their own specific names
i. Degrees of abstraction and specificity
ii. Think and act like a writer
b. Remember: Distinguish people, places, and things with their own specific names
i. Your turn: name that thing
ii. Your turn: what stuff says
iii. Your turn: draft #2
iv. My try: Cruising Calton with Adam and a Blind Man

3. The Incredibles, the Avengers, Arnold, and You
a. Technique #3: Use mostly specific, interesting action verbs rather than helping and linking verbs
i. Distinguishing helping and linking verbs from action verbs
1. Recognizing helping verbs
2. Recognizing linking verbs
3. Why use Technique #3?
b. Be an action hero: Use mostly specific, interesting action verbs rather than helping and linking verbs
i. Your turn: action-emotion chart
ii. Your turn: draft #3
iii. Your turn: check an essay
iv. My try: In It for the Long Run

4. Showing Up and Getting It Down
a. Technique #4: Show—don’t tell—especially when it’s important to your thesis
b. Version #1
c. Version #2
i. The differences
ii. Why you should know how to show rather than tell
d. Show rather than tell, especially when it’s important to your thesis
i. Your turn: show; don’t tell
ii. My try: Evolution
iii. My try: The Shapes of Consolation

5. A Word in Edgewise
a. Technique #5: Include voices other than your own by using dialogue or outside sources
i. Using dialogue or outside sources can benefit your writing in several ways
ii. Identifying speakers in dialogue
iii. Speed and silence
iv. Paragraphing
v. Punctuating attributions, direct address, and tag questions
vi. Interruptions
vii. Quoting a quote
viii. Speech that runs more than one paragraph
ix. Getting it right vs. getting it correct
b. Technique #5: Include voices other than your own by using dialogue or outside sources
i. Your turn: relate a debate
ii. Your turn: draft #4
iii. My try: Finding a Way Home

6. Tool School
a. Version #1
b. Version #2
c. Technique #6: Vary sentence length and structure
i. How to vary sentence length and structure
1. Coordinating conjunctions
a. Your turn: fanboys 1
b. Your turn: fanboys 2
2. The semicolon
a. Your turn: semicolon 1
b. Your turn: semicolon 2
3. The colon
a. Your turn: colon 1
b. Your turn: colon 2
4. Subordinating conjunctions
a. Your turn: sub-cons 1
b. Your turn: sub-cons 2
5. Conjunctive adverbs
a. Your turn: CA 1
6. Relative clauses: restrictive and nonrestrictive
a. Your turn: RC 1
ii. My try: Manning Up to Poetry
iii. Your turn: ID devices
iv. Your turn: draft #5

7. Intelligent Design and the Three Little Pigs
a. Traditional essay structure
b. Technique #7: Construct a logical, coherent, appropriate structure
i. Where you must and where you might start a new paragraph
ii. Alternative patterns of organization
c. Construct a logical, coherent, appropriate structure
i. Your turn: analyze an op-ed
ii. Your turn: rethink your design
iii. Your turn: draft #6
iv. My try: How to Plot and Pare a ‘Graph

8. That Being Said, I Think You Can Most Definitely Say Whatever It Is You Actually Mean to Say in a Way That Results in a Significantly Smaller Number of Words
a. Technique #8: Cut clutter
i. Twelve ways to cut clutter from your writing
1. Avoid expletives: “there” + a linking verb
2. Avoid “It” followed by a linking verb
3. Don’t use a verb that requires a helping verb if a simpler form will do
4. Don’t draw unnecessary attention to yourself
5. Don’t use two action verbs when one will do, especially when one indicates that an action began, started, continued, or proceeded
6. Cut details that are evident from other information in the sentence
7. Don’t announce what you intend to do; just do it
8. Cut the adverb implied in the verb
9. Use the active voice rather than the passive
10. Don’t use phrases that add words, not meaning
11. Avoid qualifiers
12. Avoid unnecessary repetition and redundancy
ii. Why writers should cut clutter
iii. Your turn: practice with expletives (“there” + a linking verb)
iv. Your turn: practice with “It” + a linking verb
v. Your turn: practice with unnecessary helping verbs
vi. Your turn: practice with unnecessary attention drawn to the writer
vii. Your turn: practice with two action verbs when one will do
viii. Your turn: practice with information implied by other details
ix. My try: How to Say Nothing in 750 Words
x. Your turn: draft #7

