Writer Tips: Citations

So many books, so little time!

Lately, I’ve been wondering about police procedures in little towns. I met a detective from the Allen, Texas police department who was an acting chief for the department in the little North Texas town of Whitewright. She explained several things about her department.

If I were to incorporate her information into a research paper or an article, I would need to cite the

presentation that I got to see, giving credit to her for her expertise. In a Bibliography, the citation of our discussion would look like this:

Whitworth, Doris, Det; Allen Police Department. What's it Like to be a Modern Policewoman. DFW   
             Ready Writers Meeting. La Hacienda Ranch-Grapevine, Texas: 12 Nov. 2011. Lecture.

Speakerlast, first. “title if there is one.” Subject matter if no title. Title of Group and Organization. Location: date. Conversation. (or Reading, Address, Lecture.)

Here's another example from a writing class:

Clubine, Marji. "Creating Citations." Prep & Precision. Enrichment Classes of Carrollton: 13 Jan. 2012. Lecture.

Now doing citations for books is pretty easy. There are only a few changes in details with multiple authors, volumes, or publication dates. The general rule for entries includes the author's name, book title, city of publication, publisher, and copyright date.

(Hanging indent) Authorlast, Authorfirst. Title of Book. CityofPub: Publisher – full name, copyright date – 

            latest. Series title if the book is part of one. Print. (To identify type of publication.)

Whatabout, Marcus. I Know What You’re Trying To Do. Boston: Macmillan and Post, 2012. Living in the Suburbs. Print.

Magazine articles also have prescribed formats for their listings. It also starts with the author, but that is followed by the article title in quotations. Then the periodical title and date follows and the page numbers where the article can be found.

Whereabout, Matthew. “Secrets and Sources.” Spy Magazine 15 Jan. 2012: 47-49. Print.

Whichabout, Marybelle. “The Country’s Best Cooking Shows.” Food and Family Life 27 Nov. 2011: 15-16. Print.

An encyclopedia or dictionary entry is like it:

“King, Martin Luther, Jr.” World Book Encyclopedia. 1999 ed. Print.

In the same way, the things found on the internet would also require citation. For instance, I found several sites that described the differences between the ranks of peerage in modern England and during the Medieval period. To correctly cite a website, it would look like this in a Bibliography: (Author, Title of Article, Site, URL - which isn't always required - and date of visit.)

Author, editor, or compiler namelast, namefirst. “Title of article.” Title of Website. Date of publication. 
          Web. Date of access (Day, Month, Year). Probably on note cards, you would want to cite the URL, 
          but it isn't required in the Bibliography.

Laine, Marji. “Learning Through Failure.” Marji Laine: Faith-Driven Fiction. 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 
          2012.

Movies and television shows can also be cited. Especially with today's technology, the ease of retracing steps to examine data and gain more makes listing sources imperative.

TV Show:

“Title of Episode.” Title of Series. Network. Broadcast date. Television (or Radio).

“In the Process of Time.” Popodopolassy. ABC. 6 Sept. 2011. Television.

Movie:

Title of Movie. Dir. Firstname Lastname. (Leads) May add main performers, producer, screenwriter. Distributer, production date year. Film.

It’s a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stweart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore. RKO, 1946. Film.

(Listing the performers is a good way to identify a particular movie that has been made over many times.)

Being sure to not infringe on copyrights isn't difficult if credit is being given. As long as the creative work isn't marketed, usually citations are all that are needed, but be sure. Before using anything digitally, make sure to contact the creator and check to see if it is available for use.

All citations made with guidance from MLA Handbook. I highly recommend the book if researching is in your future!

Writer Tip - Fragmented

Fragmented sentences are tricky little guys. They'd like you to think they are acceptable because they express things the way we speak.

Well, okay. End of article.

No, it's not that simple.

They are okay in things like novels where the writing is polished, but not formal. The narration is done in the author's voice and expressed through a

character's point of view. So not only do you hear the way the author thinks, all of the words go through a second filter making sure they are true to the way the character thinks.

