Difficulties in Writing

The difficulties I face in my university class are how to organise my various points and how to generate ideas that are relevant.

For generating ideas, I found it difficult as I will not be sure about whether those ideas are sufficient for the essay or are too general. Therefore I will need more specific ideas as well to expand on the general ideas. To solve this problem, I will need to pick a topic which I feel most comfortable with. I will also need to brainstorm more ideas and try to link similar ideas together. By doing so, and having all these similar ideas together, it will expand the general idea.

While writing an essay, I will have the ideas generated out already. However, while writing, new ideas may pop up and I will therefore not be sure where to put in or if I should remove an idea to accommodate this new idea. My 1st draft will usually be very messy with the ideas all over the essay.

In order to solve this problem, I will have to decide a stand which I will be taking at the beginning. After which, I will need to decide how many points to support and rebut my stand. These ideas need to be carefully considered and not just anyhow being put into the essay. I will also need to decide which type of method I will use. Most of the times I prefer to use the block method. By having a proper “plan” before writing the essay, the organisation will be much better. If a new idea appears while the essay is being written, I will need to consider if this new idea is relevant to the supporting points or the rebuttal points. If it is, I will then need to try to link this idea with the current ideas. This will not be easy and will require practice.

In order to improve my writing skills especially for essays, one good way is to read more articles. By doing so, I can see the different styles of different authors and learn from them. By having a better general knowledge will also enable me to generate more ideas quickly. But most important of all is to continue to practice writing.

3 most common grammar mistakes

The three main grammar mistakes made are sentence structure (fragments), punctuation (mainly comma) and the use of the wrong word.

Fragments are incomplete sentences. They are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause. In order to correct the fragment, we need to remove the period between the fragment and the main clause. Punctuation may also be needed. Example of a fragment is “NUS offers many courses in engineering. Such as electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering.” It should be written as “NUS offers many majors in engineering, such as electrical, chemical, and industrial engineering.” Another example of a fragment is “Why the use of solar energy?” It should be written as “Why use solar energy?”

Commas should be used after introductory clauses, phrases or words that come before the main clause. Commas are used to separate independent clauses when they are joined by the coordinating junctions (FANBOYS). Examples of comma errors are “Consequently the economy would be stimulated and benefit from the increased industrial activity” and “The match was over but the crowd refused to leave.” The correct usage of the comma should be ““Consequently, the economy would be stimulated and benefit from the increased industrial activity” and “The match was over, but the crowd refused to leave.”

Finally it is the use of the wrong word. Therefore, the correct word should be used for the right occasion. One example of the use of the wrong word is “From the industry perspective, this will enable more trained personal in the area of green chemistry.” Instead of using the word personal, the word personnel should be used as personnel refers to a body of persons. Another example is “I found less coding errors this week than last week.” The word less should be replaced by fewer since coding errors can be counted.

I believe more practice is needed in order to minimise the various grammatical errors.