Writing Competency
Presented by:
California Office of Patients’ Rights
Materials adopted from Benchmark Institute “Writing workshop for mentors”
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Writing Competency
General Definition:
The ability to control and vary written communications with an audience(s)
in a given situation to maximize the accomplishment of objectives.
We will explore each of the areas below:
1. Ability to write appropriately to a given audience.
2. Ability to express thoughts in an organized manner.
3. Ability to express a thought with precision, clarity and
economy.
4. Ability to use the mechanics of the language -- grammar,
punctuation, spelling.
5. Ability to receive and respond to the implicit and explicit
communications of others.
6. Ability to write so as to advance immediate and longterm objectives.
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1. Ability to Write Appropriately to a Given Audience
To communicate effectively with an audience is to know that audience -- its
concerns, assumptions, expectations and objectives.
Advice letters take into account client values just as briefs address decision
maker preferences. Since many writings have more than one audience,
you also must be able to predict their effects on secondary audiences.
Advocates write to people who differ from themselves or the American
mainstream in ways that affect how the audience may receive the
message; e.g., differences in age, ethnicity, income, language, mental or
physical abilities, race, religion or sexual orientation. These differences can
make communication even more complex.
The ability to accurately assess another's perspective is always limited and
requires learning ways to guard against becoming a prisoner of your own
preconceptions.
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
• All information that a particular audience needs to understand about a
particular event or concept is included. Nothing is included that seems
patronizing or offensive.
• Issues are stated as simply as possible without compromising meaning.
Issues are not made needlessly complicated. If precedents are included,
readers understand how they apply to the facts.
• Any emotional or interpersonal factors that affect communication are
handled appropriately.
• Elements of the writing are tailored to its audience(s):
-organization
-vocabulary, e.g.,
People First
language,
non-idiomatic English
- grammar
- tone
- format
- style
- citation
- form
- terms of art
- medium, e.g.,
post-it, letter,
- memo.
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2. Ability to Express Thoughts in an Organized Manner
Organization means arranging thoughts and connecting ideas in a
document and within its individual paragraphs. Sentences must be grouped
into paragraphs, and paragraphs linked throughout the document.
Transitions act as bridges throughout this structure connecting paragraphs,
sentences, clauses, and words helping readers develop and keep a train of
thought.
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
• Organizing principles are apparent throughout the writing. Such principles
include:
- Giving Both Sides (grouped or interspersed throughout a writing) -- pros
and cons, assets and liabilities, similarities and differences, hard and easy,
bad and good, effective and ineffective, weak and strong, complicated and
uncomplicated, controversial and uncontroversial
- Chronological -- order of historical events, cause to effect, step-by-step
sequence
- General to Specific -- general topic to subtopics, theoretical to practical,
generalizations to specific examples
- IRAC -- Issue, Rule, Application to facts, and Conclusion
- Least to Most -- easiest to most difficult, smallest to largest, worst to best,
weakest to strongest, least important to most important, least complicated
to most complicated, least effective to most effective, least controversial to
most controversial
- Most to Least -- most important to least important, most persuasive to
least persuasive, most known to least known, most factual to least factual
(fact to opinion)
- Oppositional -- giving a particular argument and showing what's wrong
with it.
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• Selected organizing principles reflect your purpose and the reader's
expectations, e.g., most important information is placed in a prominent
place.
• The lead section (your roadmap) at the beginning of the writing orients the
reader to your most important, general idea and directs the reader to the
one idea that brings all other ideas and details into focus. It may also
describe the way your main idea will be developed. The roadmap shows
your destination and helps readers make sense of what follows, e.g., who,
what, where, why, and how.
• The conclusion at the writing's end shows the reader that you have
reached your destination, i.e., done what you set out to do.
• Transitions between paragraphs and sentences are coherent. Words and
phrases are included that help readers understand how different ideas
relate to each other, e.g., exemplify (for example, for instance); affirm
(actually, certainly); negate (on the contrary, however); add (moreover,
and, also); con-cede (although, granted that); summarize (finally, thus).
• Paragraphs are in a logical order and of appropriate length.
• Each paragraph is adequately developed with a topic sentence and
coherent transitions. The topic sentence focuses and orients the reader on
the paragraph's main idea. The topic sentence is strategically placed either
at the beginning to alert the reader to how the paragraph is going to
develop or at the end to summarize what has been said.
