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When readers notice misspelled words or when they have to read a
sentence twice to figure it out, they are distracted from the writer’s train of
thought. Thus, each of these surface errors decreases the power of writing to
inform or entertain or persuade.
Prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing are each essential to successful
writing. While it is convenient to discuss these stages individually and to focus
on one stage at a time for certain exercises while you are learning to be a better
writer, your own experience has shown you that the stages are not easily
separable. Even as we draft, we may decide to return to the prewriting stage, and
we may do some revising even if we are working on the first draft.
Exercise. Basing on the information above, explain the following
principles of effective writing:
1. Start with a clearly stated point.
2. Provide logical, detailed support for your point.
3. Organize and connect your supporting material;
4. Revise and edit so that your sentences are effective and error-free.
1.4. The purposes for writing
Whenever you write, some clear purpose should guide your efforts. If you
don't know why you're writing, neither will your reader. Faced with a close
deadline for a research paper or report, you may tell yourself, "I'm doing this
because I have to." An authentic purpose, however, requires you to answer this
question: What do I want this piece of writing to do for both my reader and me?
Here are three common general writing purposes, two or more of which
often join forces in a single piece:
Sharing Feelings and Thoughts (Entertaining or Expressing Yourself)
We write to share our personal feelings and thoughts with close friends
and loved ones but also, on certain occasions, with our colleagues or associates.
These include letters of all kinds – from Valentine notes to formal expressions
of congratulation. We also express our feelings and sense of the world when we
create some poetry and fiction.
Providing Information (Informing)
We are often asked to explain a process or subject to a particular
audience. On an essay examination we might want to inform a professor of what
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we know about some economical event. Or we might need to prepare a letter
that lists and describes for a second year student the requirements of the English
Composition course. In writing to give information, we try to organize and
present as much explanation and detail as are necessary to leave our particular
audience with few questions on the subject.
Moving Others to Thought, Feeling, and Action (Persuading)
Writing termed persuasive is the one in which we try to get an audience (one
person or many) to see our side of an issue or to take action in a way we propose.
When we write persuasively, we are trying to sell something to someone.
The writer seeks to move the audience to some kind of action. In the arguments,
we may not be directly recommending specific action but rather trying to help
an audience understand an issue, see the complexities of a proposal, or think in a
certain way about an idea. Consideration of the needs, interests, and
predispositions of our audience becomes very important if we hope to be
successful in achieving our goal in persuasive writing.
Besides having one or more general purpose, each writing project has its
own specific purpose.
Having a specific purpose assists you at every stage of the writing
process. It helps you define your audience; select the details, language, and
approach that best suit their needs; and avoid going off in directions that won't
interest them.
Guidelines for considering purposes
The assignment. Is the purpose of the assignment to entertain, to explain
(inform), to persuade? What does the purpose suggest about the best ways to
achieve it? Are there any specific purposes?
The instructor’s expectations. What are the instructor’s purposes in giving
this assignment – to make sure you have read certain materials? to determine
whether you understand certain materials? to evaluate your thinking and writing
abilities? to determine whether you can evaluate certain materials critically?
How can you fulfill these expectations?
Your own goals. What are your purposes in carrying out this assignment – to
respond to the topic adequately and accurately? to meet the instructor’s
expectations? to learn as much as possible about a new topic? to communicate your
ideas as clearly and forcefully as possible? How can you achieve these goals?
Exercise. Consider the purposes for the writing assignments of the topics
below.
Write about a person who has been important in your life, and describe
why he or she has affected you strongly.
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Analyze the use of headlines in a group of twenty advertisements.
Read two poems by E.E. Cummings, and decide which one you like
better. Write an essay explaining why you prefer the one you do.
Discuss the controversies surrounding the use of genetic engineering to
change characteristics of unborn children.
1.5. The audience for writing
Most inexperienced writers assume that their audience is their writing
teacher. But writing teachers often vary in what they teach, what they assume,
and what they expect. Traditionally, such variation has prompted inexperienced
writers to define their writing tasks as “trying to figure out what their teacher
wants.” This definition is both simple-minded and sophisticated. On the one
hand, it suggests that the sole purpose of any writing assignment is to satisfy the
whims of another individual. On the other hand, it suggests that once writers
begin to analyze the knowledge, assumptions, and expectations of their readers
they begin to develop a clearer perception of their subject and purpose. In order
to make their analysis effective, however, writers must remember that they are
writing for three audiences.
