QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITING:Achieve appropriate readability:

<< QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITERS

QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITING:Be concise, Be creative, Be correct >>

Journalistic Writing MCM310

LECTURE 4

QUALITIES OF GOOD WRITING

"Anyone who wishes to produce a good writing should endeavor, before he allows himself to be tempted by

the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid."

H. W Fowler/The King's English further sys:

Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched.

Prefer the concrete word to the abstract.

Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.

Prefer the short word to the long.

Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance.

"The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves

no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb what carries the same meanings that is

already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what these are

thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a message." William Zinsser/On Writing Well

Our success as journalists depends largely on how well we communicate with our readers. Good writing can

help you do that. Whatever is your writing task- publication, newspaper column, article, feature, report or

program announcement- these guidelines can help you get the results you want. Before you begin:

Decide on your message. Jot down a single sentence describing what you want to say to your

readers. Limit yourself to no more than two or three main ideas.

Know your audience. Who are they? What do they know? What are their attitudes?

Define your purpose. What is it you're trying to accomplish-to inform, persuade, or motivate?

Keep your message, audience and purpose in mind as you write. This will help you choose the words that best

convey your thoughts, communicate with your readers, and set the correct tone for your purpose. In good

writing, one size does not fit all!

Goes without saying, good writing expresses a clear point, is tightly structured, grammatically and syntactically

correct, substantive, and interesting.

To express a clear point means to convey the writer's main idea or--in the case of descriptive writing--the

significance of the object, place or person described; in other words, an attentive reader should be able to grasp

the writer's purpose.

To be tightly structured, writing should contain logical or associative connections and transitions which

clearly express the relationship of the ideas described.

To be grammatically and syntactically correct, writing should adhere to the rules of Standard American

English, including proper punctuation and spelling. If writers choose to use unconventional syntax, they should

be able to justify their choices.

To be substantive, writing should convey the impression that the writer is informed about the subject. The

writer need not be an authority on the subject but should demonstrate awareness of its significance and its

implications within a specified context. Informed writing might include any or all of the following: citations of

authorities; experiential evidence; discussion of debatable issues related to it, and relevant questions it raises.

Journalistic Writing MCM310

To be interesting, writing should engage its readers through original insights and precise, uncliched language

expressed in a "human" voice. It should demonstrate the writer's awareness of the specific audience for whom

she or he is writing (the audience's degree of knowledge of the subject as well as its age, ethnic background,

gender, and assumptions).

Moreover, the general characteristics of good writing are, clarity completeness, conciseness, creativity,

consideration, correctness, credibility, courtesy, and concreteness.

1. Be clear: have a definite purpose for writing and make sure it is clearly communicated up front. Be

bold and connect quickly. In the midst of the typhoon we needed to be clear on our commands or risk

adverse reactions to the sea. Check:

1. Choose short, familiar conversational words.

2. Construct effective sentences and paragraphs

3. Achieve appropriate readability

4. Include examples, illustrations, and other visual aids, when desirable.

CHOOSE SHORT, FAMILIAR CONVERSATIONAL WORDS.

FAMILIAR

PRETENTIOUS

About

Circa

After

Subsequent

Announce

Promulgate

Error

Inadvertency

For example

e.g.

Home; house

Domicile

Pay

Remuneration

That is

i.e.

use

Utilization

Before: After our perusal of pertinent data the conclusion is that a lucrative market exists for the

subject property.

After: The data we studied show that your property is profitable and in high demand.

CONSTRUCT EFFECTIVE SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS

Length:

ASL: 17 to 20 words.

Range: 3 to 30 words or more

Unity:

"I like Tom, and the Eiffel Tower is in Paris." (Incorrect, no unity)

Coherence:

1. Before:

"Being an excellent lawyer, I'm sure you can help us."

Journalistic Writing MCM310

After:

As you are an excellent lawyer, I am sure you can help us.

Being an excellent lawyer, you can surely help us.

2. Before:

"His report was about managers, broken down by age and sex."

After:

His report focused on age and sex of managers.

His report about managers focused on their age and sex.

Emphasis:

Before: "The airplane finally approached the speed of sound and it became very difficult to control."

After: As it finally approached the speed of sound, the airplane became very difficult to control.

Achieve appropriate readability:

1. Fog Index Guide:

Invented by Robert Gunning in 1952

Gives the US school grade necessary for comprehension of text.

Calculated by adding together the average number of words per sentence and percentage of words of

with more than three syllables, and then multiplying the sum by 0.4.words

Scale runs from 6 to 16. If above 12, the text will be difficult to read.

2. SMOG Index:

Stands for `Simple Measure of Gobbledygook'

Calculated by multiplying the total number of words in text by 30, dividing the result by the number of

sentences, taking the square root of the result and multiplying it by 3

3. Flesch Index:

Designed for adult texts

Calculated by:

Calculating the average number of words per sentence.

Multiplying by 1.01.

Subtracting the result from 206.8, giving Result 1.

Calculating the number of syllables per hundred words.

Multiplying by 0.846, giving Results 2.

Subtracting Result 2 from Result 1, giving the Flesch Index.

Scale runs from 0 to 100 with increasing ease of readability.

Standard writing is described as 17 words per sentence and 147 syllables per hundred

words, with a resulting index of 64.

4. PSK (Power-Sumer-Kearl) Index:

Designed for primary school texts

Calculated by finding the average number of words per sentence and multiplying by 0.0778, finding the

number of syllables per hundred words and multiplying that by 2.029, and then adding the two results

together

5. Sticht Index:

Calculate the ratio of single syllable words to total words, multiplying that ratio by 15, and subtracting the

result from 20.

Journalistic Writing MCM310

Before:

The fact that all organic and inorganic entities and artifacts go through, on this planet at least, cycles of

change and decay is a well established and integral feature of life. The level of integration of this fact into

human culture is total, encompassing and influencing religion, philosophy, psychiatry, economics and

marketing and many other areas of our lives. One numerate view of the failure patterns associated with this

cycle of change is shown by the bath tub curve. While not presuming to be all encompassing this view of the

failure patterns does coincide with significant areas of experience and evidence for both plant, equipment and

human beings.

Totals: Words = 107

Sentences = 4

Syllables = 187

Words with more than three syllables = 11

FOG Index

= 14.81

SMOG Index

= 84.99

Flesch Index

= 31.8

After:

The fact that all organic and inorganic entities and artifacts go through, on this planet at least, cycles of

change and decay is a well known feature of life. This fact also influences many aspects of our lies including

religion, philosophy, psychiatry, economics and marketing. One view of the pattern of change and failure is

shown by the bath tub curve. Whilst this does not represent all types of failure, it does agree with much of the

evidence for both plant, equipment and human begins.

Totals: Words = 85

Sentences = 4

Syllables = 131

Words with more than three syllables = 5

FOG Index

= 10.85

SMOG Index

= 75.75

Flesch Index

= 54.85

Include examples, illuting ons, and other visual aids, when desirable:

Examples, analogies and illustrations add pictures to your writing.

Visual aids like headlines, tabulations, itemization, pictures, charts etc. make your writing easy to go

through.

Underline, number, color, or type in all CAPITALS or italics or use wide margins adds emphasis to

your text.

Source:

http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/nov02/effective_writing.html

http://abcopayroll.com/news/200610sevencs.php

http://www.writingcenter.emory.edu/goodwrite.html

Table of Contents: