Composition

 The different parts which something is made of; the way in which the different parts are organized:

- For example, the composition of the board of directors or the size and composition of an average class.

 Any piece of writing written for a particular purpose, for example, Essay, Letter, Report

The Process of Composition

1. Pre-writing:

a. Select your topic

b. Gather and list as much information as possible from the following sources:

 Books

 Magazines

 Newspapers

 Internet

 Interviews

2. Drafting:

In the drafting stage, you write down your ideas in sentences and paragraphs.

a. Introduction

b. Body or text

c. Conclusion

3. Revising, Post-Writing:

When revising, check for unity; all sentences and details should help support the main idea. Also check for
coherence, adding transition (however, therefore) to connect ideas.

4. Editing:

In this stage you correct your errors so that they do not distract the reader from your ideas.

5. Publishing/Presenting: Sharing your writing.

It is the final stage. You share your ideas with others.

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 Capitalization Rules
Capitalization Rules

 Capitalize the first word in a sentence or direct quotation.

–Jimmy was 17 years old.

–He said, “My dad is the greatest.”

 Capitalize names of individuals and the word I.

–It was Marry, not Miss Joe, who had an accident.

–I always come to class on time.

 Capitalize family relationships used with names.

–I am glad that Uncle John helped us.

–I saw Aunt Sarah in the party.

–My uncle will come from UK next week. (No name with uncle)

 Capitalize the names of nationalities, religions and languages.

–The nationalities of my two friends are American and Brazilian.

–He is a Muslim.

–He speaks Spanish fluently.

 Capitalize the days of the week, months, holidays and religious occasions.

–My birthday falls on Tuesday this year.

–The best time to visit England is in March or April.

–They celebrated Christmas well.

However, the seasons of the year are not capitalized, spring, summer, fall and winter.

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 Capitalize the names of specific places including monuments.

–Let’s go to Salang after one month.

–Taj Mahal is one of the word’s great wonders.

 Capitalize the names of companies, political groups and official organizations.

–I prefer to buy oil from Union oil.

–The May company has huge sales every year.

–Their parents support Democratic Party

 Capitalize the names of commercial products or brand names.

–I want to buy Dove soap.

–Pepsi

–Dandruff is helped by Head and Shoulders shampoo.

 Capitalize titles of books, magazines, essays, poems, stories, plays, articles, films, television
shows, songs and cartoons.

–Book: I enjoyed The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

–Magazine: I always read Time magazines

–Essays: My essay is entitled “Women in politics: Onward and upward.”

–Poem: The poem “As you Like It” is a good poem.

–Story: “Flowering Judas” is Katherine Anne Porter’s best short story.

–Play: I read Shakespeare's Hamlet and enjoyed it.

–Article: I read an article entitle “Saving Faces”.

–Film: Each year the film version of Gone with Wind is shown without losing its popularity.

–Television show: “Oprah show”

–Song: “ Here I Am” “Addicted” “Heaven”

–Cartoon: My young brother likes to watch Tom & Jerry

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 Capitalize titles used in front of a person’s name.

–Mr. Franklin

–Ms. Jain

–Mrs. Milford.

 Capitalize specific college courses.

–I want to take Public Speaking in the coming semester.

–He teaches Statistics.

Languages courses are always capitalized.

–I am taking Spanish C22.

 Capitalize areas of the country.

–They are living in the South.

–They moved to the East.

 Capitalize historical eras and events.

–No one wants to have World War III.

–Do you know about the American War of Independence?

–That poet lived in the Romantic Age.

 Capitalize abbreviations of familiar organizations, countries, time and titles.

–Organization: FBI, UN

–Countries: USA

–Time: 10:00 A.M., 1:15 P.M

–Titles: Gorge, Ph.D/PhD

 Capitalize the first word of the opening and closing of a letter.

–Dear Sir, Dear Dr. Lopez, Sincerely, Best regards,

 Punctuation: A set of symbols or marks used to make sentence meaning clear. The meaning of the
following two sentences are different:

–Stop Bill!

–Stop, Bill!

 The first sentence tells someone to stop Bill. The second sentence tells Bill to stop.

Commas (,)

 The Comma represents the shortest pause.

 Use commas to separate items in a series.

–Please buy apples, oranges, and pears.

 Use a comma to separate two or more adjectives preceding a noun.

–Abraham Lincoln was a noble, compassionate, and wise leader.

 Use a comma before coordinating conjunctions when they join independent clauses.

FANBOYS – for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

–My friend invited me to a party, but I do not want to go.

 Use a comma after certain introductory words such as first, yes, or no.

–Yes, Hemmingway is my favorite author.

 Use comma to separate introductory subordinate clauses or phrases from the main clause.

–Clause: If the background is too dark, you can change the setting.

–Phrase: As shown in the table, the new system will save us over a million dollars.

 Use commas to separate items in dates and addresses.

Example:

–On Friday, June 10, 2005, my niece Melanie was born.

 Use a comma after the beginning of a business letter and after the closing of a letter.

 Example:

–Dear Ahmad, Sincerely,

 Use a comma to set off an abbreviation such as Jr., Sr., RN, M.D., Inc.,

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–Is Juan Fuentes Jr., your cousin?

 Use a comma to introduce quotations.

–John said, “I will go to the park with you”.

Comma Splice

1.) A comma splice is a run-on sentence with a comma where the two sentences run together.

2.) You MUST use a comma and a conjunction or a semicolon to join 2 independent clauses.

Incorrectly Written:

–Joe went to the grocery store, he needed to buy food for dinner.

Correctly Written:

–Joe went to the grocery store; he needed to buy food for dinner.

Semicolon

(A pause doubles that of the comma)

 Use a semicolon between independent clauses. This is called a compound sentence.

 Example:

–It rained heavily during the afternoon; we managed to have our picnic anyway.

 Use a semicolon between independent clauses joined by a transition.

 Example:

–They played well in the tournament; however, they did not qualify for the semifinal.

Colon

 A pause double that of the semicolon.

 Use a colon before a list of items, especially after expressions such as follows and following.

 Example:

–While you are at the store, please buy the following

Items: meat, potatoes, and milk.

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Dashes (–)

 You can use dashes before and after interrupting material.

 To set off material that interrupts a sentence with a different idea.

The fourth step – the most crucial one from the management point of view – is to speed up the
process and collect the money.

 To set off a definition

The total time commitment – contract duty time plus travel time – cannot exceed 40 hours per
month.

Parentheses

 Use parentheses with numbers:

–Here are the rules: (1) Keep your room clean, (2) be on time, and (3) don’t complain about the food.

 Use parentheses to add information about an item.

– The Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) lathe costs $20,000.

–The computer has an input device ( a keyboard) and an output (a monitor).

Quotation Marks

 Use quotation marks to indicate titles of short works.

–Magazine article “The Crash of Flight 592”

 Quotation marks are used at the beginning and at the end of a passage that contains the exact word of some
else.

–According to Jones (1999), “the average customer is a tourist who travels in the summer and tends to
purchase small antiques”.

Exclamation Mark

 An exclamation mark shows excitement or strong feeling.

–What a beautiful car!

–That is a huge dog!

–That car is going to crash!

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