The most immediate (and in some ways the most important) audience for
your writing is you. You write not only to convey your ideas to other readers but
also to clarify and confirm them for yourself. But to think of yourself as an
audience, you must change places: you must stop thinking like a writer and
begin thinking like a reader. This change in perspective has advantages to offer,
for of course you are the reader that you as the writer knows best; accordingly,
you can give your writing an unusually well-informed reading. You are also a
fairly representative reader; that is, you do share broad concerns and interests
with other people. If you feel that your writing is clear and lively and has
something to say, your other readers will probably feel that way too. On the
other hand, if you are not especially impressed with your writing, it is likely that
your audience will be likewise unimpressed.
There is a drawback to considering yourself as an audience: at times you
may deceive yourself. You want your every sentence and paragraph to be
perfect, but you also know how much time and energy you invested in writing
them, and you may allow that effort to blur your judgment if you aren't careful.
That is, you may at times accept bad writing from yourself, even though you
wouldn't accept it from someone else. For that reason, you need to consider a
second audience for your writing. These readers – usually your teacher or
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editor – are simultaneously your most attentive and most artificial audience.
They have helped you select your subject, guided you through the various stages
of the writing process, and counseled you about how to improve many of your
sentences and paragraphs. As you write, you must certainly anticipate the
detailed advice you have learned to expect from these sympathetic readers. But
you must remember that writing teachers and editors are essentially
collaborators. They know what you have considered, cut out, and corrected. The
more they have helped you shape your writing, the more eager they are to
applaud it when it approaches acceptability.
The primary audience for your writing is a group of readers that does
not care how much time and energy you invested in your writing or how many
choices you considered and rejected. These readers are eager to read writing
that tells them something interesting or important, and they are put off by
writing that is tedious or trivial. It is this wider audience that you (and your
collaborators) must consider as you work your way through the writing
process.
At times this audience may seem indistinct, and you may wonder how you
can direct your writing to it if you do not know any of its distinguishing features.
In those cases, it may be helpful to imagine a reader to whom you are writing –
an attentive, sensible, reasonably informed person who will give you an
objective reading so long as you do not waste his or her time. This reader –
whom various writers have termed “the general reader,” “the universal reader,”
“the common reader” – is essentially a fiction, of course, but often a helpful
fiction. If you can imagine this reader as an important person whom you respect
and whose respect you want, then your writing can benefit from the objectivity
and sincerity with which you address that reader.
Many times, however – especially as you learn more about your subject –
you can discern a more specific audience for your writing. Sometimes, in fact,
you may be able to discern a number of specific audiences, in which case you
will ultimately have to choose among them. Consider the following example of
how you might identify and analyze several audiences.
Now that you have identified your audiences, you must analyze the
distinctive features of each group. What do they know? What do they think they
know? What do they need to know? The more you know about each group, the
more you will be able to direct your writing to their needs and expectations.
Imagine how two letters requesting a loan would be different if one were
addressed to your mother and one to a wealthy but distant relative. No doubt
your style and tone would be warm and informal with your mother, more formal
and reasoned with a distant relative. In the letter you might pay more attention to
effective organization and a variety of sentence patterns than you would feel
were more necessary for your mother.
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Or consider a writing task in which you are to explain the processes by
which stalagmites and stalactites are formed. How would this explanation vary if
you were submitting it both to your geology professor and to children in a fourth
grade class? Probably your sentence structure and vocabulary would vary as
would your tone. You would probably be more informal in addressing the young
audience and your organization might be different, too. The professor might
expect technical terms while those same terms would likely confuse fourth
graders. In addition, the amount of information and detail you would include for
the children might be much less, and you would supplement the writing with
pictures or drawings that you would not provide for your professor.
Finally, you have to decide which group would make the best audience
for your essay. That decision, like the decision about subject, has to be made in
the context of the complete writing situation. Both decisions are, in turn,
closely related to your discovery of your purpose – what you want to do in
your essay. In the next several pages, you will learn how purpose guides your
decisions in writing. But first, look at the following guidelines for analyzing
your audience.
Guidelines for Analyzing Your Audience
1. Who are the readers that form the primary audience for my writing?
What is their probable age, sex, education, economic status, and social position?
What values, assumptions, and prejudices characterize their general attitudes
toward life?
2. What do my readers know or think they know about my subject?
What is the probable source of their knowledge – direct experience,
observation, reading, rumours? Will my readers react positively or negatively
toward my subject?
3. Why will my readers read my writing?
If they know a great deal about my subject, what will they expect to learn
from reading my essay? If they know only a few things about my subject, what
will they expect to be told about it? Will they expect to be entertained, informed,
or persuaded?
4. How can I interest my readers in my subject?
If they are hostile toward it, how can I convince them to give my writing a
fair reading? If they are sympathetic, how can I fulfill and enhance their
expectations? If they are neutral, how can I catch and hold their attention?
5. How can I help my readers read my writing?
What kind of organizational pattern will help them see its purpose? What
kind of guideposts and transitional markers will they need to follow this pattern?
What (and how many) examples will they need to understand my general
statements?
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6. How are they likely to respond to what I say? Can I expect them to be
neutral? Opposed? Friendly?
Exercise. The three excerpts below deal with the same subject –
antigens – but each explanation is geared to a different audience. Read the
passages carefully; then answer the following questions:
1. What audience does each author address? How do you know?
2. Identify ways in which each author appeals to a specific audience.
1. The human body is quick to recognize foreign chemicals that enter it.
"Foes" must be attacked or otherwise got rid of. The most common of these
foes are chemical materials from viruses, bacteria, and other microscopic
organisms. Such chemicals, when recognized by the body, are called antigens.
To combat them, the body produces its own chemicals, protein molecules
called antibodies. Each kind of antigen causes the production of a specific kind
of antibody. Antibodies appear in the body fluids such as blood and lymph and
in the body's cells.
L. D. Hamilton, Antibodies and Antigens, The New Book of Knowledge
2. [An] Antigen [is a] foreign substance that, when introduced into the
body, is capable of inducing the formation of antibodies and of reacting
specifically in a detectable manner with the induced antibodies. For each antigen
there is a specific antibody, the physical and chemical structure of which is
produced in response to the physical and chemical structure of the antigen.
Antigens comprise virtually all proteins that are foreign to the host, including
those contained in bacteria, viruses, protozoa, helminths, foods, snake venoms,
egg white, serum components, red blood cells, and other cells and tissues of
various species, including man. Polysaccharides and lipids may also act as
antigens when coupled to proteins.
Antigen, Encyclopedia Britannica
3. The substance which stimulates the body to produce antibodies is
designated antigen (antibody stimulator).... Most complete antigens are protein
molecules containing aromatic amino acids, and are large in molecular weight and
size. However, it has been demonstrated that other macromolecules, such as pure
polysaccharides, polynucleotides, and lipids, may serve as complete antigens.
However, certain other materials, incapable of stimulating antibody
formation by themselves can, in association with a protein or other carrier,
stimulate antibody formation and are the antigenic determinants. These
determinants are referred to as incomplete antigens or haptens and they are able to
react with antibodies which were produced by the determinant-protein complex.
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However, before an antigen can stimulate the production of antibodies, it
must be soluble in the body fluids, must reach certain tissues in an unaltered
form, and must be, in general, foreign to the body tissues. Protein taken by
mouth loses its specific foreign-protein characteristics when digested in the
alimentary tract. It reaches the tissues of the body as amino acids or other altered
digested products of protein. Consequently, it no longer meets the requirements
for antigenic behavior.
Orville Wyss and Curtis Eklund, Microorganisms and Man
Exercise. Describe one of your courses to three audiences: to your best
friend, to your parents, then to a group of high school students attending an
open house at your university. Then describe the differences in content,
organization, and wording that the differences in audience led you to make.
Just as you would not dial a telephone number at random and then expect
to carry on a meaningful conversation, so you should not expect to communicate
effectively without a specific audience in mind.
One other note: as you shape your paper, it is important that the writing
please you as well as your audience – that it satisfies your sense of what good
writing is and what the writing task requires. You are, after all, your own first
reader.
1.6. The qualities of good writing
and typical mistakes in writing the essay
Three qualities – fresh thinking, a sense of style, and effective organization –
help to ensure that a piece of prose will meet your reader's expectations.
Fresh Thinking. You don't have to astound your readers with something
never before discussed in print. Genuinely unique ideas and information are
scarce commodities. You can, however, freshen your writing by exploring
personal insights and perceptions. Using your own special slant, you might show
a connection between seemingly unrelated items. Keep the expression of your
ideas credible, however; farfetched notions spawn skepticism.
Sense of Style. Readers don't expect you to display the stylistic flair of
great writers. Indeed, such writing would impair the neutral tone needed in
certain kinds of writing, such as technical reports and legal documents. Readers
do, however, expect you to write in a clear style. And if you strengthen it with
vivid, forceful words, readers will absorb your points with even greater interest.
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Effective Organization. A paper should have a beginning, a middle, and
an end, that is, an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction
sparks interest and acquaints the reader with what is to come. The body delivers
the main message and exhibits a clear connection between ideas so that the
reader can easily follow your thoughts. The conclusion ends the discussion so
the reader feels satisfied rather than suddenly cut off. Overall, your paper should
follow a pattern that is suited to its content.
