WRITING PROCESS

SUBJECT, PURPOSE AND AUDIENCE

You must consider the audience, subject and purpose of the writing paper.

Audience. You must first decide who your readers are. Are they professors,
managers, engineers, scientists or students?

Topic. Assessing your audience will allow you to plan your objective or purpose as
well as state the topic treatment (subject). In other words, what terms will you have to
define? What background information will you have to include?

Purpose. Another consideration for audience is having in mind why your audience is
reading the document. This consideration is often referred to as the purpose of the
document. So you must ask yourself if the document is supposed to inform or to
convince. Depending on your purpose you have to decide what style, language or
register you will use.

AUDIENCE

A piece of writing needs to be prepared in terms of information to be included and

type of language to be used according to their ‘audience’ and how much this
‘audience’ knows about the topic and/or the terms or specific jargon they are
expected to understand from the text.

FORMAT

* Another important constraint is the format, which is the arrangement of type upon
the page. This will define the choice of typeface, the placement of headings, the
method of citing references, etc. For longer documents such as reports, format also
encompasses the arrangement of information into sections. Although there is no
universal format, some companies, journals, and courses select formats to serve
their particular audiences, purposes, and occasions.
ELEMENTS OF A GOOD WRITING

Style refers to the way we express ourselves in writing. We cannot talk about a
standard style that every writer must follow, however it is possible to highlight two key
elements in an effective writing style:

Readability and clarity is using words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs

in such a way as to communicate facts and ideas clearly.

Elegance means the use of appropriate and interesting words, phrases,

sentences, and paragraphs to produce nice prose that will keep a reader's
attention and interest.

Using a good style enables writers to communicate information effectively. It moves

the reader along easily from word to word, sentence to sentence, paragraph to
paragraph, and one section of the paper to the next. On the contrary, bad style is
boring and often confusing.

Roger A, Griffin says that to have a good style one must look for elements like:

Clarity and Simplicity: When writing, use clear and simple words and structures so
everything is easily understood by any reader.

Directness: Be specific. Be direct. Get to the point. Avoid statements of abstract

expression and ambiguity. Look for simple and precise expression. Do not guess,
estimate or generalize.

Organization: Follow an outline. Begin with a strong introduction, build your

arguments and develop the topic effectively, and end with a powerful conclusion. In
other words, pretend to be telling the reader a story. So, think ahead, plan what the
reader will want to know next. Also it is important to maintain a common theme and
provide smooth transitions and links.
Vital style: Use active verbs and vivid adjectives. Hold the reader's attention with
powerful descriptions. Make your ideas interesting. Use color, someone else’s
anecdotes, experiences and even humor to enrich your writing. Color and humor add
vitality to descriptions and narrations.

Accuracy: Use correct formal language. If you have doubts look for help in
dictionaries and grammar books or change it.

Taken from: Roger A. Griffin, http://www.austin.cc.tx.us/history/inres00title.html

Suggestions for making your writing understandable and interesting:

1. Write coherent paragraphs joining sentences related to one basic idea. Do not
forget that in a paragraph the first sentence is often a topic sentence which states the
unifying theme that binds the sentences together. Also it is important to check that
each sentence develops logically from the preceding one. Often, one should use
"connector" words or phrases to make this logical development clear to the reader.

2. Write paragraphs that are neither too short nor too long. Do not make
paragraphs of only one sentence. On the other hand, break into at least two
paragraphs, ideas stated in paragraphs half a page long.

3. Start sentences with the subject, rather than with a dependent clause, an
adverb, or a prepositional phrase. Such devices can give variety if used sparingly, but
they often slow the natural flow of ideas.

EXAMPLE:
 Bad: John Smith, realizing that he had perhaps only one last
opportunity to bring order to a community torn by strife and lack of
bureaucratic efficiency, decided to assume absolute control over the
Jamestown settlers.

Better: John Smith decided to assume absolute control over the

Jamestown settlers, realizing that this might be his last opportunity to
bring order to a community torn by strife and lack of bureaucratic
efficiency.

4. Use economy of words. Communicate facts, opinions, arguments, etc. with as

few words as possible. Do not use empty words and phrases in your writing such as:
"generally," "in general," "basically," "it went as follows," "really," "it has been proven
time and time again that . . .," "the fact of the matter is . . . ."

EXAMPLE:

Very wordy: It is a safe assumption to state the idea that the attitudes of
our forefathers have affected the entire course of history.

Better: Delete the first ten words. Begin the sentence with: The
attitudes of our forefathers . . . . . (Communicates the same idea much
more forcefully and directly.)

5. Avoid the passive voice wherever possible. Use the active voice instead.

EXAMPLE:

Passive voice: President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

Same information in the active voice: John Wilkes Booth shot President
Lincoln.

