Consonants

CONSONANT

The crowding of consonant sounds within the same environment before the insertion of a vowel sound in words is consonant cluster. It is the coming together of more than one consonant sound in a word. It can be easily identified if the transcription is done. It can appear at different locations – initial, medial or final position, but the common ones are initial and final position. It can be expressed as (ccc) (vccc) that is 3 consonants may come before vowel and up to 2 consonant may follow the vowel.

Examples

2 consonant clause words

Initial (ccv)                                                          Medial (vccv)                                                     Final (vcc)

Play                                                                        after                                                                      shift

/plei/                                                                     /a:fta/                                                                   /sift/

Twinkle                                                master                                                                  risk

/twiokal/                                                             /ma:ster/                                                            /risk/

3. Consonant cluster words

Initial (cccv)                                                        Final (

Strength                                                               texts

/stregke/                                                             /tesk/

Strong                                                                   ask

/str3g/                                                                  /a:sk/

Initial

Skw                                                                        Kw

Squander                                                            queen

Square                                                                  equality

Squash                                                                 quench

Squad                                                                    quiet

Squalor                                                 equal

TOPIC: ESSAY WRITING

Writing is a form of persuasive communication. There is always a point of view to project and which the writer wants the reader to understand. In order words, we write for a reader. The success of writing is therefore best judged by how well the reader understands the message we are trying to send by writing.

Writing is one of the most significant features if a literate society. It is the use of language in its written form. The writer’s opinion is the thesis, which indeed an essay should contain organised materials properly synthesized constitute good writing.

THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD WRITING

The qualities of a good writing have been discussed in varied forms. However, we find these noted in Ebele Eko (1987) more encompassing and exhaustive than others. They are

• Economy
• Simplicity
• Clarity

1. ECONOMY: Economy in this sense means conciseness. To ne concise is to utilise the minimum number of words to express an idea in a sentence without loosing any detain. Also a good writing should be concise in the number of sentences in a paragraph and in the number of paragraphs in a piece of writing. A good writing should not emphasise economy at the expense of clarity and accuracy. Redundancy of words, sentences and paragraphs should be avoided.
2. SIMPLICITY: The language of a good writing should be simple. It should not be too difficult to understand. To achieve this, the writer should avoid the use of rare and complex vocabularies: and long complex sentences which could be broken down into several well arranged simple sentences. What should engage the writer’s mind is how well his message is delivered and understood. Anyway, writing is done for someone else to read.

In all, a good writing should be straight forward and easily understood.

3. CLARITY: Clarity is another important quality of a good writing. A writer should express his subject of discussion as clearly as possible. He should have the ordinary readers in mind. He should be eager to invite more people into his field. This can be best done by demystifying the subject with the use of language which does not convey obscurity and vagueness of ideas. No matter how technical and abstract a subject might be a writer should be able to give the reader information and instruction that are simple, clear, direct and therefore effective, useful and educative. This goes a long way to show that the writer has adequate knowledge of his subject.
4. THE ESSAY OUTLINE

Longer essays require elaborate outlines. These outlines can occur in any of the two forms – topic and sentence outlines. The topic outline is shorter. It sets down points or ideas instages without explaining. The sentence outline is more restricted and more specific in its directives.

The form of the outline

Stage I – Formulate the thesis and establish the purpose of the essay

Stage II – Write down the major ideas or topic sentences each directly connected to the thesis as major paragraph

Stage III – Sub-divide each topic sentence into sub-paragraphs, each dealing with just a point.

State IV – (a) Complete the subdivision and write complete sentence  (b) Revise the essay ensuring the topic of the presentation (c) Adhere to the outline

Types of Essay

• Narrative Essay
• Descriptive Essay
• Argumentative Essay
• Expository Essay.