GEOG 377 – Urban Geography
Notes on Writing
Personal observations are good, but stay away from 1st and 2nd person perspectives.
1st Person: I think Detroit should do is….
2nd Person: You need to think proactively….
Learn to use “its”
“its” is a pronoun - Phoenix is attractive because of its climate
“it’s” is a contraction of the words “it” and “is” – It’s difficult to say with certainty whether
Buffalo declined because of the weather.
Good way to test usage: If you cannot replace it’s with “it is” and have it make sense, then you
should use “its”
Editing symbols
Capitalization – state of New York
Start new paragraph –
SPELLCHECK IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROOFREADING
Structure of a narrative essay is important.
Is the information presented in a logical format that can be understood and followed? Does it progress
from one point to the next? Is it written with complete sentences? To test if a sentence is awkward or
incomplete, it often helps to read it out loud. To set up a logical structure for your essay, it often helps to
do an outline first. Another way to see if it makes sense is to have your
friend/housemate/roommate/suitemate read it.
In the case of the Growing/Declining Cities essay, is the information grouped categorically (economy,
climate, education, etc.) or geographically (Detroit, Phoenix)? Do you have the same information for
both cities? For example, if you give the population from 1990 to 2006 for one city, or the metropolitan
population for one city, you need to provide the same information for the other city.
Approximately 6 pages means 5 to 7, not 3 and ½ and not 16.
Using an outline to organize your thoughts and then organize your essay, then careful editing is important
to stay within the assignment.
The Concept of Register
The difference between "formal" and "informal" is not that between "grammatical" and "ungrammatical."
The difference is best understood as an instance of what linguists call register. The speaker of any
language learns at a very young age that certain speech situations call for certain ways of putting words
together. A child of six or seven will speak one way to fellow children, another way to parents, and
perhaps even a third way to teachers. Adults speak one way to children and another way to adult friends
and colleagues. What varies in these diverse situations is not simply tone of voice and vocabulary (the