In college student papers it is a common style error to use passive voice which is
weak; tends to make speech wordier and more boring. Use passive voice only when
strictly necessary.

6. Keep sentences relatively short. Writing long sentences can make the meaning
difficult to understand. For example, avoid excessive use of dependent clauses.
Remember, keep it simple.

7. Do not overuse adjectives. Use adjectives properly and wisely so you win in
variety.

8. In general be brief and direct and that means to avoid long terms and be careful
with prepositional phrases, possessives, avoid words and phrases repetitions.
9. Use formal, clear and correct language. Do not use contractions, slang or
colloquialisms.

10. Think on your audience so if you are not sure your reader will understand,
explain unfamiliar words.

Recommendations taken from:

http://www2.ntu.ac.uk/sss/studysupport/Information/Writing/well_written.htm

In general, we must not forget that a college-level research paper is more than the
product of good research and intelligent interpretation. Also, it is important to take
care of many details concerning the prose you use to communicate this research and
interpretation. Above everything, spelling, grammatical, or syntactical errors, are not
allowed in good writing.

To communicate clearly and interestingly you must be concise, and follow principles
of paragraphing, a logical organization, and an appropriate choice of words. Also it is
necessary to obey quotations conventions from sources, and to know the importance
of revising a paper prior to its submittal.

A student must be aware that good writing is difficult work, that will become easier
with practice, but it is worth the effort, since a person spends much of life
communicating facts, ideas, and feelings to others.
Adapted from: http://www.austin.cc.tx.us/history/inres00title.html

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1.- What aspects do I have to take into account to have a good essay or piece
of writing?

The aspects you must take care of when writing are related to the purpose, subject
and even audience you are directing your paper to. When writing, it is very important
to have in mind these aspects so your language, tone and style agree with the
subject or topic, fulfill the purpose or objective set in the introduction and above all,
communicate effectively the ideas according to your audience expectations.

For example, if you are writing a school paper, your subject must be something
related to your major, your purpose might be to prove a hypotheses after some
research and analysis , and your audience will be your instructor.
2.- Why is it necessary to take into consideration the elements of good
writing?

These elements are essential when writing mostly in academic essays since they
allow students to accomplish the main purpose of writing: to communicate
effectively and correctly ideas, concepts and interpretations.

3.- How do I write correctly?

The first thing to consider is to use the correct style necessary to fulfill your purpose
and to make your writing good. Through style you could communicate to your
audience using the correct tone and language so your ideas are clearly understood.

4.-What is an ‘audience’?

It is a group of people (readers) who are supposed to read your work.

Example: A review of a specific piece of art for a specialised ‘art magazine’ may
use the following terms when referring to the painting.

‘The school this piece of art belongs to is the Impressionism.

The strokes are not precisely defined and subtles.
On the contrary, on this landscape the painting reflects
invigorating and not very fine strokes. The clashing colours in
the composition are an important characteristic of this painting
school.”

Example: The same opinion about this piece of art coming from a non-expert art
fan and given to another non-expert friend may read like this.

‘This artist is my favourite because of the contrasts of the colours

he uses and the delicate way in which he used the brush, not very
defined’.

5.- How important is to know the kind of audience?

The audience is an important consideration for all writers. Writers choose their topics
and their techniques of presenting material (tone, register, sentence structure,
organization) according to who will read the finished product. In order to
communicate sucessfuly and to have an interesting and valued final product, you
must decide:

A. Who are you? a student, a son, a friend or an expert.

B. Who is your audience? Classmates, parents, friends or teachers.

6.- What questions must be answered as a guide in order to write

successfully for certain audience?
A. What you write?

What does your audience know?

What are the interests, the needs, and the expectations of your audience?
What does your audience does not know?
What might your audience want to know?
What do you know that you can communicate to your audience?

B. How you write:

Will you use short sentences and simple language?

Will you use sophisticated concepts and terms?
Will you use charts or photographs?

Example: The following paragraph was written by students in response to an

assignment to write a paragraph about their names.

My complete name is Lili Margarite Chan Gonzalez. My first name, Lili, was the
name of a ballet dancer. She was my grandfather’s fiancée. They never got married
because one night after her show she was killed with a knife in the street where she
used to live. In my country most of my friends call me Lilian because they say that Lili
is a diminutive of Lilian. My second name is the name of a flower and also the name
of a saint. In the Catholic religion, our second name must have a catholic meaning.
Chan, my third name, is a Chinese name. I really don’t know anything about it. My
real last name is Gonzalez, and it is a very common Spanish name.

(Taken from: Reid Joy M. The Process of Composition)