Introduction into Essay Writing - Winter 2025

What are sentences made up of?

Sentences are made up of building blocks called phrases and clauses. these are often, but not always, separated by punctuation marks.

Clause vs. Phrase

A clause always contains a subject and a verb.

A phrase is anything else.

Subject

Who or what is accomplishing the action in this sentence

verb

what is the action

Object (optional)

What is being acted upon? What is being affected by the action?

Clause vs. Independent Clause

All clauses must contain a subject and a verb.

Independent clauses are clauses that can stand on their own as a full and complete sentence.

Single Clause

A single clause may have more than one subject accomplishing the same verb.

A single clause may have one subject accomplishing more than one verb

What is a dependent clause?

A dependent clause contains a subject and a verb but relies on another clause in the same sentence to make sense. It CANNOT operate as a full and complete sentence. Dependent clauses almost always begin with a conjunction.

What is a conjunction?

A conjunction is a linking word. A conjunction is a part of speech that connects two clauses to indicate cause and effect. (Ex. because, and, if, or, until, when)

What is a sentence fragment?

We get a sentence fragment when on of the key pieces of a sentence is missing, or when a dependent clause is presented as a full sentence. In short, a sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence.

What is Syntax?

Syntax is the arrangement or organization of words in a sentence. Readers often don’t notice good syntax; it usually fades into the background. But readers will often notice bad syntax right away - it will feel choppy or awkward or difficult to understand. Varying syntax through sentence length.

Syntax and punctuation

• Punctuation marks are just tools to connect clauses and phrases to each other when we build sentences.

• Semicolons connect two independent clauses.

• Colons connect an independent clause to either a clause or a phrase.

• You cannot use a comma to connect two independent clauses.

What is the purpose of a semicolon?

A semi-colon is like a hinge; it connects two complete things. In this case, the things are clauses; we should always find a complete, independent clause on both sides of a semi-colon. Either of these sentences could also end with a period; each of these pieces would stand on its own if separated from the other clause. Ideally, semi-colons connect anyway, but make sure it makes sense. To check if your semi colon is correct if you replace the semicolon with with a period, you should have two complete sentences.

Coordinating Conjunctions

There are seven conjunctions that are specifically called coordinating conjunctions. We remember them using the Acronym FANBOYS

FANBOYS

FOR, AND, NOR, BUT, OR, YET, SO.

for connecting independent clauses with the use of a comma and a coordinating conjunction.

Can you use a comma to connect two independent clauses?

No, a comma is like a loose hinge, it connects two things in a shaky way. When you use a comma to connect two independent clauses without using a coordinating conjunction, this is called a comma splice. Comma splices are evil. Avoid them at all costs in your formal and professional writing.

Alternate uses for semicolons

• Semicolons can also be used to help format lists.

• We use semicolons in lists if any of the items contain commas.

Colon

A colon is like an arrow: pointing in a certain direction and aimed by a full sentence. The first half of a sentence with a colon MUST be an independent clause, meaning it could stand on its own as a full sentence. The second half of a sentence with a colon can be anything - a dependent clause, an independent clause, a list, or even a single word. Every colon is saying “I have a thing to say: here it is”. The relationship between the two parts of a sentence divided by a colon should be extremely clear. The second part relies totally on the first part. If your parts are merely related and not interdependent, you probably want a semicolon and two independent clauses. Colons can introduce a list.

Commas

1. Use commas between independent clauses - Commas separate independent clauses when they appear in the same sentence, but only when they are connected with a coordinating conjunction.

2. Introductory Elements - Introductory elements give added context to the main clause but are not part of it. Therefore, we separate them with a comma. Introductory elements can be a single word, a phrase or a dependent clause. Use a comma to separate them from the main clause that follows. Sometimes these introductory elements can just as easily go at the end of the sentence rather than before. In this case, the comma usually isn’t necessary.

3. Items in a series (The Oxford comma) - Use a comma to separate all items when there are three or more in a list, as long as none of the list items have internal punctuation. The comma before the last item in the series is commonly called the Oxford or serial comma. You must be consistent with using it or not using it, and there are times when not having it damages your clarity. Thus, for scholarly writing, you should always use it.

4. Non-restrictive Elements - A non-restrictive element (such as an appositive phrase) adds inessential information to the sentence. Thus, it not necessary information for the clarity of the sentence. Conversely, a restrictive element is necessary for the clarity of the sentence. It gives the listener vital information for understanding the sentence. Because they are inessential information, non-restrictive elements are separated from the main text by commas. All uses of “which” are non-restrictive and all uses of “that” are restrictive. This means “that” is never attached to a comma, but “which” is almost always attached to a comma.