9. Hook, Line, and Thinker
a. Technique #9: Hook readers with a specific, enticing, engaging introduction
i. Unhooks: Intros to avoid
ii. Ten approaches to writing a hook that’ll grab readers
1. Describe a person in detail
2. Describe a place in detail
3. Relate a brief anecdote
4. Start with dialogue
5. Make a reference to popular culture
6. Reveal something personal
7. Start with humor
8. Make an outrageous statement
9. Begin with a startling statistic
10. Start with a surprising, unfamiliar quote
iii. Your turn: hook your reader

10. Tool School, Too
a. Technique #6 (cont’d): Vary sentence length and structure
i. How to vary sentence length and structure
1. Appositives
a. Your turn: appositives 1
b. Your turn: appositives 2
2. Present participial phrases
a. Your turn: present participles 1
b. Your turn: present participles 2
3. Past participial phrases
a. Your turn: past participles 1
b. Your turn: past participles 2
c. Your turn: past participles 3
4. Absolutes
a. Your turn: absolutes 1
b. Your turn: absolutes 2
5. Correlative conjunctions
a. Your turn: correlatives 1
b. Your turn: correlatives 2
6. More relative pronouns
a. Your turn: RC 2
b. Your turn: RC 3
c. Your turn: RC 4
ii. Your turn: draft #8
iii. My try: The Sentence: A Word to Life and Back Again

11. A Good Debate Ain’t out of Date
a. Bound to Books
b. Technique #10: Think critically, and argue logically
i. The basics
ii. Why you need to think critically and argue logically
iii. Reasons and evidence
iv. Your turn: Reasoning
v. Five types of evidence
vi. Your turn: evidence 1
vii. Your turn: evidence 2
viii. Your turn: practice with reasons and evidence
ix. Beyond the basics
x. Your turn: elements in an op-ed
xi. My try: A Manual Labor of Love

12. Do the Write Thing—with Sources
a. Technique #5: Include voices other than your own by using dialogue or outside sources
i. The trials of using the right style
ii. The wrong thing
iii. Three ways to do the wrong thing
iv. Your turn: helping out Michael
v. Quote, paraphrase, and summary
vi. Signal phrases
vii. Varying sentence structure with signal phrases
viii. Incorporating quotes into your sentences
ix. Adding to and deleting from quotes
x. Indicating someone else’s errors in a quote
xi. Do the write things
xii. Your turn: QP&S

13. A Last and Lasting Impression
a. Misconclusions
b. Technique #11: Satisfy readers with a memorable ending
i. Thirteen ways to write a satisfying conclusion
1. Identify a revelation or insight
2. Call readers to action
3. Refer to a memorable detail used in the hook
4. Make a reference to popular culture
5. Connect a memory to the present
6. Cite a memorable or unexpected quote
7. Ask a probing, open-ended question
8. Describe a person or people with specific, relevant details
9. Focus on specific, relevant details of a place
10. Make an unexpected comparison
11. Use surprising statistics
12. Use humor and/or sarcasm
13. Look toward the future
ii. Your turn: three endings

14. This Draught Is Offal. Ewe Should Defiantly Asses It a Gin
a. Technique #12: Proofread and edit accurately and thoroughly
i. You (and I) should proofread and edit thoroughly and accurately for several reasons
ii. How to recognize errors and get your writing to say what you mean
iii. Your turn: spelling
iv. Run-ons and comma splices
1. Recognizing run-ons and comma splices
2. Correcting run-ons and comma splices
v. Your turn: find run-ons fix ’em
vi. Fragments
1. How to recognize and correct sentence fragments
vii. Your turn: frags. To fix
viii.Using and misusing commas
ix. Your turn: draft #9
x. My try: Getting it Right

