Writing
with Style Writing and Style Manual
Poway
Unified School District
Writing
with Style | Elements
of Written Communication | The
Writing Process |
Writing
Modes|
Forms
of Writing | Organizing
Your Writing
Formal and Informal Style
The
Basic Structure of an Academic Essay
The Research Process | MLA Format
Specific Forms of Writing
Summary
A summary takes a lot
of information and condenses it down to the most important points.
Summaries are always written in the expository mode because they
contain only factual information from the original source, without your
own opinion or evaluation. Summaries should include only the main ideas
from the original source and should be written in your own words. Your
summary may include brief direct quotations of key ideas that you
cannot paraphrase.
Typically your summary will follow
the organization of the original.
When writing a summary, make a brief
outline of the main ideas first. Use titles and section headings as a
guide. As a rule, your summary should be no longer than ¼ of the length
of the original.
Common uses for summaries are:
·
Summarizing readings or
lectures as a study guide
·
Summarizing new material
you have learned to check your understanding
·
Summarizing documents or
research to report findings to another person
One special type of
summary is an abstract. An abstract is a short summary of a longer
article or report. Abstracts are helpful for readers who need to determine
whether a long article would contain useful information.
Paraphrase
A paraphrase is like a
summary in that you take information from another source and put it into
your own words. However, one generally uses a paraphrase to reword more
detailed and specific information (such as a single passage from a book)
while a summary is used to condense a number of longer passages into
briefer form. When writing a paraphrase, it is important to completely
reword the original passage. You may NOT simply substitute synonyms for
key words from the original source.
(See the sections on paraphrasing
and plagiarism for more information)
Report
The purpose of a report is to
convey new, interesting, or important information to your audience. A
report is also written in the expository mode. Reports are
generally factual, and include information that was gathered through
observation or research. News
writing is essentially report writing (hence the term “reporter”).
Common
types of reports include:
- Lab
reports
- Book
reports
- Research
reports
- Interview
reports
- News
reports
When writing a report, maintain
objectivity by avoiding personal opinion or evaluation of the material you
are presenting. After
collecting your information, arrange and present your ideas in an order
that best suits the purpose and subject of the report (see the section
Patterns of Organization for ideas).
Personal Writing
Personal writing
involves writing about yourself, your experiences, and your opinions.
Personal writing may be for you alone (such as a journal or diary), or it
may be directed at a wider audience (such as a personal essay). However,
all personal writing seeks a greater understanding of ourselves through
writing about our lives and experiences. Personal writing is and may use a
more casual tone. Personal
writing often combines the narrative, descriptive, and persuasive
modes.
- Journals
or diaries
- Narrative
essays about personal experiences
- Reflective
essays about your ideas or beliefs
- Autobiographies
and memoirs
- Poetry
- Responses
to literature
- Learning
logs