READING TIME: 4.8 minutes
(Please share this post with anyone you know who teaches writing at any level.)
Talking to the produce man at my locally owned grocery store, I mention that I teach writing at the local university. He tells me he never liked writing. I hear that a lot. He also says he better watch how he speaks to me to make sure he doesn’t make any grammatical mistakes. I hear different versions of that a lot, too.
I tell him not to worry. I tell him you can’t make mistakes when you’re talking, by which I mean there are MANY versions of English, MANY versions among those who learned English as their first language and MANY more among those who didn’t learn English first. I’m thinking here of the difference between descriptive and prescriptive grammar.
But what I’m really emphasizing is that language use, spoken or written, is, first and foremost, a matter of generating useful (you might say “interesting”) CONTENT.
So here’s my short definition of good writing….
Writing, obviously, exists over a wide spectrum of uses. Aristotle described the terminal points of that spectrum: writing to inform and writing to entertain. In this post, I’m talking strictly about “writing to inform,” or, as I call it, “PRACTICAL WRITING.”
Good practical writing is writing that delivers useful content to a reader who wants or needs (has interest in) information about the issue in question. The writer writes to provide this information. The reader reads to gain this information.
How much would writing instruction and the appreciation of practical writing change if this were the #1 criterion for good writing?
I think it would change a lot. In fact, it would foment a revolution in how we teach writing.
To me, the criteria most people use to judge good writing is upside down.
We think of good writing as writing that is mechanically correct. That’s important, but it’s the last thing we need to consider when we consider what makes good writing.
In my opinion, the criteria for good (practical) writing should go like this:
1st—USEFUL CONTENT (defined as answers to the reader’s appropriate questions connected to the issue/topic in question, about which the reader is interested—or they wouldn’t be reading)…[visualize a document as two circles: the first is “the writing”—all the information given by the writer; the second is all the reader’s questions about the issue in question. A Venn diagram of the two circles should show the circles overlapping completely—the less they overlap, the less “good” the writing is (for that reader).]
2nd—LOGICAL ORGANIZATION (defined as an order that contains all the appropriate parts of the “discussion” in the most helpful sequence—organization is as much about analyzing content to ensure all the necessary pieces are there as it is about sequencing that information according to the hierarchy of the reader’s questions).
3rd—DOCUMENT DESIGN (defined as placing the information on “the page” to create a visible structure that SHOWS the reader how the information is arranged and where sections and subsections begin and end and MAKES the information as easy to navigate as possible given the reading-medium being used).
4th—UNIFIED/COHERENT PARAGRAPHS (defined as sentences gathered to help the reader understand a primary point and the supporting information that adequately develops that point).
5th—CLEAR SENTENCES (defined as sentences that emphasize key information helpfully for the reader, sentences the reader can understand the first time they read them).
6th—APPROPRIATE WORD CHOICES (defined as using the accurate/precise word with the appropriate tone for the reader).
7th—MECHANICAL CORRECTNESS (defined as “proper” spelling, punctuation, grammar, and syntax).
When you evaluate writing, is this the order in which you judge its “goodness”?
I think it should be. We should value the ability to generate useful content, above all. Mechanical correctness is very important (though not always critical) but should be considered only after all the other aspects of the writing have been checked.
If you agree or disagree with this way of thinking, please email me and let me know (Harvey@QCGwrite.com). I think it’s important to help people clarify what good writing is. I think it’s important to teach writing through this approach.
Help me create the <<CONTENT MOVEMENT>> in writing instruction.