If the main character is male, there are going to be fragments. Just sayin'. And if the poor fella is from the south, have mercy on him! Jeff Foxworthy said that Texas was the only place he knew where "I tell you what" was it's own complete sentence. There's nothing else. That's it. Big fat period.

So there are places, like blogs ... ahem ... where fragments are completely acceptable. Even preferred. (For instance, if I said in the last sentence, "They're even preferred," you would not only lose my voice and the way I talk, but the sentence itself wouldn't latch onto the one before it quite as tightly.)

However, don't fill up a college essay, research paper, or thesis with a bunch of fragments. (Oh and don't use bunch either.) Your teacher/prof will surely count off, but that's not the worst part. When you show such obvious mistakes, your teacher will miss the point. How can you share how brilliant you are when you leave out necessary parts of speech? It's like forgetting to capitalize the first letter of a sentence.

Every sentence in formal writing needs a simple subject and a simple predicate (that's a noun and verb or as I taught my 4th graders, "Who did what?") In formal writing you will most likely not use the word you in your paper nor imply it, so every sentence should actually have it's own STAR. A person, place, thing, or idea that takes action or has being in your sentence. And that action or being is what the STAR does or is. (IE the verb.) Once you connect with those two parts you're on a down hill slide. Just make sure you don't leave your STAR hanging anywhere.  Jazy Josey ran to the window when she was supposed to be.

Um ... excuse me, but inquiring minds wanna know. What was Josey supposed to be doing? Yeah, don't do that. Make sure your sentence ties itself up in a little bow. Keeping it's arms and legs firmly within the sentence.

Are fragments a trouble spot for you? What is your grammar t-zone?

May your satisfaction overflow!

Writing Tip and ROW80 Update

I'm still struggling to keep up with my revision schedule, enough to blow it off and just keep swimming. I doubt I'll finish the revisions by the end of the month, but I hope to get halfway. However, I've only added 1 page of revision since Sunday. I think I'm getting a touch of Christmas fever!

On the flip side, my critique group liked the next section of my romantic suspense, Cat's Eyes. I think I've got a pretty solid

foundation at this point. 

For my exercise, I missed one day out of the two since Sunday. 

For my Christmas goals, we didn't get the decorating done, but we're on our way. I must finish some scrapbook pages immediately, and plan to bake over the weekend.

I completed my blog goals of finishing the book review on Protection for Hire - see it HERE - and finishing my first Vlog - see it HERE! I really do love blogging!

I'm in the middle of some intensive revisions. My ms is complete and it's better than its older brother by a long-shot. Still, I have much to accomplish on it. My goal was to revise ten pages per day, but I find I tend to go back over the same ten pages, trying to get them perfect. Which leads me to my writing tip for today.

(No, I'm not tackling perfectionism. Unless there's a couch and a doctor with a notepad.) 

I've actually got a revision list. I've signed up for an editing accountability group through ACFW and the lady leading it mentioned a check list for revisions. I've never used one, but I do tend to list the changes I make after the fact. 

In my first story, passive voice kept me up at nights. I eliminated 3,000 passive verbs. That's a lot of wases! At first happy with the tossing of was and were, I soon became enlightened to could, should, and would. I got away with a few less-used ones, but still tightened many of those as well. After several passes through my manuscript, I wrote down all of the items I checked for and changed. I ended up with 17 revisions. Some of them were easy like changing the name of my town. These are a few of them.

1. Exclamation points - eliminate all or most
2. Eliminate was and were as often as possible, and always when coupled with an -ing verb following
3. Scan for overused words - back, out, started, began, eyes, face, turned, at least (just a few of my precious pets!)
4. Vary sentence beginnings and paragraph beginnings
5. Check sentences starting with The
6. Check sentences starting with pronouns
7. Check sentence endings - use strong words
8. Reduce it, that, these, those, this

With my current revision, I'm using my list above. Once I pass through my chapters for these topics, I've come up with a few new, harder topics to deal with. 

