Elements of writting
1. A good book is the offspring of many fathers and the father of many offspring.
2. Writer’s Goal By art to attain simplicity.
3. A good style is simple and powerful, like a wave breaking on a beach.
4. Simplicity La Bruyère, knowing that many writers make the mistake of expressing simple things in a complex way, gave this advice to writers: “if you want to say that it is raining, say: ‘It is raining’.” Simplicity is the mark of good prose, and it’s also a virtue in other branches of culture, such as architecture. The chief virtue of Greek architecture is simplicity.
The Greeks regarded simplicity as both a cultural virtue and a moral virtue. “Beauty of style,” wrote Plato, “and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity—I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character.”(1) If there is one quality that is lacking in modern art, in modern architecture, and in the modern soul, it is simplicity.
5. Clarity Serious writers strive to be understood, strive for clarity. Bad writers, on the other hand, aren’t afraid of being obscure as long as they can make the reader think, “What an extensive vocabulary! What learning! What talent!” The surest sign of bad prose is the use of uncommon words where common words would suffice.
Clarity can be achieved by the repetition of certain words. Repetition is more comprehensible for the reader than variety. As Anatole France said, “You will find in my paragraphs a word that comes over and over again. That is the leit-motiv of the symphony. Be careful not to delete and replace it by a synonym.”(2) One of the most common stylistic mistakes is avoiding repetition, and replacing a previously-used word with a synonym.
But clarity alone doesn’t make good prose; clarity must be combined with brevity. Good prose is so concise that every word has the importance of an italicized word.
6. Five Techniques A good writer makes skillful use of five techniques: he addresses someone, gives orders, asks questions, makes exclamations, and repeats certain words. Addressing someone is sometimes described as the vocative case, while ordering someone, telling someone what to do, is sometimes described as the imperative case.
Shakespeare uses the vocative case, followed by the imperative case, when he makes Juliet say, “Romeo, doff thy name.
Writing is hardly ever done with just one sentence. It is a combination of sentences that all have to coincide with one another to reach a goal of clarity. "A series of clear sentences can still be confusing if we fail to design them to fit their context, to reflect a constant point of view, to emphasize our most important ideas. These sentences could all refer to the same set of conditions, but each leads us to understand the conditions from a different point of view," (Williams, 45). It is always a good idea to start out small; take a sentence and make is clear. This then needs to be applied to groups of sentences together to make the whole sample of writing clear.
Ferris, discusses how reading aloud when proof reading helps the writer see if they have chosen the most effect, correct, or precise word. In addition, the writer can achieve the right level of formality for the writing and catch minor mistakes that can be easily over looked such as repeating of a key word and phrases (99). By using the most effective language, the writer will better communicate his or her message to the reader. By proof reading, the writer will be able to employ a better use of language and avoid mistakes such as wordiness. Furthermore, an improved use of language will build the writers sense of confidence in writing or any genre of presenting an
Clarity in one's writing involves making the content easy to read and understand. Clarity allows for the reader to understand what you are trying to say without
“The best compositions establish a sense of momentum and direction by making explicit connections among their different parts, so that what is said in one sentence (or paragraph) both sets up what is to come and is clearly informed by what has already been said.” This piece of advice that is mentioned in the book “They Say, I say with Readings” is very useful when constructing an elaborate string of ideas and the writer intends to make them flow smoothly and effectively for his audience. The four techniques that are used in implementing this flow are: “using transition terms,” “adding pointing words,” “developing a set of key terms and phrases for each text you write” and “repeating
is also simple. Hemingway uses simple writing not for the ease of complexity but to give the
Taking place during the period of the Age of Reason and the French revolution, Neo-classicism consisted of artists who valued the old Greek and Roman culture. Straying away from the former Rocco period, the artists of Neo-classicism thought of themselves as new Greeks and Romans. As they admired the simple forms of Greek and Roman antiquity, the Neo-classicists noticed the ancient golden age where order, justice and morality prevailed (Koster 78). Clean lines, perfect contours, virtue and heroism were reflected during the remarkable Neo-classicism period. While demonstrating that frothy art was unnecessary, Neo-classicist artists celebrated history and civic pride (Hodge 73). Because they copied the works of the Greek and Romans, the artists of this period profoundly believed in science, nature and logical thought, they painted scenes from history and mythology with the hero always at the center of the action (Raczka 9). One of the major artists of the Neo-Classicism period was Jacques- Louis David. As he believed in liberty, equality and fraternity David often looked back at the moral values of the Greek and Romans. During the time of the Neo-classicism period artists flouri...