Appendix
a. Twelve ways to break out a better writer
b. Selected answers for Your turns
i. Chapter 6: Tool School
1. Your turn: fanboys 1
2. Your turn: semicolon 1
3. Your turn: colon 1
4. Your turn: sub-cons 1
5. Your turn: RC 1
ii. Chapter 8: That Being Said, I Think You Can…
1. Your turn: practice with expletives (“there” + a linking verb)
2. Your turn: practice with “It” + a linking verb
3. Your turn: practice with unnecessary helping verbs
4. Your turn: practice with unnecessary attention drawn to the writer
5. Your turn: practice with two action verbs when one will do
6. Your turn: practice with information implied by other details
iii. Chapter 10: Tool School, Too
1. Your turn: appositives 1
2. Your turn: present participles 1
3. Your turn: present participles 2
4. Your turn: past participles 1
5. Your turn: past participles 2
6. Your turn: absolutes 1
7. Your turn: correlatives 1
8. Your turn: RC 2
9. Your turn: RC 3
iv. Chapter 11: A Good Debate Ain’t out of Date
1. Your turn: evidence 1
v. Chapter 14: This Draught Is Offal. Ewe Should Defiantly Asses It a Gin
1. Your turn: spelling heirs
2. Your turn: find run-ons fix ’em
3. Your turn: frags. To fix
c. Questions to ask when evaluating evidence
d. Recommended reading

Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Randy Koch

Randy Koch is in his tenth year as an English instructor at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches primarily freshman composition. Prior to his current position, he worked at a stockyard and a nursing home in Minnesota for ten years before earning a BS in English Education and an MA in fiction writing at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He then taught composition and creative writing at community colleges in Minnesota and Texas for eleven years and directed the Texas A&M International University writing center in Laredo, TX, for five years before returning to school and earning an MFA in poetry writing at the University of Wyoming. He’s the author of two collections of poems, Composing Ourselves (Fithian Press, 2002) and This Splintered Horse (Finishing Line Press, 2011), and a longtime columnist for LareDOS: A Journal of the Borderlands. His poems and book reviews have appeared in The Caribbean Writer, Measure, The Texas Observer, Revista Interamericana, College Composition and Communication, J Journal, Sparrow: Yearbook of the Sonnet, and many others. He’s currently working on a memoir about single-parenthood, infatuations, and incarceration.

The aim of this book is simple: to provide students—regardless of their past writing experiences or current skills— specific, mostly objective techniques that can help them produce better writing. Students should not have to depend on nor should they necessarily trust the subjective opinions of other students, teachers, or any so-called experts who cannot diagnose the source of specific problems or weaknesses. Given the right tools and methods, students can learn to identify their own tendencies and assess strengths and weaknesses in their own and others’ writing. This book is meant to help them do just that.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Most Humane of the Humanities

1. The Desperado’s in the Details
a. Technique #1: Use primarily specific, concrete details rather than vague abstractions
i. How to distinguish among vague abstractions, abstract facts, and concrete details
ii. My try
iii. Your turn: from abstract to specific
b. Remember: Use primarily specific, concrete details rather than vague abstractions
i. Your turn: draft #1
ii. My try: Without Doorbells

2. Acting Like Adam
a. Technique #2: Distinguish people, places, and things with their own specific names
i. Degrees of abstraction and specificity
ii. Think and act like a writer
b. Remember: Distinguish people, places, and things with their own specific names
i. Your turn: name that thing
ii. Your turn: what stuff says
iii. Your turn: draft #2
iv. My try: Cruising Calton with Adam and a Blind Man

3. The Incredibles, the Avengers, Arnold, and You
a. Technique #3: Use mostly specific, interesting action verbs rather than helping and linking verbs
i. Distinguishing helping and linking verbs from action verbs
1. Recognizing helping verbs
2. Recognizing linking verbs
3. Why use Technique #3?
b. Be an action hero: Use mostly specific, interesting action verbs rather than helping and linking verbs
i. Your turn: action-emotion chart
ii. Your turn: draft #3
iii. Your turn: check an essay
iv. My try: In It for the Long Run

4. Showing Up and Getting It Down
a. Technique #4: Show—don’t tell—especially when it’s important to your thesis
b. Version #1
c. Version #2
i. The differences
ii. Why you should know how to show rather than tell
d. Show rather than tell, especially when it’s important to your thesis
i. Your turn: show; don’t tell
ii. My try: Evolution
iii. My try: The Shapes of Consolation

5. A Word in Edgewise
a. Technique #5: Include voices other than your own by using dialogue or outside sources
i. Using dialogue or outside sources can benefit your writing in several ways
ii. Identifying speakers in dialogue
iii. Speed and silence
iv. Paragraphing
v. Punctuating attributions, direct address, and tag questions
vi. Interruptions
vii. Quoting a quote
viii. Speech that runs more than one paragraph
ix. Getting it right vs. getting it correct
b. Technique #5: Include voices other than your own by using dialogue or outside sources
i. Your turn: relate a debate
ii. Your turn: draft #4
iii. My try: Finding a Way Home

6. Tool School
a. Version #1
b. Version #2
c. Technique #6: Vary sentence length and structure
i. How to vary sentence length and structure
1. Coordinating conjunctions
a. Your turn: fanboys 1
b. Your turn: fanboys 2
2. The semicolon
a. Your turn: semicolon 1
b. Your turn: semicolon 2
3. The colon
a. Your turn: colon 1
b. Your turn: colon 2
4. Subordinating conjunctions
a. Your turn: sub-cons 1
b. Your turn: sub-cons 2
5. Conjunctive adverbs
a. Your turn: CA 1
6. Relative clauses: restrictive and nonrestrictive
a. Your turn: RC 1
ii. My try: Manning Up to Poetry
iii. Your turn: ID devices
iv. Your turn: draft #5

7. Intelligent Design and the Three Little Pigs
a. Traditional essay structure
b. Technique #7: Construct a logical, coherent, appropriate structure
i. Where you must and where you might start a new paragraph
ii. Alternative patterns of organization
c. Construct a logical, coherent, appropriate structure
i. Your turn: analyze an op-ed
ii. Your turn: rethink your design
iii. Your turn: draft #6
iv. My try: How to Plot and Pare a ‘Graph

8. That Being Said, I Think You Can Most Definitely Say Whatever It Is You Actually Mean to Say in a Way That Results in a Significantly Smaller Number of Words
a. Technique #8: Cut clutter
i. Twelve ways to cut clutter from your writing
1. Avoid expletives: “there” + a linking verb
2. Avoid “It” followed by a linking verb
3. Don’t use a verb that requires a helping verb if a simpler form will do
4. Don’t draw unnecessary attention to yourself
5. Don’t use two action verbs when one will do, especially when one indicates that an action began, started, continued, or proceeded
6. Cut details that are evident from other information in the sentence
7. Don’t announce what you intend to do; just do it
8. Cut the adverb implied in the verb
9. Use the active voice rather than the passive
10. Don’t use phrases that add words, not meaning
11. Avoid qualifiers
12. Avoid unnecessary repetition and redundancy
ii. Why writers should cut clutter
iii. Your turn: practice with expletives (“there” + a linking verb)
iv. Your turn: practice with “It” + a linking verb
v. Your turn: practice with unnecessary helping verbs
vi. Your turn: practice with unnecessary attention drawn to the writer
vii. Your turn: practice with two action verbs when one will do
viii. Your turn: practice with information implied by other details
ix. My try: How to Say Nothing in 750 Words
x. Your turn: draft #7

9. Hook, Line, and Thinker
a. Technique #9: Hook readers with a specific, enticing, engaging introduction
i. Unhooks: Intros to avoid
ii. Ten approaches to writing a hook that’ll grab readers
1. Describe a person in detail
2. Describe a place in detail
3. Relate a brief anecdote
4. Start with dialogue
5. Make a reference to popular culture
6. Reveal something personal
7. Start with humor
8. Make an outrageous statement
9. Begin with a startling statistic
10. Start with a surprising, unfamiliar quote
iii. Your turn: hook your reader

10. Tool School, Too
a. Technique #6 (cont’d): Vary sentence length and structure
i. How to vary sentence length and structure
1. Appositives
a. Your turn: appositives 1
b. Your turn: appositives 2
2. Present participial phrases
a. Your turn: present participles 1
b. Your turn: present participles 2
3. Past participial phrases
a. Your turn: past participles 1
b. Your turn: past participles 2
c. Your turn: past participles 3
4. Absolutes
a. Your turn: absolutes 1
b. Your turn: absolutes 2
5. Correlative conjunctions
a. Your turn: correlatives 1
b. Your turn: correlatives 2
6. More relative pronouns
a. Your turn: RC 2
b. Your turn: RC 3
c. Your turn: RC 4
ii. Your turn: draft #8
iii. My try: The Sentence: A Word to Life and Back Again

11. A Good Debate Ain’t out of Date
a. Bound to Books
b. Technique #10: Think critically, and argue logically
i. The basics
ii. Why you need to think critically and argue logically
iii. Reasons and evidence
iv. Your turn: Reasoning
v. Five types of evidence
vi. Your turn: evidence 1
vii. Your turn: evidence 2
viii. Your turn: practice with reasons and evidence
ix. Beyond the basics
x. Your turn: elements in an op-ed
xi. My try: A Manual Labor of Love