1. Flow of scene - does the tension amp up and fade? (Ebb and flow, but I don't live on the coast.)
2. Cliff hanger - do I offer bookmark pages, or does the action keep pulling readers back inside?
3. Heroine - Have I gotten deep enough into her psyche to allow readers to feel what she's feeling?
4. Hero - Have I been faithful to a male POV. Does my character ring true?
5. Are my characters consistent? If not, is there a good reason for the inconsistency?
6. Avoiding minutia - I'm a detail person, but stating the number of steps someone took or defining the exact shade of blue on a table cloth doesn't make for very interesting reading. 
7. Showing vs. Telling - for me, this is an intentional trip through my chapters, analyzing a sentence at a time to evaluate whether it works. Have I crawled into POV deeply enough?
8. Head-hopping and author intrusion need to go on this list, though I don't often have to deal with those issues.

What are the pet problems you have to look out for in your writing?

Tightening Things Up

My critique group is invaluable. These ladies have inspired and challenged me like nobody's business. Their goal is to find anything that might be caught by a reader that makes the narrative stumble. It can be anything as small as a comma or as huge as shallow characters. They catch POV head-hopping, author intrusion, and continuity issues. Though they, thankfully, don't have to catch those issues very often!

What I hear most often is "tighten it up." It took awhile for me to figure out the aspects of those

words, but I think I've identified them all.

• First, tightening means to remove extraneous words like that used in the sentence: Bagging the groceries that she bought, Mira overstuffed a paper sack. Other extraneous words are more valuable, but often overused. Though different for every writer, they fill the pages like pet words. For me, I can find many excessive uses of just, at least, really, only and most other words ending in ly. 
• Second, my crit gals suggest using vivid verbs. Eliminating passive sections pushes the action forward. I'm getting pretty good at removing was and were, but the could, should, would verbs still give me fits. Still, they mostly gotta go!
• I have several buddies who are it-Nazis. Because of their devotion to removing the word, along with that, this, these, and those, my manuscript has great focus, with interesting nouns to go along with my vivid verbs.

For the most part, I need to make every stinkin' word intentional. Each sentence needs to be organized in such a way to capitalize on the best parts while remaining purposeful. It's a balancing act. And the revising that I'm doing right now exactly hits these challenges. 

Here are some examples from the critique that I enjoyed last week along with my changes.

• (Before) Ray recognized the village name. He hoped that hadn’t been their destination.
  (After) Ray recognized the village name. He hoped Miguel had a different destination planned.
• (Before) He didn’t know who or how many, but people had died there. 
  (After) He didn’t know who or how many, but people died in that little stucco building.
• (Before) The little used road gave direction, but if Miguel could find it, the hooded men would have no problem. 
  (After) The little-used road gave direction, but if Miguel could find the washed-out, two-rutted track, the hooded men would have no problem.
• (Before) That worked in their favor, too.
  (After) Sunset worked in their favor, too. 

I think my biggest problem with comprehending the instructions about tightening is my preconceived notion that the word means to reduce my writing. Shortening my work isn't the goal. The aim is to make sure that the story is clearly told. Sometimes that means to remove unnecessary words, but more often I need to focus the words, writing with passion and a narrow target.

What does the term "Tightening" mean to you?

Writing Tip - It's Gotta End SOMETIME!

You would think, as a novelist, that I'm talking about a book ending. It's a logical assumption, and I hope to get to the end of the one I'm working on with due brevity. But such is not the topic for today.

See, I'm also a writing teacher, blessed with the challenge of learning enough to stay ahead of some of the sharpest young writers I've ever come across.

And yet, they suffer from a dire conspiracy that, I've noticed, even professionals experience from

time to time.

That of the run-on sentence.

It's not uncommon for writers to utilize fragments. They can introduce subjects, like mine just did (My "sentence" doesn't have a verb. Did you notice?) or define a situation with just a word or phrase. Sometimes, their choppiness can paint a mood across the writing.

Not so much with run-ons which tend to make the reader hold her breath until she reaches the end of the sentence it can really pinch a section as well the reader will have to go back and separate the sentences on her own since the author didn't bother to do it for her that halts the story line completely.

