Tuesday 6 May 2008

Writing

gep @ Flickr

I have had a peek at some of your essays up on the online hub and thought as the exam season pushes back from the future onto the present the next sensible thing to do is start writing about writing.

This is an area where essay feedback is weak; you are rarely told how to improve your writing. Markers just don't have the time.

That's a shame because I would guess that a very substantial chunk of your degree marks will be contingent upon the way your thoughts leave your body via your fingers onto the page.

So, I'll try and get some posts on how to make your writing more concise, precise and generally nice.

I'll start with the most general gem:


This is such an important point. First, good writing should be effortless to read. Some people are selfish writers: they don't show enough consideration for the reader.

Second, and more importantly, this effortlessness of reading requires effort of writing. The essays that score fewer marks on the hub can blame their lost marks on a lack of such effort. The research, the innovation and criticism are there - it's just the writing to gel all those things together is missing. In the coming posts hopefully you'll find more gel to use.

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