EXPRESSING YOURSELF

Date

ABILITY TO MANIPULATE
YOUR WRITING IS CRUCIAL

DEMONSTRATE YOUR ABILITY TO GROUP IDEAS IN A LOGICAL

WAY!

EXPLOIT THE FLEXIBILITY THAT LANGUAGE OFFERS YOU TO

EXPRESS IDEAS WITH CLARITY!

TEACH YOU TO MAINTAIN READERS ATTENTION AND

INTEREST

WHAT IS GOOD
EXPRESSION?

IT IS SIMPLE, GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT AND WRITTEN

CLEARLY

simple: using a straightforward style

that announces exactly what is said
Example 1:!

A good leader needs to have the

foresight to look beyond, and
achieve other aims including
socio-political, economic
aspects of the future for not
doing so shortchanges the lives
and destinies of his people.!
!
!

A good leader needs the

foresight to look beyond the
present needs of his country.
He needs to look to the
countrys future development,
especially in its social, political
and economic domains. An
inability to do so will adversely
affect the lives of his people.

SEPARATE the ideas into independent elements.

correctness: WITHOUT correct use

of language, writing is ...

non _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ nonsensical!

il _ _ _ _ _ _ _ illogical!

am _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ambiguous!
CRIME: committing grammatical errors and spelling mistakes!
CONSEQUENCE: writers intended meaning is diluted or gone.

clarity: ability to convey your

meaning to your reader

select precise, concrete and clear words - do the words reflect the
intended meaning?!

construct effective sentences and paragraphs - is there one clear KEY

IDEA running throughout the sentences in the paragraph? Is there
clear cause and effect sequencing here?

5-minute exercise

Whats wrong with this sentence?!

Working from home might cause distraction,

lack of motivation and socialisation.
Does work cause distraction? Does distraction at home prevents one
from working? Whats the basis? Context?!
Who lacks motivation? Does working from home cause a lack of
motivation? !

This sentence is ineffective because of a lack of clear cause-and-effect

relationship.!

There is too much packed into this sentence. !

Placement of the words does not contribute to a coherent pattern.!

One edited version

Working from home might cause distraction,

lack of motivation and socialisation.
Working from home could be more inefficient than working in the
office. [recasts as a claim that shows contrast between working from
home and at the office] The comforts of home could be the very
distractions that weaken the motivation to work. [explains causeeffect association between distraction and motivation to work]
Moreover, working from home could also reduce contact with ones
social circle. [Transition signals another point to note. Replacing
socialisation which is a process by which human beings become
part of a community. Student probably meant it as affecting ones
social life.]

Self-edit and peer-edit

Pick any one paragraph to edit !

Repeat this with your friends work

10-minute exercise

Look at the paragraph [Handout]. The errors are in bold text. !

Analyse the errors made and applying what you have learnt thus far,
correct them to make the paragraph more coherent and cohesive.

Edited version
A leader and the government he creates [1] should take
care of the needs [2] of the country. However, taking care
of a peoples needs is not necessarily the same as
giving in to all their needs, with little or no effort on the
part of the people [3]. In addition, this diminishes [4] the
importance of people working together [5] with the
government to achieve these aims. What are the needs of
a country? At the most basic level, it is the peoples [6],
needs for shelter, food and clothing [7]. For example,
China may be a communist country [8], but it has a
dynamic economic [9] policy to lift [10] its people out of
poverty. It has taken care [11] of her people by not [12]
giving handouts but by creating [13] industries for jobs.
These jobs enable [14] its people to be independent too. !