23 Aug What makes a good piece of writing?

In order to have a clear purpose, here’s what you must do when you write:

1. Description – you need to be specific about everything you write.

Don’t just write something like “that test was hard”. As your instructor (and your main audience), I have no idea what that means.

You need to be more specific because my definition of what makes a test hard or difficult may be very different from yours. So here’s an example on how to make that idea more descriptive:

The three pages of math problems and extra credit equations make this test the most difficult to figure.

Now, why does this work better?

You have written more detail I can output the tests in context. As your audience, I now understand the type of test you’re discussing and what exactly is required.

The key to good narration and description in any piece of writing is not just tell your audience about something that shows them through solid detail.

2. Specific examples – for this course many of your specific descriptions will come from the stories that I sign you to read. Your essay topic will be based on these readings and the specific descriptions you will use comp from direct quotes. (see the notes on the parts of the essay for specific information on the subject).

Each example needs to be

Appropriate (directly related to the subject)

Accurate

Convincing (easy to relate to)

3.. Analysis-this is where your opinions come into play. While in this course I do not allow you to use I or you, the way you write your analysis tells me that that’s your opinion. It’s an idea that you’re helping to prove with the support of your specific examples.

The reason that analysis is so important when writing about literature is because stories written by other people often deal with the abstract concepts, love or loss. The reason that topics like this are abstract is because they have different definitions for every member of your audience.

This is why analysis is so important because without it your audience has no clue what your main idea (or thesis) is about. Remember, writing for college class is very different than writing you may have done before. You are not writing a plot summary of the stories you read. Don’t tell your audience what happened, but why what happened matters.

The why is your analysis is so important.

For instance, if I was writing an essay about the use of food in the fantasy novel the hobbit, here’s an example of what a sentence of my analysis may look like:

The amount of time that all of the hobbit spent talking about food shows that fellowship around the table is a key part of any journey.

How’s this analysis?

I’m presenting a point about the story that you may not agree with because it’s not a statement of fact or an element of the plot. It’s my opinion about what the use of food in the story means. This makes this statement and instance of analysis.

Remember, you can never have analysis without a quote from the story to help prove your point. Here’s what that would look like:

The amount of time that all of the hobbit spent talking about food shows that fellowship around the table is a key part of any journey.

Each hobbit understands how important eating together has become because “they must eat before moving on each day” (Smith 46 )

*notice that our commentary from before is immediately backed up with a direct quote from the story. The quote I used in my example is also introduced and cited (which is the concept you’ll learn about later on in semester).

Remember, writing for college class is very different than writing you may have done before. You are not writing a plot summary of the stories you read. Don’t tell your audience what happened, but why what happened matters…..