How do I isolate the mechanics of writing and focus on each component one by one, thereby improving my writing? After further research, I have explored the potential answers to these questions. This article will outline the aspects of good writing namely clarity, cohesiveness, emphasis and conciseness.
I have made further pointers here:
- I could read many books and understand the lectures, but give me a writing task?
- Reading books on writing did nothing.
- This article will outline the aspects of good writing namely clarity, cohesiveness, emphasis and conciseness.
- 1. Good writing is clear
- 2. Good writing is cohesive
- 3. Good writing has emphasis
- 4. Good writing is concise
- Good writing is clear
- Clear prose is one that a reader can understand.
- So, what makes prose clear and good?
- Clear prose is good when it tells a story.
- A story has two components – characters and actions.
- When your prose seems too complex, locate the cast of characters and their actions.
- Since nominalisation is a noun, it does not carry the same weight to the prose like an action word.
- Prose that contains a subject and a nominalisation lacks the element of a good story.
- (2) also tells the readers a story.
- There are clear subjects (we, committee) and the actions know, determine and allocate.
- Good writing is cohesive
- Prose that does this will have a consistent topic string, which will make it feels more focused and cohesive.
- Prose that breaks this rule, such as an arduously long sentence usually does not focus on one topic.
- The first paragraph has inconsistent topic strings, such as hotel, international dancing competition and people.
- Furthermore, the characters do not have any actions attached to it, making the paragraph lacks a story.
- The lack of story and the inconsistent topic strings make the paragraph confusing.
- Compare this to the second paragraph, where it has only two topic strings, hotel and event.
- The character, hotel has an action wanted.
- The combination of a character and an action creates a story in the sentence.
- Therefore, the second paragraph has a story and consistent topic strings.
- Good writing has emphasis
- Prose has a good emphasis when it ends itself well.
- Most writers struggle to write well when the subjects use technical terms.
- When you introduce complex information, design the sentence that it appears in, so that you can locate that term at the end.
- When you end a sentence with a good emphasis, the readers know what to expect in the sentence.
- A sentence that does not end with an emphasis, will feel monotonous.