Pace 1
Brandy Pace
English 101
Instructor: Jeff Sturges
03 May 2004
Research Paper
A General Sense
What is Good Writing?
High quality, good quality, first class, first rate, superior, fine, and last but not least
excellent. (Merriam--Webster Online Dictionary) These are so many different qualities that make
something good. Students are the ones that need to recognize these different traits and then apply
them. Students can know what makes something good, but they must be able to apply the
qualities. Good writing is a long process which begins with, knowing what they want to write, to
doing the research, to having the body fully developed, and finally to having the final draft.
Following this process while also keeping the readers interested and informed in what they are
trying to say is the hard part.
Reading well has been apart of student’s lives since they started school. To rise in
anything they need to know how to apply the skills of reading to the writing development.
Bill Reed, Interim Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Public Relation said that:
If you want to write well…read, read and then read some more. Read good
writing, read bad writing. Learn to know the difference for good contemporary
conversational writing, look no further then Bob Greene’s column in your weekly
SPECTATOR. Note his simplicity of style: noun, verb, object, noun, verb,
object. It worked for Hemingway, who often said that his ultimate goal was to
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create the perfect sentence. Read some Hemingway, and not just his novels, but
some of his early newspaper writings. There’s never been better news and
feature of writing ever. When you read the works of these and other fine writers
notice the simplicity of three languages and how they vary their two or three
words; others run entire paragraphs. There are countless tips on writing well, but
I leave you with this one: read first, then write.
Many writers read all other writers work. They get ideas to inspire them, and then how
they want they’re writing to be, and to get an inside look on competition in their field. Where do
students get quotes, and they’re information to write? Students get them from other people and
their writing; students then get ideas to form their own. Many writers and teachers say that one
can only write as well as one can read. All writers must be readers, you can’t write without
reading as well as you write. You sure cannot write without first knowing how the language
works to communicate ideas. (Daniel J. Kurland)
If students want to write better they must learn to read better. Consciously evaluating
they’re writing, and critiquing it. By becoming more conscious about the different reading
behaviors, they can tell a student what they are doing wrong in all of there writings. Reading can
teach some students different things about the writing process, seeing how well someone else
expresses themselves dose not mean that some students will be able to do the same. Just because
students appreciate someone’s good writing and his or her skills of writing does not mean that
they can duplicate it. Only when students can understand what was expressed and how it was
used, then we can begin to do the same.
In order to become a good writer, students have to become good readers, but how do
you get better at reading? First, knowing how to see what is written and then what is said, but
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trying to understand why the written assumptions and perspectives of the author are so
important. As college student’s, we know that teachers no longer ask us to read and remember;
they now ask us how did the author view the topic, and what was the underlying thesis of the
book or story? Students then have to read the text thoroughly and then write what they think was
asked of them. The more students know about the ideas conveyed by the author and the meaning
behind it, the more the students can apply the tools.
Captivating the reader is ideal. Trying to get the attention of the readers, a students
writing must be interesting. Writing should engage its readers through original ideas expressed
in there own voice. It should demonstrate the awareness of the specific audience for whom the
students are writing for.
One of the hardest things to do is trying to keep the readers interest. Nathaniel
Hawthorne said “Words -- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary,
how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine
them.” Words can create powerful pictures. They can create sights, smells, taste, and details of
appearance. Especially trying not to leave any details out that would engage in the reader’s
attention. (Quote Garden)
Making sure that students know how to write a well thought of introductory paragraph
is key to good writing. A good introduction should immediately attract the reader’s attention. It
should prepare the reader for what is to come by presenting some background information,
definition of terms, and a clear statement of the thesis. (Guide to Grammar and Writing: The
thesis statement)
Students need to make sure that the paragraph is clear and tightly structured conveying
the writer’s main idea, logical or associative connections and transitions that clearly express the
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relationship of the ideas described. The first paragraph serves as a kind of opening to the paper,
which draws and invites the reader into the discussion, but that is only the beginning to good
writing. (Marla DeSoto, English 101 First Year Compositions)
Now that the student has the reader’s attention in the introductory paragraph, the body
must keep them interested. The body is the core of the paper. The paragraphs contained in the
body support your introductory paragraph and provide necessary information and details to the
reader. After you have thoroughly discussed all of your points it needs to come to a conclusion.
(Guide to Grammar and Writing)
The conclusion paragraph should summarize the student’s main idea, but should not
just repeat it. Bringing the paper to a close is the main idea, while avoiding introducing new
information, or other unneeded facts. Having new information added and concluding the paper is
important for the tone and style. (Marla DeSoto, English 101 First Year Compositions)
Tone and style can both be used to convey an attitude. Fowlers English Usage
recommends that students try to use a simple word rather than a larger word if you can (Fowler,
par 6). Tone and style is all part of writing so that you can impress the reader with your
knowledge of words. In a general sense, the tone is the attitude of the writer. Making sure that
students start off with the right tone for the topic is the key to good writing. The attitude that a
student starts off with will, either engage in the readers attention or have them abandon with the
reading.