• Formatting such as bullets, subheadings or lists are used to emphasize
key points.
• Pictures, graphs, or tables are used to visually represent meaning.
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3. Ability to Express a Thought With Precision, Clarity and
Economy
Short sentences, phrased with concrete words and images, help readers
grasp and retain ideas. Readers expect sentences to be structured
according to standard English usage rules -- subject, verb and object order.
Sentences that defy those rules cause most readers to become weary and
quit.
Advocacy services staff pay particular care to exercise these skills in
writing to its consumers and client community.
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
Sentences
• Sentences are short. Most sentences do not exceed 20 words. No
sentence expresses more than one complex thought.
• Sentences focus on the actor, the action and the object.
• Words are arranged with care: most sentences are arranged in subject,
verb and object order.
• Modifiers -- All describing words or phrases are placed near the words
they modify so that the intended meaning is conveyed. The adverb "only"
receives particular care because its placement can radically change
sentence meaning.
• Parallelism - -Grammatically equal sentence elements are used to
express two or more matching ideas or items in a series e.g., if one clause
uses a verb in the active voice, the other clause should also use the active
voice, not the passive voice or a verbal form ending in "-ing."
• Effective emphasis is achieved within sentences by moving from old to
new, short to long. Ideas already stated, referred to, implied, predictable,
less important are expressed at the beginning of a sentence. The least
predictable, most important, most significant, the information to be
emphasized appear at the end of the sentence. The subject and verb are
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placed close together at the beginning of the sentence; longer elements are
at the end of the sentence.
Words • Words are familiar and concrete.
• Legalese: Latinisms, pomposities, bureaucratese, jargon, and word gaffes
(affect for effect) are not used.
Wordiness
• Verbose word clusters (the fact that) and compound prepositions (with
regard to, prior to, pursuant to) are not used.
• Throat clearing -- introductory phases such as "it is interesting to note,"
"at the outset we must define" -- is not present.
• Redundancies (surviving widow, free gift, brown in color) are not present.
• Double and multiple negatives are avoided, e.g., a "not unblack dog was
chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field." George Orwell
Verbs
• Generally, active voice is preferred over passive voice except in limited
circumstances. In our advocacy approach, we use the passive voice to
DMH in order to suggest a change but use our facts to lead them to the
reason the change is needed or supported in Code or Regs.
• Base verbs are preferred over nouns created from verbs
(nominalizations), i.e., she assumed (base verb). She made an assumption
(nominalization).
• Strong, precise verbs carry the load in sentences. Using is, are, was,
were is minimized, unless using the passive voice.
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4. Ability to Use the Mechanics of the Language
Language mechanics guide meaning. Writings that conform to them help
the reader understand what you're saying and grasp it more quickly.
Spelling errors are usually perceived as reflecting the writer's careless
attitude. All mechanical errors undermine writer credibility and can negate
sage advice and persuasive argument.
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
Language is used properly including:
• Grammar and usage, e.g.,
- Subject to verb agreement
- Pronoun references -- all pronouns
clearly refer to definite nouns
• Punctuation
- Commas are used to: signal
nonrestrictive or nonessential material,
prevent confusion, and
indicate relationships among ideas and
sentence parts.
- Unnecessary commas that make
sentences difficult to read are absent.
-Two independent clauses are linked with
a comma when used with a coordinating
conjunction:
- ("and," "or," "but," "for,"
"nor," "so," "yet").
Otherwise, a period or
semi-colon is used.
- Apostrophes indicate possession for
nouns ("Jeanne's hat," "several
years' work")
but not for personal pronouns
("its," "your," "their," and
"whose").
Apostrophes also indicate
omissions in contractions ("it's" = "it
is").
In general they are not used to indicate
plurals.
-
• Spelling
• Capitalization
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5. Ability to Perceive and Respond to the Implicit and Explicit
Communications of Others
Responding effectively depends on the ability to read and decipher not just
words, but implicit communications -- unstated messages and emotional
undertones. Once these communications are decoded, you can decide
whether to answer, dismiss objections summarily or not address them at
all.
We write for three main reasons and audiences:
1. To gain information (staff)
2. To take a position or persuade (Administrators)
3. And finally to inform (Patients)
In crafting a response, you must consider your audience. See Competency
1. And be aware of your objectives. See Competency 6.
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
Emotional or interpersonal factors that affect the communication are
attended to.