Sorry, I couldn't resist! :) Annoying wasn't it?

With the demands for juicy sentences and in depth explanations, along with parameters for paragraphs, I found my students stringing together up to three separate sentences. Sometimes they added commas to try to throw me off, or a series of semi-colons, looking like jewelry all through the essay. So I think I'm correct in my assessment that sometimes even the basest of grammar rules can need a little reminder.

A sentence is a complete thought that includes both a subject and a predicate. (Noun and verb) Basically, it tells who-did-what.

(Unless the sentence is the passive who-is-what, which doesn't actually make sense, because who, by it's very essence is who, and what is likewise what, so to say that who-is-what would be ... Would you repeat the question?)

(Yes, I know shades of "Who's on First." I think I'm in a loopier mood than normal.)

Feel free to skip the parentheticals. I think it's my drowsiness talking ... uh ... writing.

The problem comes when the sentence includes who-did-what, who-did-where, and who-else-was-there. I actually use "who-did-what" while I'm analyzing my students' papers.

A simple sentence is made up of the simple subject and the simple predicate. ~ When I looked across the road, I saw a funny looking man with a baseball bat.

Those parts are collectively called the simple sentence, made up of a simple subject and a simple predicate. (I was thinking of saying that they all lived together in a simple little house, but I think we've followed enough rabbit trails.) Very SIMPLY, if I find another simple sentence before the ending punctuation, "Off with his head!"

Oh, hold on. That was last week's post. This week it's just an evil laugh. *wrings hands* Bwhahahahahaha!

So here are some examples that I've actually seen before. See if you can separate the Run-ons from the complete sentences. For a double challenge, can you correct the mistakes or find the simple sentences in the correct ones?

1. In keeping with the mood of the music, the dancers work together with the choreographer their dance, composed as a team, offers the expertise of many instead of one.
2. Although the tiger cub could not survive in the cruel wilderness without the assistance of humans, he maintained his freedom, finding instead an accommodating cheetah.
3. Mercury, Chrysler, and Dodge vehicles are all very well-known, their family cars are among the best in America.
4. Whenever a nation learns of it's governments duplicity, it struggles to ascertain the importance of the deception was it slight or monumental.
5. While Captain America provided an excellent example of a hero, linking strength with courage and conviction and enduring personal sacrifice to promote the good of the country, Thor proved a more entertaining character because he began in a flawed state and progressed to the point of realizing his faults and seeking to rectify them.

For the next several Wednesdays, I'm going to talk about stopping sentences, or how to avoid energizer bunny writing. (Going on and on and on ...) There are a few tricks to it. For today, just be encouraged, as you revise or edit, to identify the main noun, the simple subject, along with the main verb, the simple predicate, in each sentence and make doubly sure you didn't do any doubling on them!

What's the hardest grammar rule you've ever encountered. For me, it was semi-colons. (I had to get tutoring to figure out how to put the dot on top of the comma!)

Where Do the YIKES Come From?

Marcie with her latest reads. She even has Erica Vetch's new debut novel, A Bride's Portrait of  
Dodge City, Kansas included in her "to read" stack.

Everyday, people pick up books for entertainment, escape, and inspiration. Finding Christ-honoring books is no longer the challenge that it used to be. Christian Fiction boasts some of the best of today's literature. With a variety of genres from which to choose, readers can immerse themselves in stories of love, history, and contemporary fiction. Along the way, the suspense category of Christian Fiction has
flourished with mysteries, thrillers, and romance.


Mysteries are often defined as "Cozy Mysteries" either because they don't give too much tension, which isn't always the case, or because their typical heroine is a little old British widow. The word cozy in this case refers to the tea cozy that the British use to keep the water in the teapot warm and the furniture protected. A story is considered a mystery when the main character, often highlighted in a series of stories, isn't really in danger. Think Miss Marple. The who-dun-it is a puzzle, a conundrum, with a challenge to the reader to unravel the knots before the detective.



