Herman Wekker

A checklist for revising and correcting

This chapter is about error, and is designed to be multi-purpose. First, it can be used as a checklist of the major features of the production of formal English text that we have paid attention to in the other parts of this book. Second, it can function as a revision checklist for you when you are editing your text. And third, in the light of its development from a large-scale error analysis, serve as a norm for teachers who wish to develop a comprehensive coding system for marking.

Referring to other texts

This chapter is about a number of different topics which all relate to placing your own text in a wider context. In the process of planning and writing a text you will more often than not find that you make use of all kinds of information which you gather from other sources. What is more, in argued texts you will often find yourself taking a precise stand with regard to what other people have to say. In other words, your own text will not exist in isolation, and cannot be truly appreciated unless you make the wider context clear to your reader.

The order of information in the clause

In the preceding chapters we have emphasized that when organizing your text you need to order information according to the function it fulfils The text, the paragraph and the sentence each demonstrate a tripartite structure, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is the job of the initial unit both to look back and to lay the foundation for what is to come. It is the job of the final unit to state the essence of what you wish to communicate at that level, and often also to provide a point of reference for what is to come next.

Usage notes for connectives

Because written language is planned, writers have a great opportunity, through the use of cohesive devices, to make the meaning relations between individual messages explicit, thus giving the reader considerable help in coming to a coherent interpretation of the text. As was explained in Chapter 9, one of the major means of achieving textual cohesion is through the use of connectives. As a writer you will need to have a wide range of them at your disposal and under tight control.

The title and the introduction

As we saw in the first three chapters, writing is not the lonely business that it might seem. Even if carried out in the isolation of your study, it remains a form of communication between people. But one major difference is that one of these people, the writer, has the power to determine what the subject matter of the communication will be. The reader does not have that power: his power lies in his inalienable right to decide whether or not he wants to pay any attention to the information offered by the writer.

Matters of usage

A number of matters that traditionally fall under style are dealt with in some detail in other parts of this book. Examples are the discussions of punctuation with and, long sentences, parallel structures, and the use of first person forms. Particularly with the first two we have already seen that general guidelines such as ‘keep sentences short’ can become very dangerous if inexperienced writers interpret them as prescriptions. In fact, when things are seen from a more functional point of view, what transpires is that what the writer is advised not to do is often perfectly acceptable. And more than that, the offending structure may even prove a valuable device for creating a certain stylistic effect.