• Implicit and explicit communications are responded to in a way that
furthers objectives.
• Implicit and explicit communications are responded to in a way that does
not jeopardize objectives.
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6. Ability to Write so as to Advance Immediate and Longterm Objectives
Deficiencies in skills 1-5 jeopardize the immediate and long-term objectives
you wish to achieve through your writing. You also must be able to vary
and control your writing according to the evolving context, atmosphere or
interaction.
Suppose, for example, that your plans are not working as expected: a client
complains to your supervisor about your letter, an agency continues to balk
at your requests, an opposing position contains derogatory remarks. Or
suppose that your plans are working much better than expected. In all
these situations, you must be able to adjust your writing and any number of
its elements to the situation to achieve your goals.
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
• All elements of writing advance immediate and long-term objectives, e.g.,
vocabulary, grammar, tone, format, style.
• Strategic decisions about what to include or not include advance your
objectives.
• All implicit and explicit objectives are embodied in the writing.
• No messages are conveyed that work at cross-purposes with objectives
• Unintended messages are not conveyed; e.g., words and phrases that
imply that you're open to settling a case when you're not.
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Persuasive Writing Competency
Materials adopted from Benchmark Institute “Writing workshop for mentors”
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Persuasive Writing
Competency
General Definition:
Writing to persuade, convince, or compel change of ideas, positions, or outcomes.
Ability to write:
1.
Preliminary statements that summarize the complaint or
issue so that decision makers understand the
significance of the law and facts presented.
2.
Factual statements that demonstrate the inherent
fairness and validity of the writer's position.
3.
Point headings that focus decision maker attention on a
specific problem in the complaint or issue.
4.
Arguments that demonstrate the advocacy bases that
compel a conclusion in the client's favor.
5.
Challenges to opponents' arguments that assure the
decision maker that no critical points have been
overlooked.
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1. Preliminary statements that summarize the complaint or
issue so that decision makers understand the significance of
the law and facts presented.
Like an executive summary, the preliminary statement summarizes the
argument's essence--the issues, answers and reasons-- within a factual
context. It orients readers to your most important ideas and directs them to
the one idea that brings all other ideas and details into focus. It shows your
conclusion and helps readers make sense of what follows, e.g., who, what,
where, why, and how.
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
• Sufficient information is present to help the decision-maker decide the
case quickly and fairly including:
-The big picture -- what's the fight all about? who wants what? what's
the context within which the situation arose?
-Specific questions -- what issues must be decided in order to
resolve the matter?
-The core of the argument -- why should you win? why do you have a
leg to stand on?
• Interests of brevity and detail are balanced.
• Extraneous information is omitted such as unnecessary boilerplate,
irrelevant details, clutter of dates and defined terms.
• Information is accurately stated.
• Strong, pull-no-punches arguments are made while avoiding hyperbole
(exaggerations, over or understatements) raining from attacking the other
side personally.
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2. Factual statements that demonstrate the inherent fairness
and validity of the writer's position.
Statements of fact contain two types of facts –
-facts that create a context for what happened and
-facts drawn from the law on which you intend to rely.
In crafting the factual statement, you should strive toward making your
analysis seem like the only possible means of reaching a just result on the
basis of the facts.
A compelling statement of facts tells a story. Writing a persuasive story
involves thinking about how to frame the facts. Chronology, by itself, does
not make a story. Facts may be organized into several patterns:
• when -- chronology;
• who -- people or institutions such as the parties, government agencies,
witnesses, experts;
• what -- things such as medications, assistive technology;
• where -- location, other geographical context of an incident such as a
board and care home;
• why -- explanation or motive for events such as discrimination, greed,
bureaucratic inertia.
Factual statements present a golden opportunity to present the equities of
your case. Although you can't characterize facts or draw inferences from
the facts in the factual statement, you can allow inferences about the
equities to emerge inevitably in readers' minds as their own response.
(Writing competency #6-Implicit and explicit communications)
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
• Statement advances the case theory.
• Statement contains sufficient context facts and all legally significant facts.
Immaterial facts are omitted.
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3. Point headings that focus decision maker attention on a
specific problem in the complaint or issue.
Arguments are divided into points; each point an independent ground for
relief.
For example, arguing that a staff action could be considered a violation
because the it was not complaint with the Administrative Directive and it
was not supported by regulations, gives rise to two points.
