>From owner-trad-l@LISTSERV.VT.EDU Thu Mar 13 13:38:24 1997 Received: (from mailadm@localhost) by sable.cc.vt.edu (8.8.4/8.8.4) id NAA01272 for fox@fox.cs.vt.edu; Thu, 13 Mar 1997 13:38:24 -0500 (EST) Received: from listserv.vt.edu (listserv.vt.edu [128.173.4.9]) by sable.cc.vt.edu (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP id NAA21901; Thu, 13 Mar 1997 13:38:22 -0500 (EST) Received: from listserv.vt.edu (listserv.vt.edu [128.173.4.9]) by listserv.vt.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA26794; Thu, 13 Mar 1997 13:38:20 -0500 Received: from LISTSERV.VT.EDU by LISTSERV.VT.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8c) with spool id 695804 for TRAD-L@LISTSERV.VT.EDU; Thu, 13 Mar 1997 13:38:20 -0500 Received: from quackerjack.cc.vt.edu (quackerjack.cc.vt.edu [198.82.160.250]) by listserv.vt.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA43978 for ; Thu, 13 Mar 1997 13:28:19 -0500 Received: from sable.cc.vt.edu (sable.cc.vt.edu [128.173.16.30]) by quackerjack.cc.vt.edu (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP id NAA20190 for ; Thu, 13 Mar 1997 13:28:18 -0500 (EST) Received: from as2511-6.sl005.cns.vt.edu (as2511-6.sl005.cns.vt.edu [128.173.32.164]) by sable.cc.vt.edu (8.8.4/8.8.4) with SMTP id NAA20156 for ; Thu, 13 Mar 1997 13:28:16 -0500 (EST) X-Sender: clhardy@mail.vt.edu X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-Id: <199703131828.NAA20156@sable.cc.vt.edu> Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 13:28:19 +0500 Reply-To: "C. L. Hardy" Sender: trad-l Discussion List From: "C. L. Hardy" Subject: Suggestions To: TRAD-L@LISTSERV.VT.EDU David, Joanne, and a few others have suggested that I post a few things to keep in mind as you are working on the drafts of your chapters; so keep in mind what your teacher in Freshman English told you and consider the following points: A Few Suggestions about Style, Grammar, and Punctuation To Keep in Mind as You Are Preparing Your Final Drafts 1. Always write out Virginia Tech (do not abbreviate); be consistent in using this name for the university. 2. Remember that Virginia is a commonwealth; do not alternate between commonwealth and state in referring to it; be consistent. 3. Always place commas and periods WITHIN quotation marks. 4. Make a list of the major points you wish to make; organize the list; write out your draft from the organized list. 5. Prefer active voice (John hit the ball.) to passive voice (The ball was hit by John.). Using active voice makes prose more vigorous and forceful. Moreover, using active voice helps one to avoid the convoluted sentence structure that can sometimes re- sult from using passive constructions. 6. Support generalizations and assertions with specific examples and evidence. 7. Provide topic sentences (either state directly or strongly and clearly imply) for paragraphs. After writing the sentence, ask yourself if it clearly relates to the overall thesis you are developing. If the relationship is not clear, rephrase the sentence so that it is. If you cannot make the sentence relate to your thesis, you know before writing the whole paragraph that you have gone off on a tangent. Be sure to stick to the topic sentence in the paragraph and develop it by presenting and analyzing specific examples and evidence. C. L.