Last updated 4/19/2016
Visual: Walden logo at bottom of screen along with notepad and pencil background.
Audio: Guitar music.
Visual: “Walden University Writing Center. Your writing, grammar, and APA experts” appears in the center of the screen. Background changes to another notebook on a table, with a person sitting behind it, and a bright orange box. “Engaging Writing: Tool 1— Syntax” Text appears in the center of the screen in an orange box.
Slide changes a mostly gray slide with a blue box in the center. In the blue box is the following:
“Syntax: The way words are put together to form a sentence.
Ex: Nurses care about their patients.Nurses who care about their patients are better nurses.Better nurses who care about their parents have better patient outcomes.
Ex: Nurses should care about their patients, and patients consider nurses who do so to be better nurses.These patients, in turn, often have better outcomes as well.
Audio: The first example is with syntax. This is the way that words are put together to form a sentence. So oftentimes, I will see repetitive syntax in student writing because, you know, a student maybe is very comfortable in one style of sentence writing, and so that’s what the whole paper ends up being. But if you think about this example, if I were telling you a story: I went to the store. I bought eggs. I got in my car. I drove home. I made dinner.”
Okay, that gets a little monotonous, a little burdensome. As a reader, a listener, rather than saying that, I could simply say, “I went to the store and bought eggs because I had to make dinner,” or something along those lines. I can combine some of those sentences and change the syntax, the way that the words and the grammar is arranged, to keep my reader interested.
Audio: Guitar music
Visual: “Walden University Writing Center. Questions? E-mail writingsupport@waldenu.edu” appears in center of screen.
