Brian Becraft Adam Padgett ENGL 1101-091 November 25, 2013

What Defines Good Writing? When trying to define writing, we, as readers, can look at many different aspects. Every person has a unique and different view of what makes good writing. Each and every one of these opinions are not wrong, but merely a different interpretation. My views of good writing in this paper will differ from others but that is the beauty of writing. It can appeal to different groups of people throughout the world. With that being said, what is good writing? To me, I think good writing consists of a few different things. I think that in order to have good writing, it needs to be: clear and not unnecessarily complex, credible, and have a logical order which the story follows. These three pieces make up my definition of what is good writing. I believe that one of the most important traits of good writing is the ability for it to be understood. Often, writers try and spice up their writing with big words and very intellectual thinking in their works. The problem with this is that it becomes very hard to understand. When I read a book or an article; I find I get more from the writing if I can understand the language in the paper. It is much easier for my mind to follow and comprehend what the writer is trying to say if it is put in a clear and simple manner. Now, I dont want to take a cheap shot at intellectual thinkers and make it seem that I hate their writing. I think writing can have a bit of complexity or abstract thinking in it while still being effective. What I am more concerned about are the writers that seemingly want to jam intellectual thinking down the readers throat. It seems that some

Comment [AP1]: Great title!

Comment [AP2]: So does this not water down your argument? Are you being Switzerland? Comment [AP3]: Assuming that speak the language in question, right?

Comment [AP4]: So are you talking exclusively about narratives? Comment [AP5]: Okay, good clear thesis here.

Comment [AP6]: So are you advocating that certain words should be forever blacklisted and that all writing should be dumbed down? What about the responsibility of the reader to develop his/her own personal literacy?

Comment [AP7]: What does this mean? Seems antithetical to what college fundamentally is.

writers just want to prove how smart they are when they write. This kind of writing becomes a problem for me, and I would assume not only me. This writing becomes problematic when trying to understand and comprehend. I become distracted by the language and the message and meaning of the writing gets lost. I actually have a professor for one of my liberal studies classes that is the prime example of what I am talking about here. Here is piece of his writing that was included in our study guide for our midterm exam that he sent to the class: In Chapter Two of Mental Culture, McCauley argues that in Religious Studies (and by extension the disciplines associated with Culture) view reductionism as bad. The balance between explanatory and interpretive enterprises is skewed toward the latter, although they are both interdependent of one another. This was just a small piece of writing from a larger paragraph where he basically summarized a chapter of assigned reading. Although this is very intellectual writing, as you can see, it is very hard to understand. This writing could have been simplified a whole lot more in order to make it easier to comprehend. It took me, as well as most of my classmates, a long time to understand the language in the summary. I think his writing, and resulting midterm exam grades, could be improved if he wrote in a more simplistic manner. Although he is a very qualified professor, his writing doesnt need to prove that to me. If he wrote a simplistic version, I believe he would find that his students would understand it much more easily. Another important aspect to writing is the issue of credibility. In order for writing to be effective, it needs to be written by a credible source. I think that as readers its important to question who wrote the words that we are reading. As readers, we should demand credibility in the pieces we read. Fiction and non-fiction alike should have the same level of credibility coming from the writer. In the case of non-fiction, we should expect the writer to know the topic that they are writing about. In the case of fiction, we should expect the writer to know how to write
Comment [AP8]: Why isnt this word too fancy for a piece of writing?

