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Defining Good Usage Essay

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Defining Good Usage

There are thousands of pieces of advice about writing out there. Every English text book discusses it. Every person knows the rules to good writing by heart. In fact it is next to impossible to separate what we have been told from our own beliefs.

Beliefs themselves are formed by what you are taught, yet they still allow you the freedom to do as you choose. This just does not seem to hold true. When good writing is taught to be the rule not something to be interpreted by the student.

Enough about beliefs and teachings. Define good usage, if that's what good writing requires. Is it using the largest, most difficult, word you can in your writing? Is it diction, connotation, denotation, sentence structure, or …show more content…

If the word is right to the author it could be absolutely incorrect to the reader because the author first off, knows what they are trying to say and can read things however they see fit, and secondly the author and the reader may connote a different meaning with the same word or phrase.

Big problem here. Nothing has been set as to what is good use. Is that not what you are supposed to be talking about here? All that has been said is that it depends on what you are writing and who has to define it. No, that hasn't even been said you keep asking it in questions so there is no answer. Is that what you want to say? Of course not! Then you would not be doing the assignment correctly, or would you? Great, now you have totally confused yourself. Spell out what you are trying to say in plain English now.

Good writing depends on good usage. Then what is good usage you may ask. Good word usage is different for every type of writing. For instance, in a letter of application or a résumé you should use larger words but not words that your perspective employer would have to keep looking up in a dictionary to understand. This is the same in business writing. Picture your intended audience. Say things in as few words as possible and keep it as simple as possible.

Good writing is good word usage, then? That seem right, yet not complete. Good usage then also must depend on whether you are

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