Writing WellWriting Well

AGED 3142

Types of WritingTypes of Writing

• Creative Writing• Goals: to entertain, provoke thought, or express an idea

artistically• Audience: usually general, possibly targeted• Meaning: abstract and open to interpretation• Style and format: open to creative discretion (submitted

works generally follow MLA style)• Examples

• Poetry• Lyrics• Short stories• Novels• Play/Movie scripts

Types of WritingTypes of Writing

• Journalistic Writing• Goals: to inform or persuade• Audience: usually general, possibly targeted• Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation• Style and format: structured according to AP style

and various publications’ in-house style manuals• Examples

• News stories• Feature stories• News releases• Editorial columns• Advice columns

Types of WritingTypes of Writing

• Academic Writing• Goals: to demonstrate understanding of complex topics, to

explore new concepts• Audience: usually an instructor, but other experts if work is

publishable• Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation• Style and format: structured according to various academic

style manuals (Chicago, APA, MLA, American Society of Agronomists, etc.) and instructor’s directions

• Examples• Essays and subjective exams• Class research and other project papers• Position papers and literature reviews

Types of WritingTypes of Writing

• Scientific Writing• Goal: to share results of scientific investigation with various

audiences• Audience: possibly expert, but possibly lay• Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation• Style and format: structured according to various

professional, academic, and University style manuals• Examples

• Journal articles• Research proposals, theses, and dissertations• Popular science articles• Conference papers• Theoretical pieces

Types of WritingTypes of Writing

• Professional Writing• Goal: to facilitate in-house and external

communications in business settings• Audience: experts, executives, technicians,

operators, and laypersons• Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation• Style and format: structured according to

business conventions and in-house style manuals• Examples

• Letters, e-mails, and memos• Résumés and vitae• Sales and marketing proposals• Project reports• Final reports

Types of WritingTypes of Writing

• Technical Writing• Goal: to facilitate in-house and external communications in

a business setting• Audience: possibly expert, but possibly lay• Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation• Style and format: structured according to various

professional and in-house style manuals• Examples

• Solicited proposals for grants and technical contracts• In-house proposals for project plans• Progress reports• Auditing and evaluation reports• Final reports• Technical descriptions• Instructions and training manuals

Regardless of the genre…Regardless of the genre…

All good writing has some of the same characteristics.

Good Writing Is Always the Result of Hard Work

Good Writing Is Always the Result of Hard Work

• Writing is a process, and good writing usually evolves over time

• Often, writing becomes “good writing” during the revision part of the process

• During revision, you should ask yourself: “Does my writing have the qualities associated with ‘good writing’”?

• If those qualities aren’t there, REVISE

Qualities of Good WritingQualities of Good Writing

• Appropriate for audience and purpose• Organized with a recognizable structure

• Introductions and overviews• Supporting paragraphs that focus on one

topic or supporting idea

• Consistent in style, tone, and form• Consistent spelling, grammar, punctuation • Either informal or formal tone• Consistent structure of info (headings)

Qualities, cont’d.Qualities, cont’d.

• Clear message• No contradictions• No beating around the bush

• Concise sentences and paragraphs• For general audiences (and print media),

the best average sentence length is about 17 words

• However, good writers vary sentence length around this average

Qualities, cont’d.Qualities, cont’d.

• Make every word count• Example

Wordy: He is a man who procrastinatesConcise: He procrastinates

• Concrete language• Definite, specific, descriptive words and

sentences• Example:

Vague: A period of unfavorable weather set inConcrete: It snowed for 12 hours yesterday

Qualities, cont’d.Qualities, cont’d.

• Smooth• If you stumble over your own words, it’s a

sure bet that someone else will• Read your writing aloud to yourself or to

someone else• Let someone else read a draft

You don’t have to be William Shakespeare

You don’t have to be William Shakespeare

• In the journalistic, professional, and technical writing that is the focus of this class, creativity is nice, but functionality is the key (think audience and purpose)

• Don’t shoot yourself in the foot trying to be creative

One Type of Writing: ProposalsOne Type of Writing: Proposals

• Proposals are detailed offers to do work and can sometimes serve as contracts

• Proposals are always informative and persuasive• They inform an audience of a plan to solve a

problem• They persuade the audience that the plan is

logical, effective, and efficient• They persuade the audience that the proposing

organization is likely to do a good job

ProposalsProposals

• Proposals usually contain these basic sections:• Title page• Table of contents• Abstract or executive summary• Introduction

• Background and overview

• Situation analysis• Strategic plan or plans for solution• Plans for evaluation• Budget• Conclusion• References• Appendices

ProposalsProposals

• Proposals are formatted according to industry conventions and according to the request for proposals (RFP)

• All proposals should look professional• Quality printing and binding• Quality graphics and photos• Eloquent choices in fonts and leading• Sensible layout• Good use of white space

Proposal StylesProposal Styles

• The writing and formatting styles of proposals (and other academic, scientific, professional, and technical writing) may depend on a professional style manual• APA (social sciences)• MLA (languages and communication)• Chicago (biological and physical sciences)

• Some organizations have their own style manuals, and some RFPs include stylistic guidelines

APA Style and FormattingAPA Style and Formatting

• The Publication Manual of the APA provided guidelines on how to… • Punctuate• Cite sources in text• Format references pages• Paginate• Using running headers and footers• Display appendices• Etc.

CitationsCitations

• Any information that was not the result of the writer’s own thought process should be cited in a proposal

• Citations add credibility to a persuasive argument• Citations demonstrate that the proposers have

done their homework on the topic• Citations give credit to researchers and experts

for their work• Citations help avoid problems with plagiarism,

academic misconduct, and academic dishonesty

ReferencesReferences

• APA style uses parenthetical citations (Author, date)

• References should be written so that others can easily locate the source

• They should include (in general)• Authors’ names, year, title of article, title of

publication, volume and issue numbers, and page numbers.

• The APA manual specifically describes formats for many types of references.