Things to Consider to Improve Your Writing

The Do’s of Writing

Make sure to capitalize all proper nouns.– Proper nouns are specific people, places, brands, days and months, holidays,

and origins. Example: John, Ms. Swanson, President Obama

Example: Turkey, Piazza, New York City, Harvard University

Example: Prada, Ford, Pegasus, National Geographic

Example: Sunday, March, Wednesday, December

Example: Ramadan, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Halloween

Example: Turkish, Spanish, English, French

Capitalize the first word of each sentence.

Capitalize the words in a title (except prepositions).

Example: The Life of a Man, A Piece of Heaven

Use Proper Capitalization

• Use commas correctly.– Example: I need milk, honey, and sugar. We will go to the mall, but we

will not buy anything. However, there are many sales.

• Use ending punctuation correctly.– Smoking is bad for one’s health. (Declarative Sentence)

– Close the door. (Imperative Sentence)

– What happened in Turkey yesterday? (Interrogative Sentence)

– What a beautiful dress you have! (Exclamatory Sentence)

Use Correct Punctuation

• Before you start writing, get your thoughts together. Brainstorm and/or outline what you want to say. That way, your paper will likely flow more smoothly and clearly, not to mention receiving a higher grade.

Organize Your Ideas

• For informal writing, or personal essays and paragraphs, using the words “I”, “my”, “me”, “our”, “we”, “us”, “mine”, and “ours” are acceptable.

• HOWEVER, in academic writing, these words weaken your paper. You should avoid using 1st person language.

Be Careful about “I” Language

• After you finish your paper, review it for mistakes and make sure there are no changes that need to be done. Even the best writers must review their work!

REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!