Each point becomes a heading; each heading further divided into subheadings. Each sub-heading constitutes a significant step of logic in
arguing for the ground of relief or change stated in the heading. Read
together, the point headings and sub-headings outline your argument.
Point headings and sub-headings contain key facts and applicable legal
rules, briefly encapsulating the first paragraph of the argument that follows.
Point headings also include the ultimate result that you are requesting, e.g.,
benefits be granted, action be dismissed.
You should word points headings and sub-headings clearly and powerfully- asserting the essential idea and showing how that idea fits into your
position.
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
• Point headings focus on an independent ground of request for change in
the complaint or issue raised.
• The argument's strongest points are included as headings. Insignificant
points are not included as headings.
• Headings and sub-headings are sequenced persuasively to lead readers
to the writer's conclusions.
• For each heading, the number of sub-headings equals the significant
steps of logic in the argument.
• Too many sub-headings fragment the argument so that readers can't
quickly see how the argument fits together.
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• Too few sub-headings hide the argument's logic.
• Each heading makes explicit the relief that the writer is seeking.
• Headings and sub-headings contain facts and legal rules that show how
the law applies to the case.
• Headings and sub-headings are presented with forceful assertion.
• Headings and sub-headings are stated with precision, clarity and
economy according to General Writing Competency #3.
• Headings and sub-headings conform to the mechanics of the language
according to General Writing Competency #4.
4. Arguments that demonstrate the advocacy bases that
compel a conclusion in the client's favor.
Your legal argument follows point headings and subheadings. Headings
contain a synopsis of the first paragraph of the argument that follows.
Begin your argument by giving your conclusion (C); then a brief statement
of the rule to support the conclusion, telling why you should win (R); then a
detailed analysis of the facts (A); and finally your cases (C).
Discussion of cases should come at the end, unless a case is so central or
new that you must discuss it first. Key or controlling cases must be
discussed in detail, but the intricacies of other cases can be explained in a
phrase, clause or parenthetical.
Quote someone if the quotation speaks directly to the point or if the author
said something far more eloquently than you could. Quoting the court's own
words back to it is most always a good idea.
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Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
• Argument is structured for clarity
and persuasive impact.
- The argument supports assertion
in point heading.
- Structure follows the CRAC
method.
are explained using court
opinions,
legislative purpose or history,
statutory
language, interpretive canons,
policy considerations.
- Attack is focused on a few strong
points vs. blunderbuss approach.
- Controlling court opinions are
analyzed and relied on to support
major propositions by stating key
facts, holding and rationale.
- Strongest legal argument is
emphasized (precedent v. equity
and policy).
• Fact Analysis
- How legal rules operate on the
facts is demonstrated.
- Any quotations are brief and
appropriate.
- Facts are connected to each
essential element of enacted law.
• Legal Rules are defined and
explained.
- Key facts of court opinions are
compared to key facts of case to
demonstrate similarity or
dissimilarity.
- Best and most applicable
authority is selected.
- Superfluous and irrelevant
authority is excluded.
- Extending, limiting or rejecting a
legal rule is explained by referring
to appropriate authority and the
key facts of the case.
- Elements of enacted law at issue
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5. Challenges to opponents' arguments that assure the
decision maker that no critical points have been overlooked.
Your job is to address the other side's principal allegations and in ways that
support arguments that you have already made. You don't have to respond to
your opponent's every argument.
Be careful not to over argue your case. It's usually not helpful to take your
opponent's arguments and talk about all the dire things that will happen if the
decision maker rules against you.
Focusing on personalities suggests that you're weak on the merits. Rarely if
ever mention the other side. If you must challenge them, do it in a
straightforward way; e.g., "the cases cited by defendant do not apply."
Behaving like a junkyard dog toward your opponent confuses strength with
shrillness and sarcasm.
Indicators you have accomplished your goal in writing competency:
• Opponent's principal points are strategically addressed.
• Opponent's principal points are not ignored.
• Opponent's key arguments are effectively distinguished or explained away.
• Hyperbole and personality attacks are avoided.
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Writing Steps
Materials adopted from Benchmark Institute “Writing workshop for mentors”
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Writing Steps
 Develop your Thoughts
 What is your general direction, purpose, goal? Will you need assistance from others such more
information from the client or your supervisor?
 Research
 Find rules, regulations, codes, or past practices.