12. Do the Write Thing—with Sources
a. Technique #5: Include voices other than your own by using dialogue or outside sources
i. The trials of using the right style
ii. The wrong thing
iii. Three ways to do the wrong thing
iv. Your turn: helping out Michael
v. Quote, paraphrase, and summary
vi. Signal phrases
vii. Varying sentence structure with signal phrases
viii. Incorporating quotes into your sentences
ix. Adding to and deleting from quotes
x. Indicating someone else’s errors in a quote
xi. Do the write things
xii. Your turn: QP&S

13. A Last and Lasting Impression
a. Misconclusions
b. Technique #11: Satisfy readers with a memorable ending
i. Thirteen ways to write a satisfying conclusion
1. Identify a revelation or insight
2. Call readers to action
3. Refer to a memorable detail used in the hook
4. Make a reference to popular culture
5. Connect a memory to the present
6. Cite a memorable or unexpected quote
7. Ask a probing, open-ended question
8. Describe a person or people with specific, relevant details
9. Focus on specific, relevant details of a place
10. Make an unexpected comparison
11. Use surprising statistics
12. Use humor and/or sarcasm
13. Look toward the future
ii. Your turn: three endings

14. This Draught Is Offal. Ewe Should Defiantly Asses It a Gin
a. Technique #12: Proofread and edit accurately and thoroughly
i. You (and I) should proofread and edit thoroughly and accurately for several reasons
ii. How to recognize errors and get your writing to say what you mean
iii. Your turn: spelling
iv. Run-ons and comma splices
1. Recognizing run-ons and comma splices
2. Correcting run-ons and comma splices
v. Your turn: find run-ons fix ’em
vi. Fragments
1. How to recognize and correct sentence fragments
vii. Your turn: frags. To fix
viii.Using and misusing commas
ix. Your turn: draft #9
x. My try: Getting it Right

Appendix
a. Twelve ways to break out a better writer
b. Selected answers for Your turns
i. Chapter 6: Tool School
1. Your turn: fanboys 1
2. Your turn: semicolon 1
3. Your turn: colon 1
4. Your turn: sub-cons 1
5. Your turn: RC 1
ii. Chapter 8: That Being Said, I Think You Can…
1. Your turn: practice with expletives (“there” + a linking verb)
2. Your turn: practice with “It” + a linking verb
3. Your turn: practice with unnecessary helping verbs
4. Your turn: practice with unnecessary attention drawn to the writer
5. Your turn: practice with two action verbs when one will do
6. Your turn: practice with information implied by other details
iii. Chapter 10: Tool School, Too
1. Your turn: appositives 1
2. Your turn: present participles 1
3. Your turn: present participles 2
4. Your turn: past participles 1
5. Your turn: past participles 2
6. Your turn: absolutes 1
7. Your turn: correlatives 1
8. Your turn: RC 2
9. Your turn: RC 3
iv. Chapter 11: A Good Debate Ain’t out of Date
1. Your turn: evidence 1
v. Chapter 14: This Draught Is Offal. Ewe Should Defiantly Asses It a Gin
1. Your turn: spelling heirs
2. Your turn: find run-ons fix ’em
3. Your turn: frags. To fix
c. Questions to ask when evaluating evidence
d. Recommended reading

Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Randy Koch
Randy Koch

Randy Koch is in his tenth year as an English instructor at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches primarily freshman composition. Prior to his current position, he worked at a stockyard and a nursing home in Minnesota for ten years before earning a BS in English Education and an MA in fiction writing at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He then taught composition and creative writing at community colleges in Minnesota and Texas for eleven years and directed the Texas A&M International University writing center in Laredo, TX, for five years before returning to school and earning an MFA in poetry writing at the University of Wyoming. He’s the author of two collections of poems, Composing Ourselves (Fithian Press, 2002) and This Splintered Horse (Finishing Line Press, 2011), and a longtime columnist for LareDOS: A Journal of the Borderlands. His poems and book reviews have appeared in The Caribbean Writer, Measure, The Texas Observer, Revista Interamericana, College Composition and Communication, J Journal, Sparrow: Yearbook of the Sonnet, and many others. He’s currently working on a memoir about single-parenthood, infatuations, and incarceration.