5. Parenthetical/Transitional elements - A parenthetical element is a phrase that interrupts the flow of a sentence and adds additional (but nonessential) information to that sentence. Use commas to set off parenthetical elements. When they fall in the middle of a sentence, commas go on both sides of the element. Only one comma is needed if it appears at the beginning or the end.

6. The weird one (not tested) - When you have a bunch of adjectives in a sentence together sometimes they need commas and sometimes they don’t. Cumulative adjectives describe different aspects of a noun and therefore have to be put into a specific order: quantity, opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material and purpose/qualifier. Cumulative adjectives are not separated by commas because they build on each other.

Why is the Oxford comma important?

Without a comma between the last items, it risks reading like an appositive phrase, which is a small clause that renames or redescribes the noun it precedes or follows

Appositive Phrases

An appositive phrase rephrases something that was just said or describes it in another way.

Restrictive vs. Non-Restrictive

Restrictive is necessary for the sentence to make sense. Non-restrictive adds context, but not vital, necessary context.

Passive Language vs Active language Example

Active Language:

John threw the ball.

Passive Language:

The ball was thrown by John.

The intent of the sentence has not changed but the grammar of the sentence has changed. EVen though John is still throwing the ball, grammatically he is NOT completing the action; the ball is.

Passive Voice

• Passive voice avoids assigning a subject to the action

• Passive voice is less clear than active voice

• Passive voice is often wordier and more roundabout

• Passive voice often depends on awkward conjugation that requires auxiliary verbs in a sentence

• Passive voice often focuses on the object of a sentence rather than the subject.

• Passive voice requires auxiliary verbs

• Passive voice loves to use the verb “to be”

• Look for conjugations like “it is” “it was” “there was” (replace them with your real subject instead)

Verb Cluster

Any time you see verbs ganging up together in a verb cluster, ask yourself: what is really the action happening here? How can I focus on that verb more clearly? Go back to basics: identify what you’re trying to do with a clause and what you want that clause to communicate. Who is your subject? What is your subject doing?

Useful Passive Voice

• Passive language isn’t evil; it’s just often not the right tool for the job.

• Sometimes we want to obscure the subject of the sentence: the object is more important, and the subject is a distraction.

• Purposefully leaving out unimportant details is a good use of passive voice

• This is common in lab reports or academic work when we try to remove ourselves as the writer from the writing.

Malicious Passive Voice

• Passive voice can be used to hide the subject and avoid casting blame

• In this case, passive voice becomes a little bit evil

• If you are purposefully constructing a sentence to try and erase something you don’t want your viewer to see, this is a malicious use of passive voice (and a bad way to build an argument)

What is “book review” language doing?

These are all affective descriptions; they are describing the affective experience. Affective is just another way of saying emotional, personal, subjective. In other words, book review language is describing the emotional response of the writer.

What’s wrong with “book review” language?

Ex. “poignant, funny and beautifully unabashed”

None of these descriptions tell us anything about the book, its plot, or even the characters. This is important in book reviews, because often readers want to avoid spoilers. However, there’s no need to worry about spoilers in an academic essay. In fact, being coy about your meaning will make your essay a lot worse.

Subjective Opinion Example (We DON’T want this)

You should read this book because I really loved it, and I thought it was so good!

Objective fact (We want this)

You should read this book because it’s a gothic novel, which is a genre you like, and it’s written in the first person, which is also your preference.

Apostrophes

• Apostrophes for possessiveness

• We use apostrophes to show who owns something. This is called a possessive apostrophe.

• When figuring out where to put this apostrophe, we need to consider two thing about the noun it’s attached to: Do the noun end in an {s}? and Is the noun singular or plural?

Rules for Apostrophes

• Any noun that does not end in S: add ‘s

• Singular nouns that end in S: add ‘s

• Indefinite pronouns: add ‘s

• Plural nouns that end in S: add only ‘

• Compound subject that does not end in S: add ‘s

• Compound subject that ends in S: ass only ‘

What about indefinite pronouns?

An indefinite pronoun refers to a non-specific person or thing. We generally treat indefinite pronouns as singular nouns, even if they look plural. Examples: everybody, nobody, somebody, anything, everyone.

Compound Subjects

Sometimes two or more subjects (aka nouns) act together; this is called a compound subject. Treat the compound subject as plural, because it is. When compound subjects own something together, follow the same rules according to whether it ends in S or not. Sometimes compound subjects separately possess things. This is not the same as joint ownership. In this case, add [ ‘s] to each noun in the compound subject.

Absolute possessive pronouns

Absolute possessive pronouns are inherently possessive. We do not add an apostrophe to absolute possessive pronouns except “who”.

Whose vs Who’s

Whose

possessive of “who”:

who does this belong to?

Whose is it?

Who’s

Contraction of “who is”:

who is invited to this party?

Who’s coming?

