Qualities of Effective Writing
Makes Your Position Clear
Your task as a writer is to make your position clear through the precise statement of your dominant idea, clear examples that make the basis of your idea plain, arrangement of your points so that they lead your reader along the path of your thoughts without confusion, and effective language that holds your reader's attention (37).
Adapted from Kann, David. The Literate Writer. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1995.
Springs from A Reason to Write
Your best writing begins with your response. Writing also helps you discover what you think. No writer writes without a reason to write, a pressing need to confront a problem or express an idea or feeling through the distance that language creates. Writers often write because they want to find out just what it is they think and feel about a subject that is important to them. Most writers expect and hope to be surprised by their words as they appear on the page (41).
Adapted from Kann, David. The Literate Writer. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1995.
Serves the Interests of the Reader
People read . . . for a purpose that has to do with issues that are important to them as individuals or as members of a larger community. Reading is inevitably linked to learning about self and one's relation to one's inner world, outer world, or both. Because readers read for their own purposes, to write effectively, you have to write with some knowledge of your readers—your audience—and their purpose for reading what you have to tell them. If you want your writing to be effective, you must connect your subject and your dominant idea with the concerns of your audience so that they may learn about their worlds and your world through what you have to say (42-43).
Adapted from Kann, David. The Literate Writer. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1995.
Does Justice to the Dominant Idea
When you write effectively, you do justice to your dominant idea by thinking about it in terms of your readers and the knowledge you assume they have or need to have to understand your point. You do justice to your dominant idea by providing your audience with enough information to allow its members to understand what you have to say. You also do justice to your dominant idea by recognizing what your audience probably already knows and does not need to be reminded of (43).
Adapted from Kann, David. The Literate Writer. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1995.
Is Appropriate to the Situation and Audience
As they write, writers define for themselves as best they can the interests, attitudes, assumptions, and experiences of their audience. They then adjust the organization of their ideas, the examples they choose to make their ideas clear, and their language to make their writing appropriate to their audience. Effective writing, then, is a complex, continuously changing, challenging balance of audience, ideas and responses, and language. To create an effective balance, you must think consciously about the choices you make. Do your words represent you and your subject in the most effective way? Is the voice you have created appropriate to the situation and your subject as well as how you want your readers to feel about them? Have you chosen appropriate examples, neither talking down to your reader no assuming too much about him or her? Have you made it clear to your reader why what you have to say is important and deserves attention? (43-44)
Adapted from Kann, David. The Literate Writer. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1995.
Exhibits these Components
IntroductionThe Introduction is the part of your essay where you present the topic you are writing about and a clear statement of what you want to say about this topic. It is also the place where you present your Thesis.
The thesis is the nail that the effectiveness of your writing hangs on. Make sure you have a clearly stated thesis and that all the supporting details in your writing relate to, support, and develop your thesis. It's important to note that there is a big difference between a thesis and a main point. A main point is a statement of fact, not a matter of the writer's opinion (informed or otherwise). A thesis is a statement offered as the writer as true or correct, but actually it is a matter of the writer's opinion.
Examples:
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"The Rocky Mountains have three important geological features: abundant water, gold- and silver-bearing ore, and oil-bearing shale."
This is a main point. The writer makes a statement of fact (one that is easily verified), does not include her opinion, nor try to change the reader's. |
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"The Rocky Mountains are the most important source of geological wealth in the U. S. A."
This is also a statement of fact (one that can also be easily verified) but it also includes a statement of the author's opinion. What about Alaska or Florida? Are they not or could they not be more important sources of geological wealth? Such a thesis statement, with its inclusion of the author's opinion (informed or otherwise) signals to readers that the author will try to sway their point of view. The effectiveness of your writing will depend on how well you can marshall facts and details to support your thesis and change your reader's point of view. |
Body
The body of your essay is where you develop your thesis by presenting evidence or information gleaned from your research. This evidence or information should be compelling in that it supports your opinion in your thesis and in that it changes your readers' point of view (convinces them that you are correct in your opinion). The evidence or information that you include in the body of your essay are called "supporting ideas" in that they support your opinion in your thesis, and show your readers' that instead of just shooting off your mouth you are knowledgeable about your topic.
Objectivity versus Subjectivity
Subjectivity places your opinion or inference, which may not be correct, as the central fact in the writing. Subjective statements may also be based on facts that have not been verified correctly or completely. They are easy to grasp and use as bold, declarative statements. But, subjective statements are dangerous because can mistakenly carry the emotional weight of a conclusion. Objectivity is a way of looking at your subject with the smallest amount of personal, emotional intrusion as possible. Objectivity comes from numerous observations over time and from different perspectives, from looking for aspects of your subject like change, contrast, consequence,and characterization. See the examples below.
| Subjective | Objective |
| "Abortion is murder." | "Abortion is the removal of a fetus from a woman's womb." |
| "The teacher was unhappy when the class bell drowned out his discussion." | "I surveyed one hundered seventeen teachers. Forty-seven indicated they were frustrated when the class bell sounded before they had finished their lesson discussion." |
The conclusion can do several things depending on your purpose for writing a particular essay:
- Summarize the main points you covered in your essay
- Encourage your readers' to change their point of view or actions
- Point your readers' to larger issues that might relate to your thesis
- Rephrase your thesis in light of your discussion
- Provide resolution or closure to your development of supporting details in the body of your essay
- Provide your readers' with a sense of ending to the discussion
Adapted from Truscott, Robert. The Essentials of College ∓ University Writing. Piscataway, NJ: Research and Education Association, 1995. 34-36.
Effective Writing Combines these Qualities
A sort of ecology shapes writing. Every part depends on every other part, and a problem in any one element has consequences for every other element. If you do not think about your reader, you cannot fulfill the purpose of your writing—to clearly express your sense of your particular situation to another person. If you do not think about the situation that surrounds your writing, you can't think clearly about your reader and how to address him or her. Also, without a clear sense of how to do justice to your subject and your dominant idea through your language, you cannot effectively fulfill your purpose as a writer. Finally, the voice you choose to express your ideas—your choice of words, the length and rhythm of your sentences, whether or not you use figurative language and words that appeal to your reader's emotions—both reflects and helps you refine your sense of your situation, your purpose, and your audience (45).
Adapted from Kann, David. The Literate Writer. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1995.
An Example of Very Effective Writing
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail is at the top of my list as an example of VERY effective writing. King was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, on 12 April 1963 for disobeying a court injunction forbidding demonstrations. The same day, eight leading white Birmingham clergymen published a letter in the city newspaper calling for an end to the civil rights protests and urging black citizens to address their concerns instead through the courts and local government. King began his response to these clergymen, his Letter from Birmingham Jail, that day and finished it the following Tuesday. It was published in newspapers around the world. King's writing is as effective today as when it was first published. Click here to read Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail as a PDF file, and to hear an audio file of Dr. King reading from his letter, both courtesy of The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.