The Lost Art of Writing: Getting Back to Basics

Writing is an art. But when reduced to rubrics, margins and word counts, it becomes a chore. Unless you’re Charles Dickens, who got paid by the word, you probably don’t look forward to writing a ten-page paper. To compound the problem, teachers often provide different guidelines from class to class and year to year, so what applied to you as a freshman writer might not necessarily translate to you as a junior. I have tutored many students who were confused by what their teachers were looking for, or who felt unsure regarding the general rules of writing. Below are some very general guidelines for students who struggle with the task of writing.

1. Know your audience – It is essential to know who you are writing for (or “for whom you are writing,” if I’m staying true to point of this article). If you’re midway through the year, you have hopefully gotten a sense of what your particular teacher would like to see in written assignments. At the same time, however, it is important that you keep your voice in your writing. Even though your teacher may have certain requirements, the work is still yours and he will know if it sounds like someone else’s. As William Zinsser, author of the classic On Writing Well said: “style is tied to the psyche, and writing has deep psychological roots.” In other words, know and respect your audience, but be yourself.

2. Give the reader the benefit of the doubt – Readers are not dumb; rather, they are discerning and (rightfully) impatient when you don’t know what you are talking about. When writing a literary analysis, for instance, you should assume that your reader knows the basic plot of the story. You can therefore avoid a dumbed-down summary that will only infuriate a reader who is trying to understand your main analysis- and believe me, teachers really hate reading summary when they asked for analysis. So while you may need to include a few plot details in order to set the stage, once your analysis becomes a book report, you’re in trouble. Similarly, making a reader stumble through a mysterious, convoluted maze of syntax and vocabulary can send one to the brink. According to Zinsser, eventually the reader will give up and seek out a writer “who is better at the craft.”

3. Look up what you don’t know – Don’t be shy when it comes to looking up grammatical conventions. I think students are often shortchanged in their basic grammatical education in that fundamentals are typically taught in the middle grades but are very rarely reinforced in later years. So if you’re not sure how to use a semicolon, don’t be embarrassed; you’ve got more resources than ever before. Gone are the days of having to pull out the old Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition textbook when you need to know a rule. Instead, hit the web and look up anything you don’t know as many times as you need to. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl is one of many good and accessible online resources for all of your grammar and usage questions.

­4. It’s as much about what you say as it is about how you say it – In other words, fancy constructions and elaborate frills don’t make writing good. While having an individual style is not necessarily a bad thing, we mustn’t forget that content is equally important. An essay with fifty highbrow vocab words may not be as strong as one that speaks more directly. Consider this excerpt from Strunk and White’s indispensable The Elements of Style: “vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.” Indeed, the idea is to “make every word tell.” Zinsser hammers it home: “If you’re not a person who says ‘indeed’ or ‘moreover,’ please don’t write it.”

 Within narrow confines and constrictions, writing can often feel like a daunting task but knowing some basic elements can be extremely helpful and calming for the student who feels out of his depth. In short (as Strunk and White would prefer), know who you’re writing for but don’t lose your voice, respect your reader, be ready to adapt and learn as you go, and write “vigorously.”

Essential Texts:

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

The Elements of Style by William Strunk & E.B. White

On Writing by Stephen King

A Writer’s Reference by Diana Hacker

Why I Write by George Orwell

The Art of Styling Sentences by Sullivan and Longknife

The Little Red Writing Book by Brandon Royal

Written by Phil Lane