What is exposition?

What is exposition?

The purpose of exposition (or expository writing) is not to primarily to amuse, but to enlighten and instruct. The objective is to explain and analyze information by presenting an idea, relevant evidence, and appropriate discussion. Its essential quality is clarity. Most of the writing that you are required to do at school is expository (reports, tests, essays etc..) Similarly most of the writing you will do after school will be of this sort.
Examples of expository writing include:

• Reports
• Scientific reports
• Term papers
• Encyclopedia articles

Features of expository writing

The main features include:

• Informative
  Expository text is meant to deposit information
• Clarity.
  Using words that clearly show what the author is talking about.
• Organization of the text.
  A well-written exposition remains focused on its topic and lists events in chronological order
• Impersonal
  Second-person instructions with "you." However, the use of first-person pronouns should be avoided.
• Unbiased
  Expository essays will not overtly reveal the opinion of the writer.

How to write a business letter

How to write a business letter

What kind of letter is it?

A business letter is a letter written in formal language. There are many reasons to write a business letter. It could be:

• to request direct information or action from another party,
• to order supplies from a supplier,
• to identify a mistake that was committed,
• to reply directly to a request,
• to apologize for a wrong
• or simply to convey goodwill.

Elements of a business letter

The parts of a business letter are as follows:

• Sender's address
• Date
• Inside address
• Attention line
• Salutation
• Body of the letter
• Complimentary close
• Signature
• Enclosure

Positions of the elements

Styles of business letters are of two main types:

1. Full block style:
   In this type you align all elements on the left margin.
2. Modified block:
   In this style, some elements are on the left page margin.

The following is an example of the modified block style.

Example

[SENDER'S NAME] [SENDER'S ADDRESS] (optional[SENDER'S PHONE] (optional[SENDER'S E-MAIL] [DATE] [RECIPIENT W/O PREFIX] [RECIPIENT'S COMPANY] [RECIPIENT'S ADDRESS] (Optional) Attention [DEPARTMENT/PERSON], Dear [RECIPIENT], [CONTENT.] [VALEDICTION (Sincerely, Respectfully, Regards, etc.)], [SENDER] [SENDER'S TITLE] Enclosures ([NUMBER OF ENCLOSURES])

Punctuation

Generally speaking, a comma follows the salutation/greeting, but in the United States a colon is often preferred. The valediction/closing is followed by a comma.

writing - An email to a hotel manager to make a reservation

Hotels

When traveling, we almost always stay at hotels. That's why it is advisable to pay attention to the following:

• Book a room in advance.
• On arrival, confirm your reservation. Check in at the reception.
• At large hotels you may ask for services by phone. For example, you may call for room service when you want a drink or a meal.
• Let the hotel manager know well in advance when you will leave.

Booking a room

To book a room you need to do one of the following:

• to make a phone call,
• to write a letter,
• or to write an email.

Writing an email to make a reservation

1. Include all relevant information in your email:

• your complete contact information,
• date and time of arrival and departure,
• number of days of your stay,
• type of room and any special needs or requests such as a smoking or nonsmoking room.

2. Be to the point. don't include any unnecessary details.
3. Be polite and start your email by "Dear sir or Madam"
4. Example:

Dear Sir or Madam,Would you mind reserving a nonsmoking room for me and my wife for this date (...) We will be spending three nights. We will arrive on August 4th at 5 o'clock in the morning. Please charge my credit card for the initial deposit required. Include any discounts that my early registration permits. Credit card number: Name: Expiration date: I look forward to receiving a letter confirming my reservation. Thank you. Name

5. Don't forget your name, address, email, phone, fax or any contact details.

Useful Academic Expressions

Useful Academic Expressions

These are some useful expressions used in academic writing:

1. Stating your own position on a Subject or Topic

• This paper aims at...
• This paper will be concerned with...
• The aim of this paper is to…
• The point of this article is to…
• It shall be argued in this paper/essay/review that…
• The view presented in this paper/essay/review is that..