If mysteries are on the mild side of the suspense spectrum, thrillers inhabit the opposite edge. The genre defines itself, although some of the books are simply cached as "Suspense." These are the books that keep readers on the edges of their seats, where the intensity rarely stops and when it does, the reader has a physical reaction of relief. In this type, the main character is always at risk. The cerebral puzzle rarely enters, utilizing instead the wits and power that the hero has to avoid certain destruction. Within the Christian realm, there are many types of thrillers including psychological, medical, and military.



The romantic suspense spans both extremes. There are true cozies and thrillers that include romance, but the romantic suspense lies more in the center of the span. It can include either the elements of a mystery or those of a thriller, but the romance plays a defining part of the novel. A hero and heroine must have personal stories, outside of the plot line, that drive their actions and draw them to each other.

Romance is definitely the heart of the suspense grouping, lying smack dab in the middle of the two extremes. Thrillers are the brawn and mysteries are the brain. The best news for Christian Fiction Readers is that there are ample amounts of all of the different types readily available at Christian Book Distributors, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

{For my students, the above is an illustration of a five-paragraph framework using an example format.}

It's not my regular type of posting, but when expository writing is necessary, it's important to know how it works. Picture the whole thing as an hour glass.

In this case, the first paragraph provides an introduction with each sentence progressing down a funnel of broad category to narrow category. Finally, the last sentence is the thesis statement. It mentions three separate sub-topics (examples for this format) which provide the subject for the next three paragraphs, in order.

For this format, the examples of the topic are merely described, but the covers that match the types are pictured beside each and are linked to reviews about each book. The final paragraph concludes the essay, starting with narrow categories, the ones discussed, and ending with broader ones.

Besides grocery lists, what type of writing have you done in the last week?

Writer Tips - What are You Shooting For?

When I thought up the title for this post, my mind drifted immediately to my sweet hubby's hunting days. We were first engaged almost 27 years ago while still in college. He, a farm boy to my way of thinking, lived in a rural town on an acre of land. Hunting season was playtime in that part of East Texas and I'll never forget the weekend that Bubba (yep, I've always called my brother Bubba - no lie!) took sweet hubby out to shoot some dove.

The birds sat on the phone lines as they drove out to the land where they'd gained permission to shoot.

Cackles erupted up and down the wires as the would-be murderers approached the promised land.

Those were the only dove they saw the entire day. Not a flicker of a wing caught their attention. I think they would've unloaded on a Mockingbird (oh, horrors) if they'd been given half a chance, but none of them showed up either.

Finally, they trekked back to the car (My hubby was the farm boy, but suburban Bubba did the driving.) and Bubba opened the trunk to put away his gun.

The loud blasts of Sweet Hubby's rifle made Bubba bump his head on the lid and bolt around the car where Sweet Hubby reloaded.

Bubba scanned the skies and the ground, seeing nothing. "What in the world are you shooting at?"

"Skunk." Sweet Hubby pointed to a fence post some distance away where black and white fur blew in the light breeze. Bubba smiled and grabbed his weapon and the two of them unloaded like Black Ops on a mission into that poor fluffy carcass. That is, until the light breeze carried the legacy of the skunk close enough to bring out the tears.

I think Bubba sold that car the next week.

There is a point to this story, honest. I read a brief article by Jody Hedlund to encourage writers. She talked about how she encourages her kids to believe that they can do great works.

I do the same thing. I've taught my kids: "It's better to shoot for the stars and hit the moon than to shoot for a mud puddle and make it every time."

Let that sink in.

The fact is, if we only attempt things we know we'll be able to do, we have no challenge, no risk, and ultimately, no delight in the accomplishment. That mud puddle is within easy reach.

But when we attempt something beyond ourselves (and as a Christian, that should be a daily goal) where the chances of accomplishment are slim and none, then a huge victory is scored with the success. And even without the success, there is victory in the trying.

I'll admit, I felt a little sick several months back when I read that I had a better chance of being shot by terrorists than being published. Daunted even more because an expert in the field mentioned it. Yikes. I don't have a chance. Pack it up, there's no use wasting my precious time.

