Lesson 6: Strategies for Improving Correctness and Style
Lesson Objectives:
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Identify common correctness errors.
Discuss methods of/strategies for improving the “correctness” of one’s writing.
Discuss methods of/strategies for improving the “style” of one’s writing.
Supplemental Texts:
Glenn, Cheryl and Melissa A. Goldthwaite. The St. Martin’s Guide to Teaching Writing. 6th ed.
Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
Tufte, Virginia. Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press, 2006.
Handouts: Identify handouts sent to cadet email accounts/posted on course website:
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Course syllabus.
Patterns of Development handouts.
Writing Process handouts.
Pedagogical Rationale: Lessons 2-5 introduce cadets to the writing process, rhetorical
strategies, and baseline university-level composition requirements. This lesson begins the shift
towards identifying and addressing common shortfalls in beginning and intermediate writers’
work, with an eye towards improving the precision, concision, consistency, and sophistication of
cadet writing. This lesson focuses upon strategies to address common correctness and format
mistakes while simultaneously addressing issues of adopting a more sophisticated voice, tone,
and style.
Scheme of Maneuver:
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Correctness relates primarily to adherence to the conventions of grammar and format
expected in university-level writing.
o MLA Format – covered in Lesson 2. When preparing to publish an essay – always
refer back to the MLA format essay and the MLA Works Cited section in the
LBH for specific guidance on essay formatting, incorporation of cited material,
parenthetical documentation, and works cited entry format.
 Adherence to format conventions highlights professionalism and editing.
o Common correctness errors – some more serious than others:
 Agreement errors:
 Subject-verb agreement.
 Pronoun reference errors.
 Pronoun shift errors.
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Sentence boundary errors:
 Sentence fragments.
 Comma splices.
 Run-on/fused sentences.
 Comma errors.
 Dangling modifiers.
 Other “errors”:
 Split infinitives.
 Passive voice.
o Simply ensuring your essay has none of these errors alone will improve its
professionalism and effectiveness.
o Editing should identify these errors – especially if you read your essay backwards
by sentence as we discussed in Lesson 5. Reading the sentence out of context
allows you to focus on its correctness rather than what it hopes to accomplish.
Style: Many students think “style” is mysterious and hard to identify/assess much less
teach. And while it is a bit more nuanced than correctness or substance – there are
strategies to improve one’s style.
o Style and content are, of course, heavily dependent upon one another.
o What, exactly, is style?
 Virginia Tufte has a wonderful definition, of sorts. “Style,” she insists,
“gives words the power to relate to each other in a sequence, to create
rhythms and emphasis, to carry meaning – of whatever kind – as well as
glow individually in just the right place” (Tufte 9).
 Michael Riffaterne sees style as providing one’s writing with “expressive,
affective, aesthetic emphasis.”
 Wayne Booth – a mature style ensures “rhetorical balance between authoraudience-subject” (Glenn and Goldthwaite 206).
o How does one develop a “style”? Or…what impacts one’s style?
 Life experiences
 Formative influences
 Personality/individuality
 One’s own “internal language”
 Reading! Reading! Reading!
 “The more models and styles a writer knows or is aware of, the
more raw data there are to feed the language-generating
mechanism and the more informed are the choices that can be
made both intuitively and consciously” (Glenn and Goldthwaite
201).
 “Style is the hardest canon to teach, linked as it is to reading” (201).
o Continuum of style: formal/literary  informal/colloquial vulgar/illiterate.
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o One does not develop style through osmosis; one must practice…. READING and
writing.
o Some scholars recommend copying by hand 10-15 line passages of writing from
writers whose writing you admire. Read first, then copy. Pay attention to the
sentence structures, syntax, etc.
o Or – model your sentences after sentences you admire…. Use their structure to
create your own sentences. Over time – you will begin to emulate subconsciously.
o An over abundance of adjectives and adverbs does not equal sophisticated style.
o An over abundance of semi colons does not equal sophisticated style.
o Vary your sentence structures:
 Verb forms – maximize use of active, dynamic verb forms.
 Use forms of the verb “to be” for simple, declarative statements of fact –
or to balance out longer, more complex sentences.
 Vary sentence lengths. Follow short sentences with long. Or use short
sentences in a series to solidify a point.
o Use transitional phrases. See LBH 88-89 for list.
o Use sophisticated diction – but be careful not to go “thesaurus crazy”…. Improve
your vocabulary the “natural” way – by reading!
o Note how diction/syntax is impacted by: gender, geography, ethnicity, profession,
age. (Examples?).
o See LBH, 378-412 for additional resources/ideas  Very useful section.
o Walk through 378-412 with cadets.
Looking Ahead: Lesson 7 – In Progress Review: Addressing and Remediating Shortfalls
o Study, understand, and be prepared to discuss:
 “Agreement,” LBH 301-315.
 Ortega y Gasset, “The Greatest Danger, The State,” WI 121-139.
o Complete and bring Critical Reading Framework for Ortega y Gasset to class.
o Come to class with questions prepared for issues/content you do not understand.