Language art Tricks and Tips

1. Do not use contractions for formal papers.

When formal papers are written, you do not want to use contractions. They are known for sounding like slang. For example, gonna is a short form of saying, “going to.” Gonna sounds a bit rushed and too casual.

What is a contraction? Some might already know this already, but contractions are shortened versions of words. Here are some examples:

I’ve= I have

I’m= I am

Aren’t= Are not

Weren’t= Were not

SIDE NOTE: If you read some of my articles, you would see that I use contractions a lot more than I don’t. This is because I’m trying to make a casual approach. But for more modern or formal concepts, you, and I, of course, should not use contractions.

2. Try to balance out your commas and conjunctions.

Conjunctions are words that connect sentences together. And and but are both common conjunctions. However, if we repeatedly use them, it becomes rather odd.

“She and her dog go out. They’re happy and walk. They arrive and eat. Then they order hot dogs and eggs and hash browns and fries. “

One of the problems with using the same conjunction over and over again is the shortness of the sentence. If you look at the sample sentence, most of the sentences are short and choppy. We want our paragraph to look natural and smooth.

Something that can help with the choppiness is using different conjunctions. Go to Language Arts on my website and click the post, “Categorized Conjunctions,” or simply click this link: http://skynotes.steveyan.com/categorized-conjunctions/

A comma is another helpful grammatical attachment. We can use commas to help connect long sentences like conjunctions. The only problem is that we can overuse them and make the sentence seem overgoing.

“The school was tall, with glittering crystals embellishing the entrance, and a giant clock ticking in the center. They headed inside, and saw a dangling chandelier, flashing every color of the rainbow. Ahead of them was a giant statue made of solid rock, and carved in intricate, sharp patterns. “

This sample sentence is trying to fill your mind with a picture, but the ongoing adjectives are too overpowering. It fills your mind with too much information and makes it confusing. We have to make sure to balance our short sentences and long sentences together so we can make the perfect flowing sentence.

Example:

Medium Length: Conjunctions are words that connect sentences together.

Short: And and but are both common conjunctions.

Medium: However, if we repeatedly use them, it becomes rather odd.

3. Synonyms

When you are older, your teacher will expect you to use harder vocabulary and ill not approve of the same old words, like happy or sad. He or she will expect words like melancholy, dejected, untroubled, and jocular.

The goal of synonym is to paint a picture in someone’s mind. When you write happy in your writing, people can picture a boy or girl smile. In contrast, gleaming helps paint a picture of someone grinning and shows that the person feels uplifted.

Words aren’t just about how complex they are. The emotion or expression the word shows is what teachers mean by, “Harder vocabulary.” If a word is spelled intricately or is long, that doesn’t mean that the word is ‘harder’. It simply depends on how well the word explains itself.

4. Read articles and Books

When my mom told me to keep reading so it could improve my writing, I was genuinely confused. How could reading help me? Sure I could learn some new facts, but it’s not going to change my writing style.

Then I learned that reading articles and books actually introduce different styles of writing. Modern, formal, detailed, and more. Now, I can write in many different styles and even choose which style I want to write with.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend reading informational articles instead of fantasy books because articles usually have more modern styles of writing.

That’s it for now! I’ll keep adding more tips every once and a while, so keep updated!

And HAPPY NEW YEARSS!