How to Become a Better Writter
A mistake often made is the lack of knowledge for the reason of writing. The writer’s purpose is to always appeal to an audience, whether you are informing, persuading, or writing to amuse. Your goal is to have some type of influence on the reader. The effectiveness of your influence starts by first gaining full awareness of exactly who your audience may be. In this chapter, the author mentions deferent examples of writing.
For example, if a person were to write something for children, It should be very simple and not composed of much density. A child’s level of understanding Is not as mature as an adults, therefore writing using complicated terms would only confuse them. Keeping this In mind, children’s writing should be on an understanding level. This Is so the children will be able to comprehend the short and simple words. As opposed to writing to a group of educated specialists, this would be considered Inappropriate.
Writing should be formal, with the use of full complex sentences, professional and more complex. After becoming familiar with the audience, the writer should then be sure to not only be grammatically correct, but also correct rhetorically. An example of two different paragraphs were given, one rich and strong in rhetoric, and the other lacking and empty. Both were about English courses they had taken, but what separated the two was thorough detailing. In the first paragraph, the writer told about their favorite course taken during high school.
Although the grammar was correct in the first paragraph, compared to the second paragraph it lacked supporting details. While the second paragraph, opened up more, giving the reader an explanation. When writing, direct details are a key factor. The reader should have a clear understanding on why and how a situation is affected. While practicing the art of rhetoric, the author must also be aware of what is appropriate and inappropriate. Depending on the audience, it can then be decided whether formal, informal, or technical writing is appropriate when writing.
Formal writing, which is to be used most of the time in college writing, has consistent and standard grammar. This can be seen in research papers, scholarly papers, written exams, and serious letters. The purpose of formal writing is never to express he writers opinion or point of view, but to propose a case or argument. For this reason, the “l” point of view or first person should be avoided along with contractions. If examples are needed, they should be made in third person or in general. Seed in things such as Journalistic writing, personal letters, diaries, and light essays, Informal writing Is your personal point of view. With Informal writing being composed of everyday speech, things such as contractions are acceptable. Technical writing on the other hand is also formal English. Unlike formal writing, It Is used by engineers, chicanes, and scientists with specialized vocabulary according to the field. According to chapter 2, technical writing suffers from over wording, the wrong use of past tense, and over using abstract nouns.
With the knowledge of these three forms, It makes It easier for the writer to understand how a letter to their mother should be written or why a love letter Is not written as If It were too Judge. The chapter references learning to ride a bike In a comparison to learning to write well. When getting training wheels taken off for the first time, a person cannot learn to ride instructions can be helpful and memorized, perfection can only be obtained by physical action of actually attempting to ride the bike without the training wheels.
With time, improvement will be noticed. This is the same with learning to write. Practicing the skill of rhetoric will only produce well written literature. Keeping in mind writing is about remembering who the audience is, the purpose of writing and choosing the appropriate writing level. The process of mastering writing as a whole is a process. With the knowledge and study of rhetoric, this can be accomplished.
