Hello and welcome my friends to the seventh lecture of our writing

course.
In this lecture, our teacher will talk about the following ideas:
Parallelism
Concrete Support
The teacher's speech:
Good morning everyone. The lecture of last week was about the kinds of
logical order that we follow while writing our paragraph or essay. We
said that there are three kinds of logical order:
1. Chronological order
2. Logical division of ideas/Order of Importance
3. Comparison/contrast.
We explained the above kinds fully last week. Moreover, we mentioned
something called parallelism. It means to have a parallel structure within
sentences that have correlative conjunctions .i.e. the correlative
conjunctions (both . .. and . .. ; not only . .. but also . .. ;either . .. or . .. ;
neither .. , nor. ...) follow the rule of parallelism. If you put a noun after
the word both, you must put a noun after the word and. If you use a
prepositional phrase after not only, you must use another prepositional
phrase after but also.

Move to page 166:

Parallelism:
Parallelism is an important element in English writing, especially
when you are listing and comparing and contrasting items or ideas.
Parallelism means that each item in a list or comparison follows the
same grammatical pattern. If you are writing a list and the first item
in your list is a noun, write all of the following items as nouns also. If
the first item is an infinitive verb phrase, make all of the others
infinitive verb phrases; if it is a dependent clause, make all of the
others dependent clauses. If you are making a comparison or
contrast, make sure that the items you are comparing or contrasting
are the same.
Thus, if you are comparing or contrasting two things in your writing, you
should use parallel structures.
Look at the following example:
  My English conversation class is made up of Chinese,
Spaniards, and some are from Bosnia.
We can notice that the above sentence does not have a parallel structure
because the last item (some are from Bosnia) is not a noun like the
preceding items (Chinese and Spaniards). Therefore, we need to change
the last item and make it similar in its grammatical pattern to the
preceding items .i.e. change it to be a noun:
 My English conversation class is made up of Chinese,
Spaniards, and Bosnians.
By doing so, we have a parallel structure in the sentence now.
Consider another example:
 The students who do well attend class, they do their homework,
and practice speaking in English.
This sentence is not parallel because the second item (they do their
homework) does not follow the same grammatical pattern of the first item
(attend class). In the above example, the first item is a verb phrase (attend
class), so we need to make the rest of items similar to the first one i.e.
make them verb phrases also. However, the second item (they do their
homework) is not a verb phrase; it is an independent clause; therefore, we
need to change it to a verb phrase only.
 The students who do well attend class, do their homework, and
practice speaking in English.
By making the second item similar in its grammatical pattern to the first
item, the whole sentence becomes a parallel one.
Coordinator AND, OR, BUT
Words, phrases, and clauses that are joined by and, or, and but are
written in parallel form. Notice the parallel structures joined by
coordinators in the following sentences:
 The Federal Air Pollution Control Administration regulates
automobile exhausts, and the Federal Aviation Administration
makes similar regulations for aircraft.
We should use parallel structures not only when using correlative
confections, but also when using the coordinator and, or and but.
If you look at the above example, you can see the coordinator and joins
two independent clauses. Thus, we have a parallel structure: one
independent clause before and+ one independent clause after and.
Page 168:
Correlative Conjunctions
Use parallel forms with the correlative conjunctions both . . . and,
either . . . or, neither . .. nor, and not only . .. but also.
Correlative conjunctions are placed directly before the elements they
join in the sentence. Notice the parallel structure in these clauses
joined by correlative conjunctions:
 A new law provides the means for both regulating pesticides and
ordering their removal if they are dangerous.
Thus, we have four correlative conjunctions:
 Both……….and
 Either……..or
 Neither……nor
 Not only….but also
In the above example, the correlative conjunction 'both…and' joins the
two elements: regulating pesticides + ordering their removal. Notice that
the correlative conjunctions are placed directly before the elements they
join in the sentence. Again, the above sentence have a parallel structure
because the second item has the same grammatical pattern of the first
item .i.e. both of them have the ing form.
Back to page 71:
Concrete Support
One of the biggest problems in student writing is that student writers
often fail to prove their points. They fail because they do not support
their points with concrete details. Their papers are too often full of
opinions and generalizations without the factual details needed to
support them.
A successful paragraph contains concrete support for the topic
sentence. Support your topic sentence by using specific and factual
details.
Back to writing a paragraph, we said that a paragraph opens with a topic
sentence, and that topic sentence is supported with the supporting
sentences that revolve around the main idea of the topic sentence.
Nevertheless, most students find difficulty in supporting their topic
sentence with factual details; as a result, their writings become full of
opinions and generalizations. Thus, a good paragraph supports/proves its
topic sentence by using specific and factual details.

Facts versus Opinions

Facts are objective statements of truths.
Examples of facts:
 At sea level, water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
 Women live longer than men.
 Lung cancer among women is increasing.
Opinions are subjective statements based on a person's beliefs or
attitudes.
Examples of opinions:
 Men are better drivers than women.
 Engineering students do not need to take a lot of English
courses.
 Americans are only superficially friendly.
However, you must support your opinions with factual details. The
more specific you are, the better.
You need to memorize the definition of opinions and facts.

Here are some examples of statements that need further support to be

acceptable in formal academic writing and of additional necessary
concrete supporting details.
Concrete Supporting Details

There are several kinds of concrete supporting details that you can
use to support or prove your topic sentence. Among the most
common are:
Examples
Statistics
Quotations
There are three ways of giving supporting details to the topic sentence.
You can give examples, statistics or quotations.
Here are some tips for using examples to prove your topic sentence…
Tips for Using Examples and Extended Examples
 Make sure that your example really supports your point.
 Introduce examples with appropriate transition Signals.
Accordingly, when you give an example, that one should support the
main idea of the paragraph .i.e. the topic sentence. Moreover, you need to
use some transitions when introducing examples. Here are some
transition signals for giving examples…
TRANSITION SIGNALS FOR EXAMPLES
Ok, that is all for today's lecture. See you next week…
For questions,you can contact me via Whats'App:
(0945462264)

Done by: Moussa Al-Rashed

Scanned by: Ahmad Jawad