2. Presenting your own point of view

• I strongly believe that...
• To my mind...
• As I see it....
• It seems to me evident/obvious that...
• I feel that...
• I think/contend that...
• There are many reasons why…
• It is important/necessary to point out that…
• The first thing to be considered is…
• It is a fact that…

3. Supporting your view and adding more information:

• The first/second reason why…is…
• Firstly/Secondly...
• not only ...but also...
• The most important…
• In addition, …
• Furthermore, …
• What is more, …
• Another reason is …
• A further point is …

4. Stating the view of Another Person on a Subject or Topic

• Harris's approch (1970, p. 1) can be described as follows...
• Chomsky (1965, p. 133) maintains/argues/asserts/claims/points out that...
• Th authors views ca be stated as follows...
• The opinion of Chomsky (1965, p. 133) is that…
• Chomsky (1965, p. 133)) has suggested that ….
• According to Smith (1992, p. 123), …
• It is thought by some theorists, for example, Chomsky (1965, p. 133) and Harris (1970, p. 1) that…

5. Agreeing with the Views of Others

• I don't agree with the authors ideas/thoughts...because...
• I don't think the author's views are accurate...because...
• Chomsky (1965, p. 133) is certainly/may be correct/accurate in saying that … because…
• As Chomsky (1965, p. 133) says/states …
• Like Chomsky (1965, p. 133), it can be agreed that …. because…

6. Disagreeing with the Views of Others

• Chomsky (1965, p. 133) fails to address the issue when he says "…" because …
• When Chomsky (1965, p. 133) argues that …. his reasoning is questionable because….
• One of the main arguments against Chomsky (1965, p. 133) and Harris (1970, p. 1) is that …
• Harris (1970) approach/position/methods is/are somewhat inadequate/inaccurate/insufficient because…
• There is some doubt that…

7. Indicating a Lack of Knowledge in a Particular Topic or Subject

• Despite the book's attempts to... it lacks a accuracy...
• What I find lacking in the research is...
• Although the research has tended to focus on…..rather less attention has been paid to…
• Most studies, such as Harris (1970, p. 1) and Chomsky (1965, p. 133) have emphasized/concentrated on/focused on inadequate /insufficient….

8. Drawing a Conclusion Using the Work of Others

• To sum up, ...
• In a nutshell, ...
• As a conclusion, ...
• As a summary, ...
• All in all, ...
• To conclude, ...
• Based on these authors, a connection can be made between…
• It can be concluded from what Jones (2004, p. 2) and Smith (2002, p. 1) have stated that... is …
• When Smith’s (2001, p.52) work/paper is looked at closely, it is seen that…
• One outcome of Smith’s (2001, p.52) work/paper/research is …

Capitalization rules

Capitalization rules

Capitalization is the writing of a word with the first letter as uper-case letter (A,B, C, D,...) and the rest of the word as lower-case letters (a,b,c,d,...)
This is a summary of the capitalization.
Read the capitalization rules and study the examples given.

The rules

Capitalize the first word in a sentence.

• They arrived late. They had dinner and went to sleep.

The first word in a quote.

• He said, "You are fantastic."

Capitalize " I ".

• I'm very sorry for being late. I missed the bus.

Capitalize proper nouns.

• George was furious when he heard the bad news from Alice.

Capitalize names of rivers, mountains.

• The Nile River is in Egypt.
• The highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest.

The official title of a person, the initials in someone's name are capitalized

• Dr Lynch
• D. H. Lawrance is a wonderful novelist.

Days of the week, months of the year, holidays are capitalized.

• We went to Paris on Monday and came back on Saturday.
• The Independence Day is in July not January.

Capitalize countries, cities, languages, nationalities.

• New York is more exciting than seatle.
• He lives in London, but he's not English. He's Nigerian.
• He speaks English, Chinese and Japanese.

The first word in each line of a poem.

• "Who will believe my verse in time to come,
  If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
  Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
  Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts."
  Shakespear.

Punctuation rules

Punctuation rules

Punctuation marks are symbols which

1. organize the structure of written language,
2. and indicate intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.

Punctuation marks are also used to avoid ambiguity. For example, "woman, without her man, is nothing" has a different meaning from "woman: without her, man is nothing"
This is a summary of punctuation rules.
Read the punctuation rules and study the examples given.

