What Does Make You A Good Writer?

This chapter is important in a beginning writer’s process because it helps them to understand the basis of writing, connecting with the reader.

By examining the ideas in the essays Freewriting by Peter Elbow and The Makers Eye: Revising your own manuscripts by Donald Murray. One can gain a better understanding of the process of turning a piece of writing from an inspiration into a craft. By examining the elements lined out in each essay can be beneficial in creating a piece of writing that is beyond a college or student level. Elbows essay lines out the importance of a strong prewriting regimen. That editing too early can ruin writing. He believes that by using the method of free writing, it can inspire ideas that may be limited when worrying about grammar. While Murray emphasizes the necessity to create many drafts to form writing into its full potential. Saying each draft is an opportunity to discover what the author has to say and they the best way to say it. By transforming writing into its maximum potential it goes from being an idea an inspiration a masterpiece.

Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.

In this chapter, Lunsford details the planning and drafting process for a writer to organize their ideas with either a formal outline or a rough plan. Lunsford reminds writers to be flexible during the drafting process and not to think twice about changing elements of the essay at this point in the process. Lunsford goes on to explain the qualities academic paragraphs must have these include unity, development and coherence. To obtain unity within a paragraph all sentences should relate to the topic sentence of the paragraph. When developing a paragraph it is important to switch between general and specific ideas in the paragraph, while supporting those ideas with details, evidence and examples as required. Ensuring a paragraph is coherent is crucial when developing an academic paragraph. Because readers need to be able to follow a writers ideas easily, Lunsford gives her readers a method to follow to achieve this goal. This method includes using the general to specific ideas, repetition, parallel structures, and using transition words. The author notes that this method should also be used to link paragraphs

Based on his argument using a piece of story from his past, the writer conceptually supported his explanatory point of views on how skills can be developed with a passion of understanding the writer’s intention. I believe that the writer of this article addressed fundamental thoughts that should be useful in the process of reading as a writer, and on how to become a better writer.

Stephen King includes in his book advice for writers to become the best they can be. One of his tips if that “…good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level…with the right instruments,” (King 142). The fundamentals of writing in which King discusses is learned through practice and studying. Passionate writers will take the time to perfect these skills and then add their own flavor to make their writing more interesting and their own. To make pieces of writing personalized to the author, the author must be creative and original.

Everyone knows what writing is to one extent or another, but we all have different definitions of how it should be done and varying degrees of seriousness about the art. We all have a process of writing, but each is unique to ourselves and our own experiences. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two well known authors who have published many pieces, two of which describe how they view the writing process and let their readers get a peek of what goes on through their minds when they write. These two pieces are Dillard’s The Writing Life and King’s “What Writing Is.”

The writing process, not only taught us the three writing processes, but also writing in a style appropriate to audience and purpose. Having the audience and purpose of writing or reading is the first strategy to writing or reading. The more you know who your audience are, their background, cultural or belief system, the more you will have an idea on how to make your writing appealing to them and accomplish your purpose. Like I pointed out in the first paragraph, until now, I never considered who my audience for my writing will be and this I believe has defeated my purpose over time. Knowing my audience before each writing has gone a long way to influence my tone, diction and structure of my writings……(explain). Discovering the importance of the audience has been very insightful to the purpose of my writing through the learning

Writing is different for everybody. After reading the first part of On Writing Well by William Zinsser my perspective toward writing changed; starting off by the fact that he admitted that “writing is indeed hard” (12). This author, with humorous stories and anecdotes, explained several principles that help one understand how to write efficiently. First of all, be yourself! Zinsser emphasizes the fact that you should be true to yourself and your writing in order to engage a reader in your piece. Other essential principles are: Be precise and avoid clutter. He claims that “the secret to good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components” (7). As I read, I noticed how important engaging a reader becomes to an author but Zinsser reminded me how my writing was made to “please myself first” and then an audience (25). The last but not least rules to follow are: to “avoid clichés” (Zinsser, 35) and “separate usage from confusing jargon” (Zinsser, 45). It is important to maintain your reader active by expressing clear thoughts and avoiding typical sayings that only make a literary piece

Good writing isn’t simply well-crafted sentences. Good writing makes a point” (102). This reminded me of our instructor Ziff’s statement because he mentioned on the essay guideline page that the quality of the writing is more important than the length of the paper. That means I have to pay more attention on how to state my idea clear than worry about putting big words or make it sound

Writing well is one skill that many wish that they possessed, but they are limited by lack of grammar knowledge, sophisticated sentence structure, and original creative ideas. Even people who write as a living struggle to create a work that will be thought of as brilliant and memorable. What are the qualifications that make a work of writing good? Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, Why not a Football degree by William F. Shughart, and The 10,000 Hour Rule by Malcolm Gladwell are all examples of excellent prose.

In chapters five and nine, Williams indicated that the goals of writing include leaving the reader with a solid understanding of the main idea from beginning to end. Readers should clearly understand what the writers are writing about and how to get from point to point. An excellent essay should include an introduction, a body and a conclusion that ties together.

The biggest factor that plays in good writing in my opinion is how much emotion the writer puts into his or her work. Honestly, a good reader will be able to tell how much effort was put into a writing from the first couple of sentences. If the reader gets a sense of the writing trying to force words into a sentence or trying to stretch out a page you will lose your reader right then and there. If you honestly believe in what you are writing and have interest in the subject matter the reader will be able to read between the lines and actually have a feeling of being there,

Every how to become a better writer book, article, class or seminar seem to always enforce the importance of reading, for reading is regarded as the writer’s daily bread. For it builds the reader’s understanding of others experiences. Not that other writers’ experience is more important than non-writers but simply put books, poems, paintings, articles or blogs are all artist statements that introduce an artist. Artists possess a language, which is all they own whether written, spoken, painting, drawing, sculpture, or singing. As a writer I want my artwork to have a critical view of social, political and cultural issues. In my work, I want to analyze and rethink the so-called American dream, popular fairy tales, and my children chosen nursery rhymes. I want to engage subjects as diverse as the civil rights movement, and classical music.

A writer can accomplish composing a “good” piece of writing by making sure he has logical reasoning behind their statements, by making it noticeable when they transition into explaining another point, and when by not letting their personal feelings be put ahead of their logical reasons, and by making the reader question them. These are not only important for the author but it is also important for the reader. If a author does not have a logical reasoning behind his statements than the reader can not take it as a credible source and they will most likely not believe it. Transitions are a huge part of good writing also because if a reader can not tell when your last point ends and the next one starts