Journal Writing – Rules & Guidelines

Rules

Rules must be followed. Rules are like laws.

• When you write your journals, you must do the following:
  1. Write an outline
     • When you write a P.R.E.P. answer, I want to see an outline (in bullet point form) for your ‘R’ (reason) and ‘E’ (examples)
     • When you write a P.R.E.O.P. answer, I want to see an outline (in bullet point form) for your ‘R’ (reason), ‘E’ (examples), and ‘O’ (“on the other hand”, counter-examples)
  2. Write a first draft
  3. Proofread, edit, and rewrite
     • Remember: the single best piece of writing advice to improve writing that you, everyone, can do to improve your writing is to rewrite. Remember, genius rewrites, and you should too.
  4. Write your second (or final) draft

Rules

• All pronouns must logically point to a noun

Points on style – “style points”

• Write with verbs
  • English is a verb centered language.   Verbs have energy
• Do not shift person.
  • Write in the first person for personal, subjective, accounts
  • Write in the third person for academic, objective, writing
  • Write in the second person, often using the imperative mood, for giving instructions or directions
    • Question: Do you think that morality should be taught as a subject at schools?
      
      “I don’t think I need to learn morality at school because people have morals unless they are psychopaths. And even if you learn morality at school, people don’t become moral. Even if you learn morality, students will be tired of moral classes. So I don’t think I need to learn morality at school.”
      
• Do not shift verb tense; stay in the same verb time
  
  What is “verb tense”? Remember that verbs have two main parts: action and time.
  • When writing in the past, stay in the past

Guidelines

Guidelines are weaker, less strict, than rules, which must be followed. Another idiom for “guideline” is “rule of thumb”. Guidelines and rules of thumb are suggestions for best practices.

“Guideline” comes from woodworking, carpentry. A guideline gives carpenters a path to follow while sawing wood.

• When sentencing, punishing, criminals, judges almost always follow sentencing guidelines for punishments to fit criminals’ crimes.

“Rule of thumb” comes from a general, not perfect, measurement for an inch, which is roughly the length from the first joint to the tip of a person’s thumb. The term rule of thumb refers to a general way of doing something that, though not always perfect, provides a handy way to complete the task at hand.

• If you are having computer problems, a good rule of thumb is to restart the computer.