End punctuation marks:

1. Full stop , or period (.)

• Used a full stop at the end of a sentence:
  She stood up and went away. She was furious.
• Used for abbreviations:
  Co. (Company)
  M.P. (Member of Parliament) 

2. Question marks (?)

• Question marks are used at the end of direct questions:
  Where do you live?
  Are you crazy?
  Did you do the homework?
• Use a question mark at the end of tag questions:
  You will help me, won't you?
  He likes soccer, doesn't he? 

3. Exclamation marks (!)

• Used to indicate strong emotions:
  She's so beautiful!
  What a nice girl!
  How interesting!
• Used after interjections:
  Oh! It's awful.
  Hi! What's up?

Commas (,)

• Commas are used between items in a series or list. The last two items of the series usually do not need a comma between them. They are separated by "and".
  I like spaghetti, fish, pizza and couscous.
• Commas are also used between adjectives or adverbs:
  I'd like to have a big, black, German car.
  She speaks slowly, quietly and eloquently.
• After the street address and city in an address:
  34 Hassan II Street, Rabat, Morocco.
• Before or after direct speech:
  He said,"I hate being treated like that."
  "I'm sorry", she replied.
• Before a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
  He woke up late, so he had to drive to work.

Semicolons (;)

• Semicolons are used instead of a full stop or period to separate independent sentences:
  They woke up early; then they went jogging.
• Use a semicolon to separate items in a series when those items contain punctuation such as a comma:
  They visited the Eiffel Tower, Paris; Big Ben, London; and the statue of liberty, New York

Colons (:)

• Use a colon to introduce a list:
  He visited three cities last summer holiday: Madrid, Roma and Athens.
• To introduce an idea or an explanation:
  He had one idea in mind: to see her as soon as possible.
• To introduce direct speech or a quotation:
  The secretary whispered in his ear: "Your wife is on the phone. "

Dashes (--)

• To introduce parenthetical information:
  I put on a blue jacket --the one my mother bought me-- and blue jeans.
• To show an afterthought:
  I explained to him my point of view-- at least I tried!

Apostrophes (')

• Use an apostrophe to indicate a missing letter or letters in a contraction.
  I'm fed up with his stories
• Use an apostrophe plus the letter "s" to show possession.
  My brother's girlfriend is such a sweet girl.

Quotation marks ("")

• Quotation marks are used to quote speech, sentences or words.
  She said, "I love you."

Writing tips

Writing tips

These are some tips to help you in your writing.

General

The ideal English text is easy to read and understand. Good writers usually use plain English words. So your sentences should be simple, clear and well structured.
When writing, remember the following recommendations in mind:

• use simple language
• use simple and clear sentences
• write well structured paragraphs (with a topic sentences supporting details and a concluding sentence)
• you may use subordinate clauses but keep them short
• prefer active voice to passive voice
• avoid slang language.

Sentence

Make your sentences simple and clear.
A sentence always encloses a subject, a verb and , optionally, a complement.
Examples:

• she tells stories
• She lies

A sentence may contain subordinate clauses (relative clauses, if clauses…)

Paragraph

As to paragraphs, keep the following rules in mind:

• Concentrate on one main point per paragraph. Summarize this point in the first sentence ( topic sentence.)
• All sentences that follow support the main point or limit its scope (supporting sentences)
• The last sentence is a summary of the main point of the paragraph and is used as a transition to the next paragraph. (concluding sentence)

Text

The typical structure of a text is as follows:

• (title)
• introduction
• main part
• conclusion

Make your texts interesting. Vary the lengths of your sentences. Use a short sentence to put emphasis on an important statements. Vary the lengths of your paragraphs and avoid one-sentence paragraphs.
There are various possibilities on how to structure your texts, e.g.:

• General to Specific:
  general statement followed by details and examples
• Specific to General:
  details and examples followed by a generalization:
• Known to Unknown:
  provide new information based on what readers already know
• Least Important to Most Important:
  catch and keep readers' attention
• Chronology (ordering by time):
  e.g. in biographies

Process writing

Writing is a process. Famous successful writers follow these steps in their writing:

• Collecting  the data
• Organizing the data
• Making an outline.
• The first draft.
• Editing.
• Possible reassessment of the ideas (crossing out some ideas, introducing new ideas, rearranging ideas…)
• Final draft.

Type of texts

• Descriptive
• Argumentative
• Letters (personal and business letters)
• Cause and effects…