California State University Fullerton

Department of Speech Communication

Dr. Page

_____________________

Name

WRITING GIG LIST

Below is a list of errors that tend to recur in students' writing. Please use this list to check your written work before submitting it for evaluation.

CLARITY:

___ Organization of paper unclear (what is your structural pattern?)

Some sentences not well developed:

___ ..awkward sentence construction (consider parallel structure for complex sentences)

___ ..avoid sentence fragment (often the verb is missing)

___ ..vary sentence openings

Some paragraphs not well developed:

___ ..avoid two or more key ideas in one paragraph

___ ..some paragraphs lack topic sentences (make paragraphs deductive)

___ ..avoid overly short or overly long paragraphs

___ Paper lacks transitions and/or subheadings.

CONCISENESS:

___ Have you made your points in as few words as possible?

___ Avoid unnecessary redundancies

COMPLETENESS:

___ Paper needs a creative title (provide general topic, colon, then explanatory

subtopic), e.g., Speech Critique: My Journey to a Catholic Church

___ Paper needs an introduction

___ Paper needs a conclusion

CORRECTNESS:

___ Rules for capitalization violated (hint: rules in back of most hard bound dictionaries)

Rules of grammar violated:

___ ..attend to possessives

___ ..attend to plurals

___ ..attend to contractions (e.g., it's is a contraction whereas its is a possessive)

___ ..need noun/pronoun agreement (e.g., a singular noun requires a singular pronoun)

___ ..avoid unjustified shift in person/tense (note: 3rd person singular is usually preferred

for academic writing)

Rules of numbers violated:

___ ..write out numbers of ten or less

___ ..write out all numbers that begin sentences

___ ..add page numbers to your paper

Rules of punctuation violated:

___ ..incorrect use [or non-use] of comma (see back of dictionary)

___ ..incorrect use [or non-use] of ellipsis (see back of dictionary)

___ ..incorrect use [or non-use] of semicolon/colon (see back of dictionary)

___ ..incorrect placement of punctuation (usually placed within quote marks)

___ ..avoid run-on sentence (i.e., two independent clauses with no punctuation or connector)

Rules of quoting violated:

___ ..quotes of five lines or more must be indented

___ ..avoid overuse of quoted material

___ ..always frame a quote (hint: use as many lines to frame a quote as the quote is long)

___ Paper needs careful proofreading:

___ ..avoid omission of words

___ ..avoid spelling errors (& typos)

___ ..avoid incorrect words (incorrect use of similar sounding words, verb tense, etc)

___ Avoid right margin justification (creates awkward spaces between words)

___ Please number the pages of your paper.

CONCERN:

___ You are having basic problems with writing (please contact the University Learning

Center, MH 33, tel. 278-2738 for assistance).