How to write well

Adam writes:

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.

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