Freshness, style, and organization are weighted differently in different
kinds of writing. A writer who drafts a proposal to pave a city's streets will
probably attach less importance to fresh thinking than to clear writing and
careful organization. On the other hand, fresh thinking can be very important in
a description of an autumn forest scene.
General qualities of a good essay
A relatively short essay with a defensible thesis and a few insightful
claims supported with textual evidence is better than a longer essay that is about
nothing (if you don’t understand the prompt or the text, your essay will be about
nothing).
An essay is not a list of separate ideas clumped together.
An essay is not a summary of the text – it is an argument that you control
(a generalization without support is not an argument).
A thesis needs to respond accurately to the task given in the prompt.
A good essay is well organized, even if it is a draft. It should have
discernible parts: introduction, body, and conclusion.
Some typical mistakes students make in writing their essays
No discernible thesis (therefore, no controlling idea).
A failure to analyze (the writer summarized or paraphrased instead).
A failure to move from “what” to “how” and “why”.
A failure to support generalizations or claims with evidence from the text.
Only poorly developed ideas, with perhaps one or two ideas repeated over
and over.
An inability to integrate and embed quotations from the text in complete
sentences.
A wordy introduction that was mostly a restatement of the prompt.
A “boring” conclusion that simply restated the thesis or prompt.
Some loosely constructed paragraphs that were not unified.
A reliance on the five-paragraph essay, with no real analysis (organization
without content is not an essay).
Imprecise use of language (never use big words to impress – use the exact
right word for the job).
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SELF-STUDY
Examining your own process of writing
1. How do you typically go about preparing for a writing assignment?
Describe the steps you take, including rereading the assignment, asking
questions about it, talking to instructors or friends, jotting down ideas, and so
on. How far in advance of the due date do you usually begin working on an
assignment?
2. When and where do your best ideas often come to you?
3. Where do you usually do your writing? Describe this place. Is it a
good place to write? Why, or why not?
4. When you write are you usually physically alone? Is there usually
music, conversation, or other noise in the background?
5. What materials do you use? pen or pencil, note pad, loose-leaf paper,
typewriter, computer? What do you find most (and least) helpful or appealing
about these materials?
6. What audience do most assignments ask you to address? the
instructor? classmates, a wider audience? How much thought do you typically
give to the audience as you work on the assignment?
7. What strategies do you usually use to explore a topic?
8. How do you typically go about writing a first draft? Do you finish it in
one sitting, of do you prefer to take breaks?
9. How do you typically go about revising, and what does your revising
include? Do you write out complete revised drafts or simply insert, delete, or
move material in the previous draft? How many drafts or stages of revision do
you usually go through before the final version? What are the things you think
about most as you revise?
10. If you “get stuck” while writing, what do you usually do to get
moving again?
11. What would you say is most effective about your writing process?
What is most enjoyable? What is least effective about your writing process?
What is least enjoyable?
12. What specific steps could you take to improve your writing process?
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2. PLANNING AND DRAFTING
2.1. Selection of the subject
Many writers complain that their biggest difficulty is finding a subject.
Sometimes that difficulty appears less complicated because the subject is
identified in a writing assignment. But writing assignments vary in how they are
worded, what they assume, and what they expect. For example, you may be
asked to discuss two characters in a play you have read. This open assignment
does not identify a subject; it merely identifies an area in which a subject needs
to be developed. Another version of that same assignment might ask you to
compare and contrast the way the two characters make compromises. This
closed assignment identifies a subject, but it assumes you know how to work
with a specific form (the comparison and contrast essay) and it expects you to
produce specific information (two ways of defining and dealing with
compromise). In other words, although the second assignment restricts the
subject, you must still select and arrange the subject matter of your essay.
When you have a free choice of subjects, your difficulties may appear
more complicated. No one is helping you find your subject. On the other hand,
no one is telling you what to do or how to do it. You are free to make all your
own decisions. Rather than discuss two characters you have read about in a play,
you may decide to compare and contrast two characters you know in your
neighborhood. Or better still, you may decide to analyze how your favorite
character (you) deals with the problem of making compromises.
Whether you are responding to an assignment or creating your own, you
need to follow certain measures if you are to find an appropriate subject. First,
you should write about a subject you know or can learn something about. The
more you know about your subject, the more likely you are to shape it according
to your unique perspective. In particular, if your subject is familiar to most of
your readers, then your personal experience with or research on the subject will
help you write about it in terms of your observations, your ideas, and your
values. Second, you must determine if your subject is a general subject that you
must limit to a specific subject. A general subject is a large category of
information, such as situation comedies on television. A specific subject focuses
on a particular topic within that category, such as the portrayal of women in
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