Need your opinion on this site involving writing skills

The opening paragraph for this website:



Native English speakers would say "assigned" rather than "prescribed" and "exercise" instead of "practice".

I have no suggestions about a better site, but this one is flawed.

I agree that the sentence is strangely worded, but I think that the word "prescribed" is being used to go along with the theme RxWrite as in a medical prescription. I couldn't quite figure out who was doing the prescribing... apparently you need to use that in conjunction with a teacher. That site comes from SchoolOnline, which is highly regarded, but it also seems set up for younger students.

I wonder, Oristar, if this site from the Capital Community College Foundation, because it is geared for older students, might not be more helpful for you. It has some interesting quizzes and tests, similar to grammar questions you have brought to a2k. If you look at its "Trophy Cabinet" you will see that I am not alone in recommending it.

No one site will probably give you everything you need. Here's another website, specially designed to improve writing for engineers and scientists.

I inclined to what Piffka said -- prescribe is a match of RxWrite.

I've realized it might be hard for you to determine whether the big site is excellent or not without spending enough time to check it out.
So please just tell me if the Harvard Outline is genuine or not.

Oristar--

That is a perfectly acceptable outline (taught in every American elementary school without the "Harvard" name).

I do quibble with using a small "i" instead of a "1" for the first of the "sub-ideas".

This is another piece of evidence reinforcing my notion that the owner/creator of the site uses English as a Second Language.

I'm a picky, picky person.

If so, the site is not worth to be digged into with hard work.

Who can put up with the one who touts the material of elementary school as of Harvard -- one of the most distinguished university in the world?

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I didn't get why arabic digitals work in the outline.
Why did I get confused by it?
See:


Absolutely clear and simplest. I think the creator of the site refers to the so-called "Harvard Outline". But he gave us an example that I suspected flawed.

Since the example was begun with Roman numeral "I" to bring out its first main idea, so Arabic digitals could only be used in sub ideas. But there were "2" and "3", no "1" there.

I thought I'd made a reply here a couple of weeks ago, but I've been having lots of trouble with my computer and didn't get it posted correctly. (I changed by ISP, lost contact for several days with no end of trouble... and now my new wireless mouse is erratic. Unrelated, I know, but still. Grrrrrrrr)

So anyway, Oristar, if you have access to Microsoft WORD, it has a great outlining system. You should check it out, if you haven't done so. It is a little goosey (hard to control & flighty) but once you get used to it, quite nice. As to an outlining system being "Harvard" or not... <shrug>... outlining is typically not taught with that name, here in the states. I've looked around though, and the kind of outlining I learned in school is considered "Harvard" style. I've found a website that explains the three kinds of outlining: Diamond, Harvard, and Legal... here.

I also believe it is best to tab in for each level of in an outline. Unfortunately, a2k, which is in all other respects perfect , doesn't allow tabbing, so I can't show that to you. Anyway, increasing the margin indent with each level is very helpful. It is also good to add an extra line between the major headings. My recollection is you start with a Roman Numeral -- Main headings are I, II, III, IV, V.
The next level down are upper-case Alpha --A, B, C, D, E.
The following level is an arabic numeral -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Then fourth level is a lower-case Alpha -- a, b, c, d, e.
If you need to go to a fifth level, it would be an arabic numeral followed by a right parens -- 1), 2), 3), 4), 5) (all the previous levels should have ended with a period, as in: I., II., A., etc.)
If you have an outline which needs a sixth level (ugh -- way too complicated!) you'd go to a lower-case Roman numeral -- i), ii), iii), iv).

Somebody, somewhere, should be sure and mention that no outline should have a single sub-heading... ie. don't have an "a." unless you have a "b.".

You are exactly right that if you have a "2." and a "3.) you must have a "1."!! Good eye, O.

Outlines are very handy in describing information in a report. They are also handy as "working outlines" while writing, since they'll help you to see where you're missing information, or not leveling things properly. Other than that, they are a pain in the patoot.