 Organize
 Begin to note relevant information.
 Rethink your theory
 Are your first thoughts on this still correct? Is the information you are gaining changing your
thoughts on this complaint / issue? What if any additional information do you need at this point?
 Organize
 Now you have your information and you have a direction. Begin to organize your thoughts more
formally.
 Compose
 Write what you know, are there gaps? What do you understand about the facts or don’t know?
Write from your impressions, do you need more details? Are you missing information? Write
around it and do more research to fill in your missing information.
 Assess Communication Situation
 Has your purpose, audience, or tone changed? Include necessary context; clarify your terms and
concepts.
 Assess your Organization
 Does your structure work? Is it in logical order? If needed, move your paragraphs and sentences
into an order your reader will understand. Check to make certain you are reaching your
conclusion.
 Rewrite
 You have solved the problems in your writing to your satisfaction, now make certain you have
satisfied the reader
 Edit for Length, Clarity, Continuity
 Cut out lengthy substantive discussion. Eliminate clutter, redundancies, an windy phrases. Get
over yourself. Your reader will not be impressed if you do not write to suit their needs which is
often getting to the point and respecting their time restrictions.
 Remove lawyer-isms, double negatives, redundant words, flowery phrases.
 Edit for consistency. First person to third person. References to people, policies, and laws.
 Proofread
 Have some else do a read through to check for spelling, typos, punctuation, and citations. We
often do not see our own mistakes.
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Final Review of Your Writing Product
Did you write appropriately to your reader/audience? In our
daily writing, we write for three main reasons:
4. To gain information (staff)
5. To take a position or persuade (Administrators)
6. And finally to inform (Patients)
What is the quality of the content: ideas, arguments, analysis,
and advice?
Did you express each thought with precision, clarity, and
economy?
Are your thoughts presented in an organized manner?
Did you perceive and respond to the implicit and explicit
communications of others?
Does it advance immediate and long term objectives?
Was your use of language mechanics correct?
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Why Plain English
Materials adopted from “Plain English for Lawyers” by Richard C. Wydick
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Why Plain English
In school, some lines of work, and as exampled by most lawyers, we use
eight words to say what could be said in two. Often, trying to be precise, we
become redundant. Seeking to be cautious, we become verbose. Our
sentences go on and on often causing our reader get lost or to skip to the last
paragraph to find out what we want. To avoid appearing wordy, unclear,
pompous, or dull, lets begin to untwist some or our own writings.
To do this we must first;
Omit Surplus Words
Lets take a look at some of our writings and see what we have…In every
sentence there are two kinds of words: working words and glue words.
Working WordsThese carry the meaning of the sentence.
Glue WordsThey hold the working words together. They form a proper, grammatical
sentence.
Think of anything you build: too much glue and you have a mess, not enough
glue and you have pieces. Our goal is to use just enough glue to keep the
pieces together.
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Avoid Compound Constructions
Compound constructions use three or more words to do the work of one or
two words. They suck the vital juices form your writing. Here are some
examples:
At that point in time
for the reason that
In order to
In relation to
Subsequent to
With reference to
In favor of
then
because
to
about
after
concerning
for
Avoid Word-Wasting Idioms
(Figures of speech)
Once you recognize surplus words, you will find many word-wasting idiom to
trim from your writings.
The fact that she died
He was aware of the fact that
In many cases you will find
Despite the fact that
In some instances
Her death
He knew that
Often you will find
Although, even though
sometimes
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Focus on the Actor, the Action, and
the Object
One way to know if you have a wordy and bog-downed sentence is to ask
yourself: “Who is doing what to whom in this sentence?” Write your sentence
with the focus of three key elements – the actor, the action, and the object of
the action (if there is an object).
First, state the actor. Then, state the action, using the strongest verb that will
fit. Last, state the object of the action, if there is an object.
Use Short Sentences
In most of your writings, you sentences should have one main thought and
contain 25 words or less.
Use Familiar Words
So you want to impress…use words that are current and ordinary. A reader’s
time is precious. Don’t waste it by creating distractions. The convenience of
the reader must take precedence over the writer’s self-gratification.
When Necessary, Make a List
Sometimes the best way to present a cluster of issues, conditions, or
exceptions is to list them. Begin with an introduction clause that leads to the
list. Use a colon at the end of the clause and at the end of each item in the list
use either a coma or a semicolon.
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