Extended Definition of Good Writing - Paper Example

Good writing is a crucial skill for young individuals, as it is a predictor of academic success, for a prosperous career and a necessary prerequisite for participation in civic life. But defining good writing is a challenging task since it varies from one community to another and from discipline to discipline. There are set writing standards depending on the community or discipline. Most contexts of life such as community, school, and workplace require some level of writing skill, and every context makes overlapping demands (Calvin College, 2017). Proficient writers show their prowess by writing flexibly depending on the context or the places the writing is taking place. This is the main reason why all students should put a lot of effort to become proficient and flexible writers. Generally speaking, good writing entails the following characteristics.

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Primary qualities of good writing

Almost all disciplines agree on the main merits of good writing. All academics agree that mechanics and simple errors must be avoided at all cost when writing. However, disciplines differ when it comes to setting standards such as whether a given usage is correct or not. For instance, literary critics do not allow split infinitives, while broadcast news agencies may allow them. In other words, a well-written essay or report is free from mechanical or grammatical errors; it conforms to the concords of standard academic English; it has no traces of unsuitable colloquialisms or dialect, and also observe the standard required by that particular discipline (Calvin College, 2017).

It conveys a clear sense of purpose

All faculties agree that for writing to be termed as good, it must convey a clear sense of the writers purpose. It has to be illuminating and insightful, and communicate content that is unified and significant. In this case, the reader is concerned with the intellectual impact of writing since it possible (theoretically) writing to be free of error and mechanics and still be poorly written. However, it is rare for a writer to compose a conceptually senseless script and be grammatically flawless.

The strategy of the writer is fundamental

The plan of the writer goes past conception and grammar but is crucial to the success of the paper. The structure and development and the way the paper advances from assertion through details and argumentation to the conclusion are essential for its success. At this level, good writing depends on the willingness of the writer to outline, cut and paste or discard information. This means that students should complete these activities in an organized manner before they instigate writing their final script although even good writers often detest carrying them out (Calvin College, 2017).

Good writing should have an effective style

In this characteristic of good writing, the reader looks at the element of subjectivity in the evaluation and the differences in the style recommended by various faculties or discipline. Although many faculty experience difficulties when categorizing the styles to be observed before terming a piece of writing as inappropriate or appropriate, they all agree that a good style has to express ideas and information precisely, succinctly and in a way that is relevant to the context of a given report or paper. An effectively styled writing is interesting to the reader, has a correct choice of diction, and demonstrates the use of punctuations correctly as well as clarity (Calvin College, 2017).

Reference

Calvin College. (2017). The Characteristics of Good Writing. Retrieved from https://calvin.edu/academics/departments-programs/english/academics/writing-at-calvin/good-writing/