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.