english
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What is Good Writing?
With thanks to Hemingway, Camus and Strunk for wrapping a lifetime of thinking about writing up into some very useful quotes ... Answering the question 'what is good writing?' is as difficult as defining what good painting or music is. A great deal of the answer depends on your personal preferences and tastes. However, there are some guidelines that will improve your writing no matter what your taste in style and subject matter may be. Good writing should:
1. Being interesting is not as easy as you may think! We have all been cornered by a friend or relative who bores us with a long and seemingly pointless story - in fact they seem to be talking to themselves and are never aware of the glazed look of boredom in your eyes. Writing is the same. You need to know your readers to know what interests them and then to work hard on keeping their interest. It is very easy to get wrapped up in your own ideas and forget that you are writing for readers who may not be interested in the same level of detail. Keep their interest burning! Stay focused on your main subject matter. Use words that immediately convey the location, situation, action, emotion or thought that you are describing. Do not make the mistake of thinking a reader is without imagination - write terse descriptions and let their imaginations do the rest.
2. Use grammar correctly: your writing will not fall to pieces if it is not grammatically perfect but it will if you litter it with glaring grammatical faults. Bad grammar can obscure your meaning and make your ideas ambiguous. Rather than helping the reader to follow your ideas with clarity, bad grammar will create a confused landscape in which your readers will soon be lost. Be aware of the commonly made grammatical mistakes (view the relevant section) and of how grammar works (see the english4today Grammar). Good grammar will make it easier for you to understand how to structure your writing and put into words complex thoughts and sequences.
3. Use correct syntax: syntax and grammar go together in your writing. Making sure that your sentences, paragraphs and chapters are well organised in a clear and logical way forms the solid foundation of your writing.
4. Tight structuring: Structure is the 'master plan' of your writing. Below the level of description it is the level of structure that will guide your readers to a clear understanding and enjoyment of your work. If the work is unstructured or if the structure is so complex that only you can understand it the reader will quickly become confused and lose the desire to move forward in your work. Structure is often planned and developed before you put a single word down. Good planning will avoid a lot of re-writing!
5. Expressing your point clearly pulls together all of the elements that we have mentioned above and adds a new one - vocabulary. Clarity is about expressing sometimes complex issues simply. Choose simple, short words if they work. Avoid long, technical or latinate words wherever you can. Even academic or technical papers can often be improved by substituting short, clear words for long and rarely used ones. Do not use cliche and jargon. Make the power of your writing its simplicity.
6. Know your subject. If you don't know your subject well it will be obvious no matter how much you try to disguise the fact. Do your research properly, write about things you know about.
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