Rose B. Coggins
PART 2—Construct Clear Sentences and Paragraphs
Objective—Limit sentence content and economize on words.
Assignment Students will be given several long sentences to rewrite for clarity”
Objective—Determine where emphasis should be in sentence design”
Assignment Underscore the main emphasis in a list of sentences; then revise for better emphasis.
Objective—Give sentences unity, clarity, and proper design.
Assignment Students will indicate how a group of sentences can be revised for unity and clarity by using the correct punctuation.
Objective—Choose appropriate topic sentence.
Assignment Students will select the topic sentence from given paragraphs.
PART 3—Writing for Effect
Objective—Write in conversational language.
Choose five sentences and rewrite them in a conversational tone.
Objective—Write from the you-viewpoint.
Write five sentences from the we-viewpoint; then revise and write them from the you-viewpoint.
Objective—Write p1acing accent on positive language.
Underscore al1 words you consider negative language and rewrite using positive language.
Before writing each of the assigned letters the student will outline the five most important planning stages in writing a letter:
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l. Purpose—Why Am I writing this letter.
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2. Points to include—What shall I say or what points should I cover.
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3. Particulars in the letter—Where can I get the information”
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4. Person addressed in a letter—Who will read this letter.
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5. Plan the letter questions—How shall I present the information.
Students will write letters using a checklist before writing.
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The checklist will vary according to the type of letter written. I will only list the writer’s checklist for the letters I intend to give as assignment. Writer’s checklist for all other types of letters can be found in
The Administrative Secretary
located in my teacher’s bibliography” Students will be permitted to work at his/her own pace with constant interviews with me.
Students will be divided in groups of five. Each student in the group will write one letter to another student in a different group. Students are to write a response to all letters received along with an evaluation of each letter received. Each letter must be carefully proofread several times checking for: formatting, styling, word repetition, omissions, spacing, transpositions, hyphenations, name and address, numbers, spelling, and general sense of the letter. The recipient and the respondent will meet with me occasionally if they cannot resolve any conflict in the letters.
Students will be encouraged to work at his/her own pace with constant touch with peers and with me. I will be used as a sounding board as well as a resource.
Follow-up Assignment
Revise the two diagnostic letters you wrote. Be sure to apply what you have learned thus far through the study of this unit.