The A to Z Basic Composition Writing Skills: Essay Writing, #1

By Jorges P. Lopez

This book is the FIRST in a series of writing books that take the skill from the basics. They are intended for kids learning to write, students who have basic writing skills, college and university students who intend to hone their communication skills thoroughly and for the general writer, especially the scholar and the creative writer who wants to learn good writing skiils. The books are divided depending on the level of the skill of the learner or writer and depending on how much the reader may already know about the skills of writing. The reader is at liberty to choose a book depending on the desires of the moment as well as the level of language and writing level. The books begin with the basics of letter combination, words and phrases, clauses and sentences to the paragraph and complete essays. They also examines various types of essays as well as various types of fuctional writing including reports, minutes etc. This particular book focuses on the very basics and targets young learners as well as creative writers aiming to improve their writing by avoiding basic grammar mistakes. It teaches the skills of grammar and general organization of writing. This way, the book helps the creative writer lessen the work of editing if the creative work will eventually be edited. Properly used, the writer will finally find out that no extra language editing will be required and therefore, the writer can concentrate on composition and integration of ideas. Once this is learnt, the writer can then examine the second and third books which focus on ideas and higher skills of creative writing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jorges P. Lopez
• Release date: Jan 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224197569

Jorges P. Lopez

Jorges P. Lopez has been teaching Literature in high schools in Kenya and Communication at The Cooperative University in Nairobi. He has been writing Literary Criticism for more than fifteen years and fiction for just over ten years. He has contributed significantly to the perspective of teaching English as a Second Language in high school and to Communication Skills at the college level. He has developed humorous novellas in the Jimmy Karda Diaries Series for ages 9 to 13 which make it easier for learners of English to learn the language and the St. Maryan Seven Series for ages 13 to 16 which challenge them to improve spoken and written language. His interests in writing also spill into Poetry, Drama and Literary Fiction. He has written literary criticism books on Henrik Ibsen, Margaret Ogola, Bertolt Brecht, John Steinbeck, John Lara, Adipo Sidang' and many others.

Book preview

Introduction

Writing well is a skill whose importance can never be over emphasized. Real learning begins when a person learns how to communicate ideas to others well. This way, the first major hurdle of communication is overcome. Teaching writing is a crucial skill that cuts across learning from primary school to university – and so is the acquisition of this skill. As much as writing is this crucial, there are few books geared to this enterprise. Most of the books available and especially geared to composition writing in primary school are arbitrary. They focus only in getting the pupil across the bridge at the end of primary school – after which the pupil is on his/her own. These books lack the important continuity from primary school to secondary school through to university. This is because teaching of writing in primary school is haphazard and rigid.  There is no identifiable plan in composition writing especially in introduction, paragraphing and conclusion. This is quite apparent in both the teaching of composition writing and marking of compositions/essay at this level. The challenge is that students have to learn a very different way of approach when they join secondary school. In addition, composition writing in primary school tends to emphasize sticking to outdated rules such as use of fossilized similes and proverbs. As much as this is necessary to demonstrate growth of language – as this book also emphasizes - it kills spontaneity, a crucial part of natural communication, if done in the wrong way. 

This book is a response to these challenges. It not only teaches a planned approach to composition writing which is easy for everyone to follow but it also draws the link between composition writing in primary schools and secondary schools. This allows for continuity in learning so that in secondary school, learners only improve on what they already know rather than having to learn the skill anew in a very different way. The book teaches composition writing right from the combination of letters into words, phrases, clauses and sentences. It points out important language rules and examines the range of composition types that a pupil in primary school is required to know. The book helps pupils establish and practice rules of writing which will take them right to university. This is crucial because these rules of essay writing are emphasized across all subjects both in secondary school and at the university.

It is our hope that the book will not only cover the grey areas of composition writing in primary school but that it will also help pupils to learn and improve on their own.        - J. P. Lopez, August 2020.

The Basics of Writing

What is a composition?

To understand what a composition is – or what you are meant to do when someone asks you to write a composition – it is necessary to start from the very beginning – the meaning of the word ‘composition’. Broadly speaking, the word ‘composition’ comes from the word ‘compose’. To compose is to create by bringing together a series of ideas to form an integrated whole. Indeed, a composition is a series of related ideas that are put together to form a meaningful whole. This means that for a piece of writing to be called a composition, it must;

Contain original ideas created by the writer

Contain integrated ideas which are interesting to read and easy to follow.