The tone in a paper may be cheerful, it may be sad, or it may be funny. The tone and
style usually is expressed by the choice of words and by the usage of punctuation.
(www.somge.com) There are many different ways to change the tone if the student feels that it
needs to. By changing the grammar the student can create a sense of stability and excitement.
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Also the word choice may not be the right one. Good word choice involves being able to look
critically at verbs and select ones that are energetic, commanding, and animated. It means being
able to choose just the right words to make the writing sound natural and precise. Making sure
that the tone matches the right points in your paper is critical; adding the right tone it can catch
the reader’s attention and invite them to read on.
Style is important for the tone, and for it to be well expressed. Your style of writing
will set your writing apart and make it unique from fellow writers. Ernest Hemingway's style is
like listening to a conversation. He is a master of tense dialogue, often using understatement to
imply greater depths of feeling than he puts into words. The following excerpt from "A Clean,
Well-Lighted Place" is a good example of his style:
"In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man
liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.”
(the writing center @ Del Mar College)
While William Faulkner, on the other hand, uses more explicit and showy language. He
often writes of seemingly ordinary matters in an emphatic, impassioned way. The following
excerpt from "Barn Burning" is a good example of his style:
His father did not answer and now he heard again that stiff foot striking the
hollow portico with that wooden and clocklike deliberation that outrageous
overstatement of the weight it carried. The rug, hunched, not flung (the boy could
tell that even in the darkness) from his father's shoulder struck the angle of wall
and floor with a sound unbelievably loud, thunderous, then the foot again,
unhurried and enormous…. (The Writing Center @ Del Mar College)
The choice and usage of words is important in tone, style, and grammar.
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New York Times columnist William Safire said that, “Only in grammar can you be
more than perfect.”(Quote Garden, William Safire) By having an effective grasp of what
perfect grammar is, and by the usage of good grammar, it is necessary for good writing. In order
to bend or break the rules, students have to know all the rules of grammar, effortlessly first. The
better the student’s knowledge of grammar, the better the writing will be. Pronouns, subject,
verbs, prepositions, adjectives, and adverbs are just a little part of good grammar. Other parts of
good grammar are punctuation and mechanics. Knowing when and were to use them is the
answer.
To help the reader understand what the written material is, it is important to use
punctuation. By using punctuation students will be able to separate ideas and emphasize them to
the reader or audience. By not using proper punctuation and the correct grammar students could
confuse the reader and not display the idea or topic clearly.
Proper sentence and paragraph structure are also known as mechanics, which is
essential to produce good writing. There are many ways to write any sentence, but picking the
best one can change the flow of the students writing. There may be several different sentences
that will work with the paper, but the best sentence to use is the one that flows evenly with the
rest of the paper. Spelling is another important part of mechanics because improperly spelled
words make it hard for the reader to understand your ideas. Grammar and mechanical error
should be corrected during the editing and re--writing process. (The Writing Center: The Editing
and Rewriting Process)
In the process of writing students will learn that to re--write what they have written is
no big deal, but it is actually a great process of locating their mistakes, and when they are able to
do that, then they are ready for the final draft. The more that students write, the more that they
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will see that their ideas can be improved. Many thoughts can be better once they have the
general idea down, re--write it and you will be amazed how much your paper will improve.
“Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head.” (Quote Garden, From the
Movie Finding Forrester)
When students edit their papers, “edit how you say what you say” (Jessalyn Swindoll,
2001) they should make sure that the paper flows and is consistent. By reading their paper out
loud, it will then give the students an idea on how it sounds. It will be easier to find the little
mistakes that way. Reedeemy.com says that:
After you edit the content of your paper, edit the mechanics—grammar
problems, misspellings, punctuation and typos. Read your paper backwards: read
the last sentence, then the next to last, and so on, all the way back to the first
sentence. This may sound ridiculous, but it helps you not to overlook details and
make sure each sentence is complete.
The final critical part of your writing should be proofreading. This allows students to
carefully check for problems with grammar word choice punctuation and mechanics correcting
any problems students can find. Proofreading requires time and patience and can be very dull,
but it is a crucial point in finding errors. “Errors strewn throughout an essay are distracting and
annoying. If the writer doesn’t care about this piece of writing thinks the reader, why should I? A
carefully proofread essay on the other hand, sends a positive message: It shows you value your
writing and respect your readers.”(Diana Hacker, p22).
Marc H. Raibert, President of Boston Dynamics, Inc. says that:
You can only produce good writing if you want to. It takes lots of hard work,
and an unfortunate fact of life is that for most people, it will always take lots of
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hard work. Your writing will get better with experience and confidence, but it
will probably not get much easier. The more you practice at writing the better
you will get, so write as much as you can. Because good writing requires hard
work, your motivation is a key factor - you must want your writing to be good if
you are to spend the time and effort required to make it good.