I felt the same way last night when I heard for the first time, "Start over." Praise the Lord it was just on a minor issue and not on my whole story, but it still tore a chunk out of my armor.

Then Sweet Hubby came to the rescue - my real-life hero - and reminded me that I hadn't chosen this path. God had laid such a love for writing and deep desire to make a difference for Him that I dare not ignore His call. He also suggested that no one ever said publishing was the end of my path. Everything I'm doing, everything I'm learning will be to His glory and for His purposes. I just don't know what those plans are yet.

So when all of the best efforts come up short as we writers take the next step into this world of publishing, may the Father encourage us. And when we get tired of attempting greatness only to have critique partners (lovingly and patiently) rip our creations to shreds, may we be thankful for wise counsel to avoid painful Amazon reviews. (Yes, I love every stinkin' one of you gals!!!)

And when we get tempted to unload on a skunk because our real goal has flown the coop, may the Lord protect that darn rodent by showing His new path.

What are you shooting at, both long-term and short-term?

Writer Tips - What to Do When I Get Dry?

I've got blog ideas coming out the wazoo. I've had such fun investigating baseball, compiling grammar rules, and waxing rhetorical on all sorts of topics.

Trouble is, this time my ROW 80 goal doesn't include my blogs. (I've written 3,171 words on just my blogs in the last two days!) When it comes to my suspense novel, though, I'm sunburned. Entering the fourth chapter, I find I'm bogging down a bit.

Much of the excitement lies ahead and part of the excitement has past. This section has some key clues,

but my writing crawl-speed turned into a camo-crawl and then a full stop. Uninspired, I seriously considered tossing the whole story.

I could do that, but what would I learn? Instead, I think I'd like to flex the muscles of all that I've been learning. I need to get my elements so firmly in my mind that when I get back to the drafting the tension can't help but be on every page because there is so much going on.

I started the initiative last night, brainstorming with my Precious Redhead until almost 1AM. The exercise was enlightening! I realized that my story line isn't messed up, and my two protagonists are strong with deep character arcs.

Then there's my antagonist. He's sort of ... um ... missing. It's one thing for readers to be in the dark about an antagonist in a suspense, but the writer should probably know all about him. And I knew nothing about him.

Aha! I found my problem. Without a strong antagonist chart, I have no conflict with the protags, no goals or expectations for the antag, no story. I guess I just thought he would develop as I wrote, but he didn't. I'm not a seat-of-the-pants writer, duh, so I don't know why I thought it would just happen for me.

But after a day of solid focus on my antag, I not only know who he (generic "he") is, but I know what he does, and why he does it. I know how he gets himself connected and in his spiral into conflict with my main character. Almost without effort, my story has muscle, and plenty of tension.

All that is to say, I haven't added anything to my ROW80 goals since Sunday, but have added a ton of work on my story. I think the words will start to flow much easier now!

Where are you in your current projects? (Writing or Otherwise?)

More Comma Love

I used to think commas were a gift from the Netherworld. After all, the inconsistency of the little bugs more than annoyed. They gave nightmares to trusting youngsters, offered weapons of belittlement to the all-knowing instructors who acted upon them with the smack of a ruler, and twisted the insides of every college student with a paper due.

Which is all of them and a lot of Pepto-Bismol.

All this writing I've been doing has succeeded in

giving me more comma clarity. I started blogging about commas last week and you can find that article HERE.

Here's what else I learned:

• With more than one adjectives in front of a noun, use a comma between them only if you would use the word and to separate them. Like if you said: The arrogant, stubborn captain of the Enterprise never listened to advice. In this case, an and can go correctly between arrogant and stubborn. On the other hand, I wouldn't need a comma in: The arrogant Enterprise captain never listened to advice.

• Of course, everyone knows to separate a city and state or a city and country with a comma. Just like when writing an address, this would be correct. Picard grew up near Paris, France. When the sentence continues after the country, another comma is needed, so that the country or state is set aside as extra information. Picard grew up near Paris, France, but didn't stay near home. The only time this wouldn't be the case is if the country is in a possessive form. Picard's boyhood home was near Paris, France's famous wine country.

