SESSION 3- Characteristics of an Effective Writer

Characteristics of an Effective Writer

My theory is that everyone is capable of producing effective writing.  Unfortunately, laziness, lack of confidence, poor time management, and/or lack or experience can be barriers that prevent effective writing from happening.  Throughout this course, I want you to abandon notions that you have to be especially talented or educated to write well.  Keep in mind these characteristics of being an effective writer:

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE WRITER

·         Chooses a variety of topics

·         Writes in various styles

·         Generates many drafts

·         Tries new writing techniques and strategies

• Revises to improve how the piece sounds
• Shares writing
• Takes pride in finished piece by making sure it is correct:

* GRAMMAR  * SPELLING   * PUNCTUATION   * LEGIBILITY

Effective writers subscribe also to these three principles:

1.      USE STANDARD ENGLISH.

     Think about how individuals talk on programs like the nightly news.  For the most part, these individuals use Standard English.  While you are revising your writing, ask yourself if an individual broadcasting the news would say it in that way.  If you can answer no, then the writing is probably not in Standard English and may need to be corrected.

2.      OBSESSIVELY PROOFREAD.

     Writing has an advantage over oral communication in that you have time to get your thoughts together, organize them in the best way possible, and use the most effective language to get your point across.  Without face to face communication, however, the writer can not tell if his or her message is getting across; nor can the writer instantly correct any mistakes or misconceptions found in the writing to the reader.  Your writing stands alone.  It represents you.  An effective piece of writing can send a professor or an employer the message that you are competent, organized, intelligent, talented, and/or basically a valuable person to have around.  A piece of writing that may be effectively written but is riddled with errors and sloppily presented, sends the message loud and clear that the writer is lazy, incompetent, ignorant, or worse.  Do not, as a writer put time and effort into your writing; only to have it not given the credit and/or the grade it deserves because of silly and careless mistakes.

     In this wonderful age of technological advances such as spell and grammar check, There is no excuse for errors in your writing.  Yet, as an effective writer you can not rely on spell and grammar check alone.  After running your writing through spell and grammar check, print your paper and read it, line by line out loud.  Scanning a paper silently can cause your brain not to recognize errors that are present as the following excerpt from the essay, “Brains Use of Shortcuts Can Lead to Bias”

Psychologists use illusions to catch the brain in the act of jumping to conclusions. Most of the time, these perceptual shortcuts work quite well, so we don’t notice them.  But in unusual situations (like proofreading a piece of writing) the same tricks can lead to egregious mistakes.  Many psychologists believe that the unconscious mechanisms people employ to make judgments are very similar to those behind visual illusions.

Horizontal Lines You are asked to look at the picture and determine if the lines are horizontal . THE ILLUSION: The lines appear slanted and not horizontal or parallel to one another. HOW IT WORKS: Reality is that the lines are parallel what has changed the depth of the various sets of black and white cubes between each line. This depth perception issue causes you to think the lines are not horizontal or parallel with one another. WHAT IT SHOWS: That the brain can jump to the wrong conclusions when information is ambiguous.  Also, that knowing something is an illusion does not make the illusion go away.

Face or Eskimo? THE ILLUSION: You are asked if you see the Eskimo or the face? HOW IT WORKS: Since people do not expect to see two images, most do not perceive it.  WHAT IT SHOWS: That expectation influences what people think.

As you can tell from these visual perceptual examples, our brain can trick us into overlooking mistakes in our writing.  Read your writing out loud to catch any mistakes the spell and grammar check might have missed or better yet have someone else read your paper to catch the errors.  Make a firm commitment to yourself that any writing that leaves your hands will be error free and professionally presented.  Send the right message about yourself and your abilities to your readers.

3.      ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, and ORGANIZE.

     We have evolved as a society from one that uses primarily oral communication to one that is very literate in nature.  Along the way, we have lost our ability to follow a point that is not well organized.  Effective writing must be organized without exception so that the reader can follow logically what you are trying to say.  A good rule of thumb for any type of writing should be;

ü     Say what you are going to say

ü     Say it

ü     Say what you just said

     The more organized the writing is, the better received it is by the reader and coincidentally the more easy it is for the writer to write.

Other tips for improving your writing:              

     There are other ways to dramatically improve your writing.  One way is to learn from other effective writing models. In her book, Parents Who Love Reading, Kids Who Don’t: How It Happens and What You Can Do About It, author Mary Leonhardt argues that when we learn to talk, no one sits us down and says “Okay, we are going to learn how to say chair today.  Now say chair.  Say chair again, say chair.”

     Learning language is a lot less complex than that.  We learn to speak by modeling the language of those around us, much as we learn to write by modeling the writing that we are exposed to.  If you want to see crisp, organized, effective writing in action, invest in a subscription to the New York Times.  Being exposed to theses effective models can not help but improve your writing.  Also check out how your favorite author does what he or she does best.  In addition, read your fellow students’ papers.  Any exposure to effective models of writing should rub off positively onto your own.

     Another way to improve your writing is to not re-invent the wheel every time you sit down to write.  Invest in a book like Sandra Lamb’s How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You’ll Ever Write.  Lamb’s guidebook provides models on how to do a cover letter, a research paper, a condolence letter, a thank you letter and many more effective examples.  We learned from the Auto-Bio Poem how much easier it is to write when we use a formula and just fill in the blanks.  Guidebooks, like How to Write It, provide time-saving and stress reducing organizational patterns that you as a writer only need to fill in with your own