1. Writing Well AGED 3142

2. Types of Writing Creative Writing Goals: to entertain, provoke thought, or express an idea artistically Audience: usually general, possibly targeted Meaning: abstract and open to interpretation Style and format: open to creative discretion (submitted works generally follow MLA style) Examples Poetry Lyrics Short stories Novels Play/Movie scripts

3. Types of Writing Journalistic Writing Goals: to inform or persuade Audience: usually general, possibly targeted Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation Style and format: structured according to AP style and various publications’ in-house style manuals Examples News stories Feature stories News releases Editorial columns Advice columns

4. Types of Writing Academic Writing Goals: to demonstrate understanding of complex topics, to explore new concepts Audience: usually an instructor, but other experts if work is publishable Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation Style and format: structured according to various academic style manuals (Chicago, APA, MLA, American Society of Agronomists, etc.) and instructor’s directions Examples Essays and subjective exams Class research and other project papers Position papers and literature reviews

5. Types of Writing Scientific Writing Goal: to share results of scientific investigation with various audiences Audience: possibly expert, but possibly lay Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation Style and format: structured according to various professional, academic, and University style manuals Examples Journal articles Research proposals, theses, and dissertations Popular science articles Conference papers Theoretical pieces

6. Types of Writing Professional Writing Goal: to facilitate in-house and external communications in business settings Audience: experts, executives, technicians, operators, and laypersons Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation Style and format: structured according to business conventions and in-house style manuals Examples Letters, e-mails, and memos Résumés and vitae Sales and marketing proposals Project reports Final reports

7. Types of Writing Technical Writing Goal: to facilitate in-house and external communications in a business setting Audience: possibly expert, but possibly lay Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation Style and format: structured according to various professional and in-house style manuals Examples Solicited proposals for grants and technical contracts In-house proposals for project plans Progress reports Auditing and evaluation reports Final reports Technical descriptions Instructions and training manuals

8. Regardless of the genre… All good writing has some of the same characteristics.

9. Good Writing Is Always the Result of Hard Work Writing is a process, and good writing usually evolves over time Often, writing becomes “good writing” during the revision part of the process During revision, you should ask yourself: “Does my writing have the qualities associated with ‘good writing’”? If those qualities aren’t there, REVISE

10. Qualities of Good Writing Appropriate for audience and purpose Organized with a recognizable structure Introductions and overviews Supporting paragraphs that focus on one topic or supporting idea Consistent in style, tone, and form Consistent spelling, grammar, punctuation Either informal or formal tone Consistent structure of info (headings)

11. Qualities, cont’d. Clear message No contradictions No beating around the bush Concise sentences and paragraphs For general audiences (and print media), the best average sentence length is about 17 words However, good writers vary sentence length around this average

12. Qualities, cont’d. Make every word count Example  Wordy: He is a man who procrastinates  Concise: He procrastinates Concrete language Definite, specific, descriptive words and sentences Example:  Vague: A period of unfavorable weather set in  Concrete: It snowed for 12 hours yesterday

13. Qualities, cont’d. Smooth If you stumble over your own words, it’s a sure bet that someone else will Read your writing aloud to yourself or to someone else Let someone else read a draft

14. You don’t have to be William Shakespeare In the journalistic, professional, and technical writing that is the focus of this class, creativity is nice, but functionality is the key (think audience and purpose) Don’t shoot yourself in the foot trying to be creative

15. One Type of Writing: Proposals Proposals are detailed offers to do work and can sometimes serve as contracts Proposals are always informative and persuasive They inform an audience of a plan to solve a problem They persuade the audience that the plan is logical, effective, and efficient They persuade the audience that the proposing organization is likely to do a good job

16. Proposals Proposals usually contain these basic sections: Title page Table of contents Abstract or executive summary Introduction Background and overview Situation analysis Strategic plan or plans for solution Plans for evaluation Budget Conclusion References Appendices

17. Proposals Proposals are formatted according to industry conventions and according to the request for proposals (RFP) All proposals should look professional Quality printing and binding Quality graphics and photos Eloquent choices in fonts and leading Sensible layout Good use of white space

18. Proposal Styles The writing and formatting styles of proposals (and other academic, scientific, professional, and technical writing) may depend on a professional style manual APA (social sciences) MLA (languages and communication) Chicago (biological and physical sciences) Some organizations have their own style manuals, and some RFPs include stylistic guidelines

19. APA Style and Formatting The Publication Manual of the APA provided guidelines on how to… Punctuate Cite sources in text Format references pages Paginate Using running headers and footers Display appendices Etc.

20. Citations Any information that was not the result of the writer’s own thought process should be cited in a proposal Citations add credibility to a persuasive argument Citations demonstrate that the proposers have done their homework on the topic Citations give credit to researchers and experts for their work Citations help avoid problems with plagiarism, academic misconduct, and academic dishonesty

21. References APA style uses parenthetical citations (Author, date) References should be written so that others can easily locate the source They should include (in general) Authors’ names, year, title of article, title of publication, volume and issue numbers, and page numbers. The APA manual specifically describes formats for many types of references.