Comment [AP9]: Ha! This is a good example :) very college-y

and draw us into their story. Since credibility is at different levels for non-fiction and fiction, I want to break these into two separate points below in order to make them more easily understandable. First I will talk about the importance of credibility in non-fiction. As readers of nonfiction, we should expect a couple things. We should expect the writer to know the basics of writing and how to form a paper or article. Secondly, we expect the writer to know what they are writing about and there should be truth and validity in what they are writing. A great example of the importance of this is found in news. The best example of this would be the satirical news agency, The Onion. For those who do not know what the onion is, it is basically a sarcastic, fictional news agency that tries to present fake news stories as they are real. This agency does such a good job that other countries around the world have actually taken their articles as truth and reported them as truth in their news. An example of an article from the onion is below:
FORT COLLINS, COClaiming that it is the humane thing to do, and that the planet is just going to suffer if kept alive any longer, members of the worlds scientific community recommended today that Earth be put down. We realize this isnt the easiest thing to hear, but weve run a number of tests and unfortunately theres really nothing more we can do for Earth at this point, said leading climatologist Dr. Robert Wyche of Colorado State Universitys Department of Atmospheric Science. Earths ecosystems have hung in there for a while, and you have to hand it to the old gal for staying alive this long, but at this point the chances of a recovery are, Im sorry to say, incredibly unlikely. It might be time to say goodbye. Earth is in a lot of pain, folks, Wyche continued. Time to think about sending it off peacefully, for its own sake. While admitting that the prospect of saying goodbye to the terrestrial planet is very difficult, Wyche explained to reporters that letting nature take its course would only prolong the inevitable. Wyche also stressed that if Earth is not put down, humanity would ultimately be responsible for its continuing care, which would be increasingly difficult as time goes on. Scientists reportedly also made several heartfelt assurances that the procedure would be quick and virtually painless. We understand that youve all become very attached to Earth over the years, and its hard to let go of something you love like this, but the fact is that no matter what, it simply wont be able to keep going for much longer, said Wyche, adding that there would be no guarantees regarding Earths already substandard quality of life if it is not put down in the immediate future. Look, at the end of the day, Earth is 4.5 billion years old and had a great life. The last thing you want to do is wait and draw this difficult ordeal out any further. Granted, this is a very tough decision, so if you need more time to think about it or discuss it amongst yourselves, thats totally understandable, Wyche added. But just be aware that the longer you wait, the more pain Earth will ultimately endure. Reportedly sensing some hesitancy on the part of humanity, Wyche then reiterated that very little can be done to prevent or counteract the myriad of maladies currently plaguing Earth, and that putting down the planet would in fact be the caring thing to do at this juncture. To be honest, there is a chance that had we taken more drastic steps earlier, Earth would have been able to survive for longermuch, much longer, even, Wyche said. But unfortunately, that is now a moot point.

Comment [AP10]: How can you infer this though?

Formatted: Font: Italic

Comment [AP11]: So, youre saying theyre good at faking credibility? Interesting. What other implications does this have on writing, do you think?

Right now, you should just cherish the good times you and Earth had together and give it a gentle and merciful send-off. Its your choice, though, Wyche added. So, you know, take your time. At press time, scientists had given humanity a few private moments to say goodbye before finally putting Earth out of its misery.

Comment [AP12]: You might be able to use a smaller sample of the article. Is the entire thing necessary?

As you can see, the average person who does not know about the subject may take this as a real news story. Although this may be good fictional writing, I think it is important to know what we are looking for when we are reading. If we are viewing this site as non-fiction, as some people around the world, it is terrible writing. The writer likely has no credentials to the subject manner, and the truth and validity of the article is extremely questionable. This is why it is important to know what you are reading when looking at credibility. The Onion, is not a credible news source and therefore shouldnt be taken as such. In fiction writing, I believe the demand for credibility is less. For fictional writing, the credibility that needs to be present is more in terms of the process of writing. As readers we should expect that the writer knows the processes of writing and can effectively apply them with the story that is being presented. When we are reading a fiction novel, we should expect to be able to follow the change in chapters and the change in ideas between paragraphs. We should not be lost due to the layout of the writing. As readers, we should also expect that there are no typos in the reading. A credible author of a novel will write and revise multiple times in order to take care of grammatical and spelling issues. If there is a book or short story that is filled with grammatical and spelling issues we should really question the credibility of the author. I personally would question the credibility of a writer if the writing was filled with these mistakes. Grammar and spelling can become distractions from the writing and can negatively impact the effectiveness of the writing. Credibility in fiction is not often a problem especially in books due to the amount of editing and time spent on revision, but it is still important to demand credibility in these pieces that we read.
Comment [AP16]: These things seem axiomatic and not discussion-worthy. Comment [AP17]: Or a writer with a good editor. Which I dont think Suzanne Collins had for The Hunger Games. Comment [AP18]: But isnt this true with all writing? Comment [AP14]: Interesting. I would disagree. Comment [AP15]: Im not sure what you mean by this. Formatted: Font: Italic Comment [AP13]: So arent you talking about fiction as opposed to non-fiction? So your premise of this being non-fiction is faulty?

