ONLINE WRITING

Can good writing be taught?

Being creative – NO!As a craft - YES

What is good ‘useful’ writing?

• Be concise. Keep sentences and paragraphs short• State your purpose clearly• Get straight to the point• Be specific; avoid abstractions• Know your audience• Write to be understood, not to impress• Prefer the active voice. Put action in your words• Weed out unnecessary words, phrases and ideas

Why bother to write?

Let’s write!

Principles for clarity, precision• Prefer the active voice• Don’t make nouns out of good, strong ‘working

verbs’• Be concise. Cut the bullshit! (At least 20 words in

a sentence)• Be specific. Use concrete terms instead of

generalizations• Keep related sentence elements together; keep

unrelated elements apart. Place modifiers as close as possible to the words they are intended to modify

• Avoid unnecessary shifts of number, tense, subject, voice, or point of view

• Prefer the simple word to the far-fetched, and the right word to the almost right

• Don’t repeat words, phrases or ideas. But don’t hesitate to repeat when the repetition will increase clarity.

• Use parallelism whenever it is appropriate. But do not use parallel structure when expressing thoughts that are not truly parallel

• Arrange your material logically. Always begin with ideas that the reader can understand. If you must present a difficult idea, go one step at a time.

Active vs Passive

Abangan!

• The love letter was written by the girlfriend.• A duplicate letter was sent by another girlfriend.• A commotion was caused by the teachers in the front

row.• An argument was prevented by a student.• It is requested that this report be submitted by 30

November.• The pistol was dropped by the burglar as he fled from

the store.• The toilet had been carelessly left unlocked by

someone.

When to use a passive voice?

• When the performer of the action is unknown or irrelevant

• When the emphasis is on the receiver of the action, on the verb or even on the modifier

• When the person or thing receiving the action is more important than the person doing the action

• Example: ‘Ms Alex was struck by a golf ball.’ vs ‘A golf ball struck Ms Alex.’

Nouns vs ‘working verbs’

• Authorization• Performance• Illustration• Implementation• Advancement• Realization• Confrontation• Negotiation

• Concession• Quotation• Determination• Employment• Determination• Relation• Administration• Documentation

• Authorization for the absence was given by the teacher.

• My new teacher is negligent in the details of his work.