So come on in!
(The sign actually begs for a semi-colon or period.)

• While you must always set off quotations with commas, be careful not to make them comma-spliced sentences. "Whatever you do," Han Solo said, "don't touch that button."
"I see the button," Luke responded. "Why do you have to be so bossy?" In the first sentence, the identifier breaks one sentence into two parts. In the second, It separates two different sentences. If a comma was used in place of the period, it would create a run-on sentence.

• Negatives, or contrast words, need a comma. Han, not Luke, had the recklessness to come through in a pinch. He became dependable, if not honorable. 

• Finally, use a comma to avoid confusion in your sentence. OR Finally use a comma to avoid confusion in your sentence. 

Hope this continued list has been helpful and informative. I found information at several sources, including my Precious Redhead's English book, Grammar and Writing by Bob Jones University Press, this website (http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas_big.htm#4), and that one (http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp).

What grammar rule gives you the most grief when you're writing?

Unravel the Mystery of Grammar!

I love my critique group. Like superheroes they open their laptops and design wit and wisdom through every line! With their help, I will avoid the neon signs marking novice writing and glaring amateurish errors. Here's what I learned just last night:

• Make every word count.
• Keep statements turned toward the positive side.
• Cut up three-line sentences.
• Start sentences with intention.
• End with strong words.
• Avoid using pronouns to begin or end sentences.
• Avoid using it or this anytime
• Avoid repeating words - oops.
• Use a comma before the word "and."
• Don't apply quotations marks outside of dialogue - oops, again.
• Action verbs intensify sentences.
• Eliminate passive, helping verb usage with -ing words following.

Checklist gold, the expert suggestions from this group confirm one major truth.

 . . . I still have a lot to learn!

What suggestions can you add to the list? What grammatical tidbit wormed it's way into your noggin lately?

I Promised!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My writing students were all head-up about getting extra credit points and how they could earn them. I don't know why. Well, maybe it had to do with that pop quiz I gave on the first day. You think that scared them a little? Or it could have been the three-page syllabus that only covered the first 10 days of class?

Yeah, I guest that could have been it.

So anyway. I told them that they could get some extra credit points by visiting here and commenting when they saw an article about writing. I know, I'm a big ole softy, but HELLO!!!! This is the one for this week!!!!!

And I'm speaking of exclamation points.

To anyone with a third-grade education, an exclamation point expresses excitement. I hear the intro music to Schoolhouse Rock right now.

(Oh, oops, I'm showing my age. For those of you who didn't grow up in the 70s and 80s, SR played little educational tunes with dancing cartoon characters between commercials during Saturday morning kid's programming. They taught me what a Bill was, all about conjunctions and adverbs, and I still use the "Little Twelve-toes" song to remember the 12 multiplication table.)

The exclamation point was highlighted in the Interjections video. "For excitement or emotion, they're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point, or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong."

Only I'm learning that those cool looking little punctuation marks that I used to dot with a heart aren't to be used in professional writing. Oh my gosh! I mean ... Oh my gosh.

From what I understand, those marks put a broad neon sign on my manuscript that blinks saying, "Novice, beginner, amateur." I'm so glad I learned that before I did much in the way of shopping my manuscript! Oops.

I can only guess that the mark became so woefully overused by freshman writers (No, not ya'll, I'm talking about newbies on the publishing scene at this point, like me.) that they detracted from the writing rather than adding to it.


I can live with that. I scaled my novel down from its several hundred points to only about 125. Okay, make it 75. Can I keep in about 30? But I really like that one!

Yes, I sacrificed every single one of those cute little dots on the pyres of writing professionalism. Rest in peace.

By the way, I can't think of any circumstance where an exclamation point could possibly be appropriate for expository writing. Hint. Hint.

Is there an acceptable time to use the exclamation point in fiction or non-fiction writing? I'd love to hear your opinion! Oops, did it again.