Mentoring Student Writer: Resource List

After assessing several samples of my mentee's written work, I came to the conclusion that weaknesses in his pre-writing process hindered his ability to communicate effectively. In general, I found that:

(1) The student's work was marred by errors related to grammar and use of homonyms (its vs. it's; there vs. their)

(2) Topic sentences were usually weak or unrelated to the subject of their associated paragraphs. Consequently, these paragraphs often demonstrated a lack of unity.

(3) Transitional sentences were often absent or did not lead logically into the subjects addressed in the following paragraph.

and

(4) The student's work included multiple colloquialisms and contractions that detracted from the tone that he set out to establish; radical variations in tone were common due to shifts between formal and informal discourse.

I compiled this list of resources in an effort to address the issues that I identified.

(1)

It's vs. Its and There vs. Their

http://its-not-its.info/
http://www.wikihow.com/Sample/There-Their-and-They're


(2)
Concept map to address the pre-writing process and as the student expressed some signs that he might be a primarily visual learner. potential

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/printouts/30699_concept_map.pdf

Articles on the appropriate use of contractions in a variety of written forms:

Business writing
http://www.instructionalsolutions.com/blog/bid/82807/Contractions-in-Business-Writing

http://www.businesswritingblog.com/business_writing/2006/04/dont_use_contra.html

In general written work
http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/guidelines/bigdoc/writeContract.cfm


(2&3)

Discussions on paragraph length and unity:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/606/02/
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-long-should-a-paragraph-be/
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_39.htm

(4)

Elimination of colloquialisms/formal vs. informal discourse:
http://vandenbroek.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/3/5/24359759/formalinformal.pdf
http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Colloquial-%28Informal%29-Writing