Preface

What’s an introduction without a preface to introduce it? 🙂

Introduction

This is the first in my new and improved video series for the Science of Writing Class. (I am gradually replacing the old, stoic videos.) The new videos (when they come) should give you hours of enjoyment–especially if you replay them a few times. 🙂 Happy writing!

Quick Start

Need help right away on a writing assignment that is due tomorrow? These two videos are for you.

 

And here are the old, stoic ones … 🙂

Preface

Preface video to the Science of Writing course.

Overview

Overview of the Science of Writing semester-long course.

Quick Start

Need to learn the basics of writing fast? Have something due right away? Check out these two Quick Start videos below.

To help you practice, here is a summary of the steps we took in the Quick Start videos:

1. Topic. State the topic.
2. Outline. Write a rough outline.
3. Questions. Use questions to fill in missing information in the outline and to help organize its components logically.
4. Final outline. Write the  final outline with the introduction, body, and conclusion stages labeled.
5. Paragraph with questions. Write the paragraph with your implied questions in parentheses. Insert phrases as necessary to bridge between sentences, ensuring they make smooth logical transitions.
6. Final paragraph. Write the final paragraph without including questions.

Section 1: Writing as an Engineering Tool

Ready to take your writing to the next level? Ready for the full course? Here it is, starting with Section 1: Writing as an Engineering Tool.

Section 2: The Origin of the Logical Essay

This gives you a historical background as to how problem solving and writing have worked together through over 2,000 years of education.

Section 3: The Three-Sentence Paragraph

This is the first of the practical lessons on writing. The paragraphs are short, but they are packed with practical application. This section will set you on the course to become a proficient writer and to effectively use these skills in your research or problem solving.

To help you practice writing your 10 three-sentence paragraphs, here is a summary of the steps we took in the Three-Sentence Paragraph videos:

1. Introduction. State a generalized statement, such as Pride goes before fall.
2. First implied question. Ask a question that relates to the first sentence, such as What does fall go before?
3. Body. Answer the first implied question with a sentence, such as Fall goes before winter.
4. Second implied question. Ask a question that could come to mind after the second sentence, such as How then do pride and winter relate?
5. Conclusion. Answer the second implied question with a concluding sentence, such as Therefore, pride goes before winter too.

Section 4: The Short Paragraph

This is the second of the practical lessons on writing. This section shows you in detail how to construct the basic building block of writing, which is the paragraph. This section has a heavy emphasis on orienting the reader and ensuring logical transitions between sentences. Both of these elements are essential in writing. It also discusses how this approach follows the same general path you would take when solving problems.

To help you practice writing your own short paragraphs, here is a summary of the steps to take in writing your short paragraphs:

1. Topic. State the topic.
2. Outline. Write a rough outline.
3. Questions. Use questions to fill in missing information in the outline and to help organize its components logically.
4. Final outline. Write the final outline with the introduction, body, and conclusion stages labeled.
5. Paragraph with questions. Write the paragraph with your implied questions in parentheses. Insert phrases as necessary to bridge between sentences, ensuring they make smooth logical transitions.
6. Final paragraph. Write the final paragraph without including the implied questions.

 Section 5: The Three Paragraph Paper

This is the third of the practical lessons on writing. In this section, you will take the knowledge you built in the last two sections and apply that to a multi-paragraph essay. This type of essay will allow you to overcome the limitations of the single paragraph. For instance, the extra two paragraphs will allow you to more smoothly transition your reader into our writing by giving that person a dedicated introduction paragraph, and it will allow you to give your reader a more satisfying closure in the conclusion paragraph. Also, multiple paragraphs allow you to make more complex arguments or to solve more complex problems. The three-paragraph paper will give you the basic tools to set up complex arguments and problems.

Here is the final three-paragraph essay:

In the late twentieth century a revolutionary invention took ice skates off the ice and onto the pavement. It did this by combining the strengths of both ice skates and traditional roller skates into the design of inline skates. Though inline skates have wheels like traditional roller skates, they allow for the graceful banking movements previously limited to ice skates.

The inline skate is a cross between an ice skate and a traditional roller skate. Like a traditional skate, an inline skate rides on four wheels. However, the wheels of an inline skate form a single file from the front of the boot to the back, resembling the blade of an ice skate. Like traditional roller skates, inline skates are made for skating on hard surfaces, like asphalt and hardwood. Unlike traditional roller skates, inline skates can angle and turn with nearly the ease of an ice skate. Thus, the inline skate is a cross between an ice skate and a traditional roller skate while exploiting the advantages of each.

In conclusion, the design of the inline skate extends the physical boundaries of the ice skate by making a traditional roller skate behave like an ice skate. With its wheels the inline skate can ride on most any paved or hardwood surface. The inline placement of these wheels allows inline skates to bank and turn like ice skates. With these combined strengths, the inline skate gives the skater new freedom.

 

This video gives a summary of the techniques discussed in Section 5.

This last video in this section covers three common types of introductions and conclusions and how they are often paired. It then summarizes what you have learned in this section.

 Section 6: The Short Paper

This is the fourth of the practical lessons on writing. In this section, you will take what you learned in the last three sections and apply it to an essay with multiple body paragraphs. The size of your paper will be about two pages. However, the techniques can be extended to much longer papers. This section will help you to view each paragraph as a stage in your overall paper. It will teach you how to organize the paragraphs relative to each other as well as reinforce your organization of the sentences within each paragraph. As stated in the last section, having multiple body paragraphs will allow you to present more complex arguments or to solve more complex problems.

This first lesson shows you how to turn your three-paragraph paper into a short paper by adding substance.

This next video gives you steps for turning your three-paragraph paper into a two-page paper.

Here are the steps covered in the video:

1. Theme. Choose something to summarize the topic.
2. Topic question. Choose something general enough to fill three to five body paragraphs and specific enough to only fill three to five body paragraphs.
3. Sub-themes and sub-topic questions. That is, each body paragraph needs its own theme, and each body paragraph needs its own topic question. As one body paragraph succeeds another, they need to be arranged such that their sub-themes have a logical progression.
4. Outlines. Make detailed outlines for each body paragraph.
5. Body paragraphs. Drawing from the outlines, write the body paragraphs using the implied questions and explicit answers technique as necessary.
6. Smoothing transitions. Focus on smoothing the transitions between paragraphs.
7. Framing step #1: The conclusion paragraph. Go through the body paragraphs and draw conclusions. Write your concluding paragraph from these.
8. Framing step #2: The introduction paragraph. Write the introduction paragraph by asking yourself how you can introduce this to someone who you assume is thinking about something completely unrelated to your topic. Ensure a smooth transition between this and the first body paragraph
   
9. Final essay. Write out the final essay.

In this video, we step through themes, topic questions, and sub-themes with their accompanying sub-topic questions.

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