The last important piece of good writing, in my opinion, is the presence of a logical order. A story or article needs to follow a logical, and easy to follow, message. Writing can get very difficult to understand especially when it jumps around without order. Now, I do not think writing has to be completely linear to the point where things such as flashbacks are eliminated, but I believe that it should be clear when the writing moves away from the linear path. If a writer wants to jump back in time or provide background of a character, it should be clear that this is the intent. I think movies are a prime example of this. In a movie, when the director wants to show a flashback, they often do so with some sort of camera effect. This camera effect is the visual way of telling the person watching that this is something going on out of order. This same method can be applied in writing in order to make the reader understand the order of the story. The writer can use some sort of writing method; whether it be a new chapter, or simply giving the time that this event takes place; something needs to be done in order to show the reader that something is going on out of order. If a writer fails to do this, the story can become incredibly confusing. The reader will spend more time trying to figure out when a certain event happened than they will spend following the story. I cannot think of a literacy example of this writing which to include in this paper, but for the people who have seen the movie Inception, they understand this concept in a visual example. If you have not seen the movie, I recommend watching it in order to understand this concept. Although it was an interesting movie, it jumped around between real time, flashbacks, and future, and this made it incredibly hard to follow. The reason I use this example of Inception, although not technically writing, there is a written story that the director followed in order to produce the movie; so I feel that we can apply some of my ideas to it. The main point of using this example is to show that writing, even when in movies, can be hard to follow if there is not some sort of logical order for the reader. Although it is okay
Comment [AP19]: So now youre talking about articles only, journalism?

to break from this logical order, it needs to be signified in the writing so the reader knows what is going on. If a writer fails to signify this break in order, it will become very hard to follow. Writing is an incredibly interesting topic to think about. Writing is so incredibly diverse that it can be difficult to say exactly what is good or bad. Everyone has differing opinions and every reader has different likes and dislikes in writing. This paper was a small summary of my thoughts on writing, and my attempt to define what is good writing. I believe that good writing consists of not one, but a few different things; and in order to be effective it must contain these three things. Brian, I really enjoyed reading this essay. You do a really good job asserting your opinions and you use specific textual evidence to support claims. I also appreciate the specific thesis you mention in your intro. I do think that, while you have a good thesis, this paper could use some focus. In other words, just because you have a thesis that covers multiple topics doesnt mean you essay is thus focused. The old five paragraph model where you mention three topics in the intro and then cover each topic in three body paragraphs. All of your paragraphs should be actively arguing for one central thesis, making use of various examples and discussion topics to support that one singular thesis. This essay seems to be running through a checklist as opposed to engaging in a discourse. Again, the conversations you do have are interesting and are great ideas, but I need more focus, a single message you want your reader to walk away with.
Comment [AP20]: I dont believe you mean this. Thats fine if you do. In fact, its great if you do, but I dont believe this particular sentence. Comment [AP21]: Youre being redundant. I need more substantial things to say here. your conclusion is the last thing your professor will read before assigning you a grade, so make it count, really hammer your point home.

Works Cited

1.) Course Materials for LBST 2102-343. William McCorkle. Summary of a Chapter in the book Mental Culture. Fall Semester 2013, University of North Carolina Charlotte

2.) "Scientists Recommend Having Earth Put Down | The Onion - America's Finest News Source." Scientists Recommend Having Earth Put Down. N.p., 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.