Apostrophes and Contractions

For contractions, the apostrophe takes the place of what is missing from the conjoined words. Do NOT use apostrophes to form a plural.

Canadian Spelling: the OU

In many words that end with -OR in American spelling, we instead spell it with -OUR.

The main ones:

Favor vs Favour

Favorite vs Favourite

Color vs Colour

Honor vs Honour

Labor vs Labour

Neighbor vs Neighbour

Behavior vs Behaviour

Canadian spelling: the LL

In verbs that end with L, Canadian spelling doubles the L when the verb is conjugated with a suffix.

Main ones:

Travel - Travelling, Travelled

Label - Labelling, Lablled

Cancel - Cancelling, Cancelled

Level - Levelling, Levelled

Counsel - Counselling, Counselled

Jewel - Jewelled, Jewellery

Journal - Journalling, Journalled

Canadian spelling: the Z

For verbs that end in -ISE or -YSE in British spelling, Canadians instead speel it -IZE

Main ones:

Apologise vs Apologize

Organise vs Organize

Recognise vs Recognize

Paralyse vs Paralyze

Analyse vs Analyze

Numbers in a sentence

• When you use a number in a sentence, spell out numbers up to ten and use numerals for numbers above ten.

• The only exception to this rule is when you begin a sentence with a number bigger than ten. In this case, spell out the number rather than using the numeral.

Abbreviations

i.e. and e.g.

These abbreviations are always lower case, and are always abbreviated with periods.

Id Est

• i.e. stands for “id est”, which is a latin phrase meaning “in other words”

• Use this in your writing the same way you would use the phrase “in other words”.

• Saying something nice, twice

Exempli Gratia

• e.g. stands for “exempli gratia”, which is a Latin phrase meaning “for example”

• examples clarify your meaning

Title Stylization

When figuring out how to format a title of something, we need to know its container size.

What this means:

1. Look at the thin whose title you are about to write

2. Does it belong to something larger? Or is it the largest container?

Generally: if it’s the largest container, the title should be italicized. If it’s within something larger, the title should be “put in quotation marks”

Container Examples:

a “song” is within the container of the album

a “episode” is within the container of the TV show or Podcast

a “chapter” is within the container of the book

a movie is its own largest container

If you’re writing by hand and need to italicize a title, underline that title instead.

Why are citations important?

Any time you summarize or directly quote information from somewhere / someone else in your academic work, you must cite it. Citing our sources show our readers where we got our ideas from, and where they might turn for more information.

How do citations work?

Every Citation process occurs in two parts:

1. Immediately after quoting / summarizing, insert an in-text citation. This usually includes the author’s name and the page number where you found your information.

2. At the end of your paper, include a list of your courses and explain when and how they were published.

How we format these pieces depends on what kind of citation style we’re using.

American Psychological Association (APA)

Often used by social sciences, including:

• Psychology

• Education

• Anthropology

• Geography

Modern Languages Association

Often used by humanities, including

• English Literature

• Foreign Languages

• Cultural studies

The grammar of an in-text citation

The way you insert an in-text citation into your text is the same no matter what style you’re using.( Introduction of quote → quote→ in-text citation→period)

1. Find the quote you want to use and only use the part of the quote you need. If you can summarize it in your own words, you probably should. When you summarize someone else’s ideas, cite them the same way you would a direct quotation.

2. Never START a sentence with a quotation. This is what we call “an orphaned quote”. When you start a sentence with a quote, your reader won’t know who you’re citing, why they should trust this source, or why it’s important. Instead, we want to work our quotes naturally and grammatically correctly into our sentences.

How can we introduce a quote?

We’re looking to contextualize the quote for our reader. We can do this in a couple of ways:

• link the quote back to your argument

• introduce the author or course of the quote

• rephrase the quote or part of the quote

• Use a colon or a semicolon if you need to

We don’t have to spend a long time contextualizing a quote, but we have to introduce it in some way.

Adjusting quotes for grammar and clarity

Sometimes we have a greta quote to use, but there’s no way to write a grammatically correct sentence around it.

In these cases, we can adjust our quotes in a variety of ways.

There are two rules to adjusting quotes:

1. We must change as little as possible

2. We must always be very clear about how we have adjusted quotes.

Rules for Adjusting quotes with ellipses

• Only use ellipses when you cut something out form the middle of a quote.

• You do not need to use ellipses at the beginning or the end of a quote - your reader assumes that there is more before and after the section you’ve quoted

• put a space on either side of the ellipses

• Ellipses are only ever in the middle of things. Notice that we don’t use ellipses to show when we’ve cut something out at the beginning or the end of quotes

Adjusting quotes with square brackets

Sometimes we need to change a word or two in a quote to make it grammatically correct in the sentence we’re writing. When we change a word, we put the change in square brackets to show where the text is no longer original.

Remember: we want to change as little as possible.

