Elements of a Good Writing

8/4/2019 Elements of a Good Writing

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The Subject

•All good writing is based on a carefully chosen subject,

whether it was chosen by the writer or assigned by

someone else.

•To get potential and interesting things to write, relate

the topic to life experiences and life lessons, orconsider it using different aspects or approaches.



Topic:

working while going to school

APPROACHES EXAMPLES

Tell a personal story The story of a relative who managed to finish his

college although he worked.

Discuss the effects The effects of going to college and working at the

same time

Explain how to do something How to organize time and energy to fulfill office and

school works.

Show contrasts Contrast a person who goes to college while working

to a person who either works only or goes to collegeonly

Show the advantage(s) Reveal what advantages someone gets in his career

after finishing his college.



main purposesfor writing

entertainmentTells a story through

narrative writing

informationPresents information

developed in description,analysis, definition, etc

persuasiontries to convince the readerto agree with the writer’s

point of view on a topic.



Audience

A successful writer suits his writing to his readers. To do this, heshould ask himself:

• What do the readers already know about the subject?

• What are their attitudes toward the subject?

• Will they be in agreement with the my point of view?

• Are they of similar age?

• Do they have a similar level of education?

• Do they have interests, tastes, or political points of view that

agree?Getting the answers of these questions, the writer suits hisdiction and style so that the readers will be receptive to his ideas.



Voice

In general voice can be viewed as the revelation of two differentattitudes:

1) The attitude toward the subject matter. For instances: a politician

might write passionately about a subject. A comic writer could be

humorous or sarcastic about a subject. A critic could reveal a

lighthearted or judgmental attitude.

2) The attitude toward the audience, which ranges from very formal

(such as the attitude of an expert submitting a research paper to an

academic journal) to less formal (such as the attitude of a student

writing a friendly e-mail to a classmate).• Formal writing uses the third person (he, she, it, they, him, their,

etc.)

• Less formal writing uses the second person (you, your)



Rewrite the following paragraph in to a more formal

one by replacing the second person.

Your world is getting smaller, and the pace of change is quickening.

When you graduate you will change jobs as many as ten times over the

course of your career, often moving in completely new directions. You

will probably end up in a career that is fairly unrelated to what you

studied in college and find yourself working with colleagues from manydifferent nations and cultures. You will succeed if you think broadly. You

should take courses that will give you the greatest range of opportunity.

Your world has become much more interdependent. Health, law,

business, and many other fields all operate in a world of permeable

borders. You need an international outlook to prevent the spread ofdisease, to reduce the flow of illicit drugs, or to resolve environmental

challenges. If you understand other societies and cultures, you will

have a wider base of knowledge and have better communication skills

than those who do not.



Unity

• In a piece of good writing, every sentence serves the

central theme, with every detail directly related to

the main idea. Unity guarantees that the reader has

no trouble grasping the writer’s main point. • To build unity, any sentence which does not

contribute to the main idea should be dropped.



Coherence

Coherence refers to the organization of all parts

of a writing so that one idea leads logically to

the next. To create coherence, writers use three

important techniques:

1) repetition of key words,

2) use of synonyms and pronouns to refer to key

words,

3) careful choice of transitional expressions.



Example of the importance of Coherence • The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead people's bodies by

making mummies of them. Mummies several thousand years old have beendiscovered nearly intact. The skin, hair, teeth, fingernails and toenails, andfacial features of the mummies were evident. It is possible to diagnose thedisease they suffered in life, such as smallpox, arthritis, and nutritionaldeficiencies. The process was remarkably effective. Sometimes apparentwere the fatal afflictions of the dead people: a middle-aged king died from ablow on the head, and polio killed a child king. Mummification consisted of removing the internal organs, applying natural preservatives inside and out,

and then wrapping the body in layers of bandages.

• The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead people's bodies bymaking mummies of them. In short, mummification consisted of removingthe internal organs, applying natural preservatives inside and out, and thenwrapping the body in layers of bandages. And the process was remarkably

effective. Indeed, mummies several thousand years old have beendiscovered nearly intact. Their skin, hair, teeth, fingernails and toenails, andfacial features are still evident. Their diseases in life, such as smallpox,arthritis, and nutritional deficiencies, are still diagnosable. Even their fatalafflictions are still apparent: a middle-aged king died from a blow on thehead; a child king died from polio.

(Retrieved from: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/transitions.htm)



Reference

• Scarry, Sandra & Scarry, John. 2011. The Writer’s

Workplace with Readings: Building College Writing

Skills (7 th ed.) Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

• Coherence: Transitions Between Ideas. Retrieved on

Thursday, September 15, 2011 from http://grammar

.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/transitions.htm

Elements of a Good Writing

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