Believing that a student is a good writer is defiantly hard, and then producing it is even
tougher. Not having the confidence that they can write can lead them to rely on someone else’s
help, or worse lead them to “borrow’ someone’s idea as there own. (University of California
Davis)
Merriam-Webster defines plagiarism as “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of
another) as one's own: use (another's production) without crediting the source.”(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary) The most common methods to use are done first by identifing the
source in the text, then putting the author's last name and the publication year in parenthesis,
with the page number of the cited material. There are also footnotes and endnotes, which are
raised numbers at the end of an idea or quoted words to link the reader to the source at the
bottom of the page, which is called a footnote and a endnote is what is given at the end of the
paper. Having a work cited page or a bibliography at the end of the paper is important. Students
should have the resources that they have used and they should be be fully identifed by the
authors name, title, publisher’s name, year of publication, and page numbers. Having all of that
will guarante that the students gave the authors credit for their information. The bibliography
also gives the reader more resources on the subject matter that was discussed. The diffrence
between the bibliography and a work cited paper is that the bibliography is a list of the works of
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a specific author or publisher. And the work cited page is a list of the works that are actually in
the research paper or project.
A major part of good writing is knowing the target audience. Students should take into
consideration who will be reading the material before they deicde the type of style in which they
are writing it. Also making sure they have done the proper research, the proper study, and the
correct evaluation of the subject. Students want their readers to know why they are writing it and
that they put the effort in presenting the information for them.
As students can see that good writing is a long and tiresome process. Studying other
writings, as well as using proper grammar, and giving credit to the research is a part of the
writing process. It may take time to become a good writer, but in the end, the audience is the
ones who make the decision whether it is really good or not.
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Work Cited
Avoiding Plagiarism." Oct 1999. University of California, Davis.. 24 Mar 2004.
<http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm>.
Burchfield, Robert W. THe New Fowlers Modern English Usage. 3rd ed. New York:
Oxford UP, 2000. 70-88.
Collier's Encyclopedia. Collier's Encyclopedia. 11th Ed. New York: P.F. Collier, (277-299)
DeSoto, Marla. "Writing Introduction & Conclusions." ENG 101 First year Composition. 24 Mar
2004. <http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~mdinchak/eng101/intro.htm>.
Diana Hacker, A Writer's Reference (St. Martin's Press, 1995).
English 101 First Year Composition. 09 Sept. 2000. Maricopa County Community
College. Jan. 2004 <http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~mdinchak/eng101/intro.htm>.
Good Writing. Jan. 1985. Boston Dynamics,Inc. Jan. 2004
<http://www.alice.org/Randy/raibert.htm>.
Guide To Grammar And Writing. 2001. Capital Community College Foundation . Jan.
2004 <http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/>.
Guillemets, Terri. "The Quote Garden." Quote Garden. 24 Mar 2004.
<http://www.quotegarden.com/index.html>.
Home Page. 2001. Institutional Adcancement and public Relatioin. Jan. 2004
<http://www.libromd.edu>.
Kennedy, X.J. , Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Sylvia A. Holladay. the Bedford Guide for College
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Writers. 6th ed. Boston: St. Martin\'s, 2002.
Kirkland’s, Dan. "The Fundamentals of Critical Reading and Effective Writing." How the
Language Really Works. 24 Mar 2004. <http://www.criticalreading.com/learn_read_write.htm>.
Learning to Read and Write. 2000. Jan. 2004
<http://www.critical-reading.com/learn_read_write.htm>.
merriam-webster online. 2004. Jan. 2004 <http://www.m-w.com/>.
Quotations about writing. 1998. Feb. 2004
<http://www.quotegarden.com/writing.html>.
Raibert, Marc H. "Good Writing." jan 1985. Boston Dynamics, Inc.. 24 Mar 2004.
<http://www.alice.org/Randy/raibert.htm>.
Swindoll, Jessalyn. Redeemy.com . 24 Mar 2004. <http://www.redeemy.com/index.html>.
The Fumblerules Of Grammar . 25 Nov. 2002. New York Times. Feb. 2004
<http://wl.middlebury.edu/wp100bf02/stories/storyReader$234>.
Tone. 2001. Go with the Fro. Jan. 2004
<http://www.somge.com/english/writing/tone.htm>.
"Tone and Style." The Writing Center @ Del Mar College. 24 Mar 2004.
<http://www.delmar.edu/engl/wrtctr/handouts/tone.htm>.
Trottier, David. The Screenwriter’s Bible. 3rd ed. Baldwin: Forum Publishing, 1993.
(Trottier,
1993, p. 161-175)
Vogler, Christopher. The Writer's Journey . 2nd ed. Studio City: Michael Wies Productions,
(Vogler 81-83)
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"What is Good Writing." Writing Center . 24 Mar 2004.
<http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/WC/goodwrite.html>.
www.redeemy.com. 2001. Feb. 2004
<http://www.redeemy.com/index.html>.