These factors are similar to how writing styles affect your reader. No matter how great your grammar and punctuation are: poor diction, voice, and non-concise writing will ruin your credibility. Many students and writers throw these rough choices around like a jump shot in the d...
In Chapter 8, the author Marquis R. Nave illustrates how important sentence structure is by pointing out a few important things when forming sentences adequate to use in your writing. He starts by saying that lucid and efficacious word usage to form sentences in writing becomes vital when you need to write papers in a higher education institution. Once the scholar grabs control of his or her ability to communicate their message to the reader lucidly and efficaciously they gain the power to an improved and ordered thought process. Now a person can start to search for new ways of using dialectal to communicate their message in a way not usual to the norm. A scholar only has the power to govern their writing when they correctly put together
The Pulitzer Prize winning writer N. Scott Momaday has become known as a very distinctive writer who depicts the stories of the Native American life in almost poetic ways. He does an excellent job of transporting the reader from the black and white pages of a book, to a world where every detail is pointed out and every emotion felt when reading one of Momaday’s books or other writings. This style of writing that Momaday uses is very evident in his work “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” and made even more apparent by reading a review of the book House Made of Dawn found on a web site run by HarperCollins Publishers.
Good writing is an elusive topic that is always changing as we learn. The biggest aspects of good writing are genre, audience, purpose, and the three appeals--ethos, pathos and logos. Good writers need to write within a specific genre and the conventions that come with it. Good writing also considers the audience and potential secondary audiences. Purpose plays into good writing because without purpose writing is pointless, a good writer needs to know what they are trying to accomplish and who their writing is intended for, so this is closely tied to audience. Finally, good writing requires a balance of ethos, pathos, and logos that depends on the situation. There are many aspects of good writing, and they change based on the type of writing.
Hovering above are pillars of concrete and stone. Its rise and collapse determined by history. A combination of art and science designed to create notorious architecture. The necessity for architecture is distant from extinction and continuously transforming itself with the duration of time creating innovative methods of portraying scenic and functional works of art. The Romans and Greeks established a foundation for architecture that maintains its reputation as remarkable acts of beauty.
In William Zinnser’s essay “Simplicity” he states that “clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” He believes that people speak more complexly then they have to and that the key to good writing and speaking is simplicity. In his argument he goes on to say that often writers are not careful enough. They know what they are trying to say but do not know how to put it down on paper. They assume that the reader will understand what they are thinking even though their writing is not obvious to others. He does make several suggestions for improvement. Very easily one could make their writing easier to understand by simple corrections.
One must remember that writing style is not something that just happens, but rather something that is developed. With the help of guides like Elements of Style, or books like Style Toward Clarity and Grace, one can begin to develop one.
“Man is an animal that lives in language as a fish lives in water and so written communication is just one of the ways that man can survive through” (English scholar Annie Dillard). Writing is a skill to give information. Like all skills, it is not inborn and so it needs to be learnt. To give information you need good communication skills including the ability to write simply, clearly and concisely (Harris & Cunningham, 1996).
This is where the writer provides ideas and arguments with corresponding analysis, interpretation and evaluation. It also requires proficiency in grammar usage which means a writer should be mindful of the rules and conventions in writing to avoid erroneous sentence structure. Consistency is one of the skills needed in academic writing by making essays free from personal feelings and biases. A clear sense of argument is very important in academic writing because in writing the thoughts of writer would be vividly expressed. One has to give ideas and perception on a certain thing in the surroundings such as real object, picture, text, artifacts, phenomena and