P-209 Assignment

Important of Mechanics in Research Writing

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper- 209- Research Methodology

Roll no-06

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-IV)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Introduction:

Writing mechanics are the rules that regulate the technical components of writing, such as spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviations, in composition. Putting your primary points together can be difficult, so one approach is to create a rough draught of your main ideas before you start writing. Under the broad subject of mechanics, several writing textbooks also include concerns like language and arrangement. For students and writers, these are the fundamentals of writing mechanics.

What Are Writing Mechanics?

The established standards that should be followed when creating sentences are known as writing mechanics. They are key ways to successfully communicate ideas and go hand in hand with grammar as the norms to follow when writing.The official standard for grammar and writing mechanics has been established by consensus. Although they aren't set in stone, following them as a reference is a smart idea.

1: Parts of speech

One of the most crucial things to know if you're a writer is how to classify components of speech like nouns, verbs, and adjectives, among others. Understanding the distinction between a verb and an adverb, or a preposition and a conjunction, is crucial to efficient communication. Knowing the definitions of each isn't absolutely important, but knowing how to utilise them correctly is.

Parts of sentences

When it comes to creating sentences, there are no hard and fast rules.This is actually a positive thing since it gives you a lot of room to be creative. Knowing the components of a sentence, such as subjects, objects, phrases, and clauses, aids in the cohesiveness of your sentences.A competent writer is able to maintain harmony while being innovative with sentence form.

Sentence errors

Even sentences that appear to be correct may not adhere to appropriate writing mechanics.If you're not familiar with them, things like run-on sentences, dangling participles, and improper parallelism are easy to overlook. Knowing what to look for is the only way to truly notice these mistakes. Finally, you should be aware of these types of phrase errors so that you do not make them.

Subject-Verb agreement

Subject-verb agreement is easy to miss, especially for novice writers. Knowing the proper or singular forms of verbs and then matching them to the subject as is required makes your sentences easier to understand.Subject-verb agreement also makes your work more enjoyable to read. Incorrect subject-verb agreement can be grating to a reader, especially if committed often in a single work.

Capitalization

Improper capitalization may not exactly affect the meaning behind the words that you use, but it does help keep your sentences organized. Capitalization signals to a reader the important details in a sentence.People, places, and ideas that are capitalized give them a hint as to the significance of that word. Capitalization also helps your sentences and paragraphs flow better as it signals the beginning of each sentence that you use.

Punctuation

There’s a joke that can easily convey the importance of proper punctuation. The difference between ‘Let’s eat, Fred,’ and ‘Let’s eat Fred’ is a simple comma, but it changes the meaning significantly. One is a dinner invitation, the other is cannibalism!Using the correct punctuation gives you the ability to convey your ideas to the reader exactly as you intended. Punctuation may be a small part of the sentence as a whole, but it definitely has a big impact.

a. General remarks. The primary purpose of punctuation is to ensure the clarity and readability of your writing. Although there are many required uses, punctuation is, to some extent, a matter of personal preference. But, while certain practices are optional, consistency is mandatory. Writers must guard against adopting different styles in parallel situations. The remarks below stress the conventions that pertain especially to research papers. More comprehensive discussions of punctuation can be found in standard handbooks of composition ….

 

b. Apostrophes indicate contractions (rarely acceptable in scholarly writing) and possessives. General practice is to form the possessive of monosyllabic proper names ending in a sibilant sound (s, z, sh, zh, ch, j) by adding an apostrophe and another s (Keats’s poems, Marx’s theories) except, by convention, for names in classical literature (Mars’ wrath). In words of more than one syllable ending in a sibilant, only the apostrophe is added (Hopkins’ poems, Cervantes’ novellas) except for names ending in a sibilant and a final e (Horace’s odes). Note that the possessive of a name ending with a silent s is formed by adding an apostrophe and another s (Camus’s novels).

 

c. Colons are used to indicate that what follows will be an example, explanation, or elaboration of what has just been said. They are commonly used to introduce quotations (see §§ 14b, 14c, and 14f). For their use in documentation and bibliography, see §§ 31c, 31h, and 41c. Always skip one space after a colon.

 

d. Commas are usually required between items in a series (blood, sweat, and tears), between coordinate adjectives (an absorbing, frightening account), before coordinating conjunctions joining independent clauses, around parenthetical elements, and after fairly long phrases or clauses preceding the main clause of a sentence. They are also conventional in dates (January 1, 1980), names (W. K. Wimsatt, Jr., and Walter J. Ong, S.J.), and addresses (Brooklyn, New York). A comma and a dash are never used together in modern English usage. If the context requires a comma (as it does here), the comma follows a closing parenthesis, but a comma never precedes an opening parenthesis. See §§ 31, 33, 35, and 41 for the usage of the comma in documentation and bibliography; see §14f for commas with quotation marks.

 

e. [Em] dashes. An [em] dash is typed … with no space before or after. Some writers tend to overuse [em] dashes, substituting them loosely for other marks of punctuation. The [em] dash, however, has only a few legitimate uses: around parenthetical elements that require a number of internal commas, and before a summarizing appositive.

Spelling

No one, especially a discriminating reader, wants to see poor spelling. Incorrect spelling detracts from your work and makes it less likely that a reader will finish it.Most modern text programmers, thankfully, feature spell checkers that can detect problems. However, you must not become complacent. Even spell checkers can overlook words that are perfectly spelled but incorrectly used.

Abbreviations

If you're trying to disguise the meaning of something, don't utilise abbreviations that your readers aren't familiar with. The recommended approach is to start with the full title and then add the abbreviation after that.You can now use the abbreviation instead of the full name. Make sure your reader is familiar with the abbreviations you use so they don't have to guess what they signify.

 Titles in the Text

 

a.Italicized

 

Titles of published books, plays (of any length), long poems (usually poems that have been published as books), pamphlets, periodicals (including newspapers and magazines), works of classical literature (but not sacred writings), films, radio and television programs, ballets, operas, instrumental music (but not if identified simply by form, number and key), paintings, sculpture, and names of ships and aircraft are all [italicized] in the text.  

  

   b.In quotation marks

 Titles of articles, essays, short stories, short poems, songs, chapters of books, unpublished works (such as dissertations), lectures and speeches, courses, and individual episodes of radio and television programs are enclosed in quotation marks.

c.Titles within titles

 If a title indicated by quotation marks appears within an [italicized] title, the quotation marks are retained. If a title indicated by [italicizing] appears within a title enclosed in quotation marks, the [italicizing] is retained.

d.Exceptions

These conventions of [italicizing] titles or placing them within quotation marks do not apply to sacred writings (including all books and versions of the Bible), to series, editions, and societies, to descriptive words or phrases (or conventional titles) used instead of an actual title, and to parts of a book, none of which is underlined or put within quotation marks. 

e. Frequent use of a title

If a title is to be mentioned often in the text, after the first full reference in the text or in a note, use only a shortened (if possible, familiar or obvious) title or abbreviation (e.g., “Nightingale” for “Ode to a Nightingale”; Much Ado for Much Ado about Nothing; HEW for Department of Health, Education and Welfare)

The Proper Mechanics of Writing: 

👉Mastering the proper usage of quotation marks.

👉Ensuring that both grammar and spelling are correct. 👉👉Knowing grammar rules is extremely vital.

👉Mastering punctuation.

👉Knowing how, where, and when to use apostrophes.

👉Creating a concise topic sentence or thesis.

👉Being able to form coherent sentence structures and avoiding sentence fragments.

👉Ensuring that capitalization is used properly.

👉Having a mastery of the English vocabulary.

👉Knowing how to formulate concise paragraphs that are not too wordy.