At this level, however, it is assumed that anybody can compose. What might be a little difficult – and that is the reason why you are tested on composition writing – is to compose on an idea suggested by someone else, write according to the expectations of your level and still be interesting and easy enough to be followed by someone else. When you write a composition at this level, therefore, you must try to ensure that these conditions are fulfilled. Here, composition writing tests how broad your thinking is in that you can easily switch or adapt your thinking in line with someone else’s expectations. Secondly, that your writing – in fluency and vocabulary - demonstrates that your language has grown to a certain expected level. Thirdly, that your writing is interesting enough to hold someone else’s attention for a particular span of time and that it can be written within a given period of time. This means that your ability to be interesting and write that interesting composition within a given period of time – without it sounding too brief or redundant, improperly introduced or concluded – is part of the question; you must ensure you fulfill these expectations. Lastly, this must be done with as few grammatical errors as possible. Indeed, your examiner expects your skills to have been polished enough over the years to lack grammatical mistakes. To do this, it is necessary to learn a number of skills. We will start at the very beginning; the word.

THE WORD

What is a word?

A word is a combination of letters that creates a certain idea in the mind. You can combine the letters ‘o’, ‘n’ and ‘t’ in a number of ways. Whether an idea is formed in the mind or not as a result of the combination tells you whether the combination is a word or not. ‘Ton’ and ‘not’ form definite ideas e.g. ‘a certain weight’ and ‘nodding the head in the negative’. These are words but ‘ont’ forms no idea. It is therefore not a word. In English, most words are formed by combining letters of the alphabet to form meaningful units. We use the word ‘most’ here because some letters can qualify as words by themselves. The letter ‘a’ for example can form a word if it forms a meaningful unit by itself in a sentence – e.g. an indefinite article. The pronoun ‘I’ is a word by itself.

Words are formed by combining consonants and vowels. Consonants are letters of the alphabet that are formed by blocking the air at some point as it passes out of the lungs, through the wind pipe and out of the mouth. Such letters include b, d, f, m, n etc. Vowels on the other hand are formed at some point of the mouth without blocking air as it passes out. There are five vowels – a, e, i, o and u. It is important to think of letters of the alphabet from their sound and their formation. This knowledge is important for three reasons;

Awareness of letters of the alphabet – and their sounds – is a crucial lead to proper spelling – and many problems in composition writing result from improper spelling.

Awareness of the sounds of the letters of the alphabet and how they are formed helps you understand that some consonants sound – and are formed like – vowels. It makes it easier to use them and to spell words in which they are used correctly. The letter ‘y’, for example, is formed like and sounds like a vowel.

Some letters may be silent in speech while others combine to form groups – usually referred to as clusters – to represent a single letter or sound in their pronunciation. In the word ‘draught’ – pronounced /draft/ - for example, ‘gh’ represent letter ‘f’.   

Being aware of this is important in telling whether the letter combinations formed are words or not. Good skill in this helps one tell when wrong combinations are made and therefore, words are misspelt. You can therefore correct yourself without consulting anyone else. Once this basic rule is mastered, then you can go to the next level – determining words by their part of speech in order to see how they combine into phrases, clauses and ultimately into sentences.

Words can also be classified into content and non-content words. Content words are those that form a certain image in the mind. Words such as ‘goat’, ‘walk’, ‘happily’ and ‘rude’ are content words. They give us a particular image. Words such as ‘if’, ‘but’, ‘an’ etc. do not. They are therefore non-content words. Non-content words do not form any particular image in mind. They merely function to link other words in forming a sentence and therefore expressing a complete thought composed of the various images in the various content words used.

Parts of speech

The part of speech of a word is the classification of that word according to its function, purpose or meaning. This is important because it determines the arrangement of words in a sentence in terms of which is given more preference than the other, which word goes (or combines) with which one and ultimately whether that arrangement is grammatical or not. Like we saw with the letters ‘o’, ’n’ and ‘t’, the words ‘dogs’, ‘at’, ‘night’ and ‘howl’ demand a certain arrangement for their combination to make sense – or to become a sentence. This arrangement is determined by the function and importance of the words and the purpose and meaning intended. In the sentence, ‘Dogs howl at night’ therefore, this arrangement of words and the resulting meaning is determined by the rules and awareness of parts of speech. We will now consider parts of speech according to their importance. The fact that ‘dogs’ and ‘howl’ by themselves can form a complete sentence, ‘Dogs howl’, shows that the two words are more significant than the other two. ‘Dogs’ is a noun while ‘howl’ is a verb; it therefore follows that nouns and verbs are the principal – or most important – words in a sentence.

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NOUNS  

Nouns are naming words. They are the most important words in a sentence because the number and the nature of words used in the rest of the sentence depends on their relationship with the noun in the sentence. Nouns are important in a sentence because they name the person or thing that either is acting or which forms the subject of the sentence. (That which is acting or that which the speaker is talking about). Nouns can be classified into the following categories.

Common nouns  

These are names given to things, people