For instance, we can use square brackets to

• Change verb tenses

• Adjust capitalization

• Clarify unclear nouns

Using square brackets to adjust capitalization

Here, we’ve adjusted the capital “A” at the beginning of this quote to a lowercase “a”, because capitalization doesn’t belong in the middle of the sentence

Using square brackets to change verbs

• Don’t put the whole verb in square brackets - only the piece of the verb you are adjusting

• The original read “result”, so we need to add an S at the end so the verb is conjugated correctly for our subject, which is “this”

Using square brackets to clarify

Sometimes we need to add context for the reader to understand the quotation, especially with indefinite nouns like they, she, he, that, this

What if there’s a mistake in the quote?

Sometimes you may find a grammatical or spelling error in a source We want to acknowledge this error so the reader doesn’t think it’s OURS. We acknowledge this by writing [sic] after the error, which stands for sic erat scriptum in Latin (thus it was written).

What if there’s a mistake in the quote?

We will most commonly come across this in American / Canadian spelling. We are canadaian scholars, but we will probably use a lot of American sources. Add [sic] after mistake.

What if there’s a quotation in my quotation?

If theres is a quote within the quote you’re using, change those quotation marks to single quotation marks

What if there’s an in-text citation in my quotation?

• Quick answer: just delete it

• You do not have to show that you’ve deleted it in any way

• Your job is to show where you got your info

• If your reader wants to find the sources for your sources, they can find that themselves

APA in-text citation stylization

• Author's last name, then year, then page number

• Separated by commas

• Page number stylization: p. 56

• paragraph number stylization: para. 56

(Field, 2020, p. 56)

(Field, 2020, para. 12)

MLA in-text citation stylization

• Author’s last name, then page number

• no commas

• Page number stylization: 56

• Paragraph number stylization: par. 56

(Field 56)

(Field par.12)

Closing punctuation (in-text citation)

The in-text citation is always places directly before the next piece of closing punctuation. Closing punctuation is any piece of punctuation that closes a clause. This includes: periods, semi-colons and commas. The in-text citation is part the sentence The in-text citation belongs within the sentence. The period never appears before the in-text citation.

Scholarly Objectivity

Recognizing what a piece of writing accomplishes while also recognizing places they miss points, evaluate data in ways you might not agree with or otherwise make mistakes. (sympathetic reading + critical reading = scholarly objectivity)

What is sympathetic reading?

The goal of a sympathetic reading is to be able to summarize the author’s views in a way they recognize and agree with. What is the author’s argument? What is the author trying to say? What are they trying to accomplish and why? Try to understand the article and its purpose as the author intends you to understand it.

How to build a birds-eye view of an article

• What is each paragraph doing, and how?

• What are the topic sentences?

• How do they relate to the thesis?

• What is the movement of the piece?

• How does the argument evolve?

What is critical reading?

• What are the flaws in the author’s argument?

• Are there omissions or errors?

• Listen to your gut feelings. If you find yourself disliking an essay (or part of it), ask why that is. Your intuition might be picking up on something that feels fishy.

Possible Omissions

• Ignored possible objections

• A lack of adequate evidence

• A lack of adequate analysis

Possible Errors

• Failure to properly explain evidence

• Evidence that isn’t credible

• Evidence that isn’t connected

• Fallacies in the argument

• Conclusions not supported by evidence or analysis

• Overlooked contradictory evidence

What is the point of an academic essay?

The point of an academic essay is to gather and synthesize information, analyze it to some degree, and put forward an idea that is credible, compelling and convincing to the reader.

What is the point of academic research?

The point of academic research is to gather useful knowledge and share it with others in the community - to inform, guide, and aid the pursuit of good works/

Characteristics of a scholarly essay?

• Synthesizes research into an original idea

• Must be supported primarily through evidence

• No writing in the first person ( I / we)

gather

learn what credible sources are saying

Synthesize Information

Summarize and contextualize the information you’ve found about your topic

Analyze it

Explain how and why you interpret the evidence the way you do, and how this interpretation illuminates the topic

Put forward an idea

Phrase your interpretation as a strong, clear, and convincing thesis by connecting it clearly to your evidence and research.

Steps to writing a research essay

1. Develop a topic: what are you talking about?

2. Learn more about this topic by doing general research

3. Use research to develop an argument

4. Gather support for your argument using sources

5. Take good notes on these sources: gather quotes and data

6. Write an outline for your paper organizing all your pieces

7. Fill out your outline into a first draft

8. Polish your first draft into something understandable by others

9. Final proofread

How do we develop an essay topic?

Keywords →topic →research questions → thesis

How do we come up with own keywords?

Keywords must be specific. Think of keywords like search terms: you need them to be specific enough to return useful results. Sometimes keywords are more than just one word, too.

Questions to help you find intersections