EFFECTIVE WRITING

Discovering and Planning; Purpose, Thesis,

and Audience; Drafting: Drafting
Collaboratively, Drafting in Digital
Environment; Revising, Editing, and Proof
reading.

MUHAMMAD AKMAL (ASSISTANT PROFESSOR)

Department of Information Technology
[Link] COLLEGE CIVIL LINES, MULTAN

[Link] Multan.

Composed by: Asher Shahid

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Effective writing
Successful writing is the result of knowing how to structure information using both text and design
to achieve an intended purpose for a clearly defined audience. The best way to successful writing is
in the following steps:

1. Discovering and planning

2. Purpose
3. Thesis
4. Audience
Apart from the above points effective writing requires the following points
1. Unity
2. Coherence
3. Emphasis
4. Conciseness
1. Discovering and planning
The only way to be sure that you can write about a subject is to thoroughly understand it. For
this purpose one needs to conduct adequate research through interviewing, library, internet
research, careful note taking and documentary sources

Writing, like most tasks, requires solid planning or preparation. In planning for writing our goal is
to accomplish the following few major tasks:

 Establish the primary purpose of writing.

 Assess the audience (or readers) and the context.
 Determine the scope of writing.
 Select the appropriate medium.
2. Purpose
By purpose is meant the need of the writer to write. What the writer wants his readers to know,
to believe or to be able to do after reading the material. Purpose is more a matter related to the
choice of a topic. It also helps to decide about the writing style.

3. Thesis
A Thesis is a proposition about which research is required to ascertain its validity. The presentation
of the view points should be tentative until proved. However what is needed to prove is logic and
evidence in the form of statistical data reviews.

4. Audience
Considering the needs of our audience is crucial to achieve our purpose. When we write to a specific
reader, for example, we may find it useful to visualize a reader sitting across from us as we write.
Likewise, when writing to an audience composed of relatively homogeneous readers, we can create

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an image of composite reader and write for that reader. In much cases using the “you” viewpoint
can help to achieve an affective technical writing style.

The other elements of effective writing are as follows:

1. Unity
Unity is defined as a close relationship between all parts of a whole. The unity of a sentence
is destroyed if the sentence is incomplete, the ideas are not related and the sentence is telegraphic.

a. Express an idea in a complete sentence

Example: while the workers on the production line met their quota, maintained high
productivity, and attained a low defect rate, according to Mr. Zain, their production
manager. (Incomplete thought)
The workers on the production line met their quota, maintained high productivity, and
attained a low defect rate, according to Mr. Zain, the production manager. (Complete
thought)
b. The ideas in the first and second clause of a sentence should be closely related.
Example: Tahir bought a new car, and he has six children.
Tahir bought a station wagon because he needed a vehicle that would accommodate his
family.
c. Telegraphic sentences destroy unity.
Example: application accepted; registration August 21.
Correct: Your application has been accepted; please register for classes during the week of
August 21.

2. Coherence: Coherence requires that all parts of a sentence “fit” or “stick” together
and express a logical, meaningful idea. To achieve coherence the writer must be able to
detect and eliminate these errors: sequence of tenses, shift of pronoun, parallelism,
noun number agreement and subject verb agreement.

Examples:

Sequence of tenses:

 After he broke his arm, he is home for two weeks.

 After he broke his arm, he was home for two weeks.

Shift of pronoun:

 If you are tense, one should try to relax.

 If you are tense, you should try to relax.

Parallelism:

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 The master carpenter showed us how to countersink the nails, how to varnish the wood and
getting a smooth surface was also demonstrated.
 The master carpenter showed us how to countersink the nails, varnish the wood and get a
smooth surface.

Noun number agreements:

 Ann and Sara want to be a pilot.

 Ann and Sara want to be pilots.

Subject verb agreement:

 There is eight people on shore.

 There are eight people on shore.

3. Emphasis:
The reader assumes that certain ideas are important because the writer has handled them in a
manner commensurate with their importance. As a result, the reader attaches significance to these
ideas. An idea may be emphasized by its position in a sentence. Two or more significant ideas may
be tabulated or numbered within a sentence.

Mechanical methods such as underscoring, quotation marks, dashes, capitalization, ellipses and
exclamation points are also used to emphasize a word.

Example:

1. The first and last word in a sentence are in important positions; however, the first word is
often considered more emphatic.
Integrity is his primary virtue.
His primary virtue is integrity.
2. An independent clause represents a more important idea than does a dependent clause or
phrase.
Rao will attend the university after he leaves the service.
3. Active voice carries more impact than does passive voice.
 This analysis justifies our purchasing the equipment. (active)
 Our purchasing the equipment is justified by this analysis (passive)
4. A very short sentence serves to emphasize an idea or fact
We sold 40,000 copiers last year!
5. Listing several points within a sentence or in tabulated form serves to emphasize each point
and makes the total sentence more readable
Your responsibilities are to:
a. Coordinate the work of your assistants.

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b. Schedule reviews and books in process.
c. Pay reviewers.
d. Reimburse authors.

4. Conciseness:
1. To achieve conciseness, the writer eliminates trite, lengthy and meaningless words and phrases.
Here are a few examples:
Lengthy Concise
 At all times Always
 At the hour of eight At eight
 Long period of time Long time
 During the year of 1981 During 1981
 Due to the fact that Because
 Will you kindly, be so kind Please

2. During the revision process, words that do not contribute to the meaning or intend of the
message are eliminated.

Please be assured that your order will be shipped on July 15.

Revised: Your order will be shipped on July 15.

I wish to take this opportunity to say that we welcome you as a credit customer.

Revised: We welcome you as a credit customer.

3. Occasionally, a construction can be changed to make a sentence shorter and yet retain the same
meaning.

a. The words in a clause can be converted into a compound adjective.

 The child, who is ten years old, has been missing for a week.
 The ten year old child has been missing for a week.
b. A possessive pronoun or noun can be substituted for a prepositional phrase.
 The car which was damaged belonged to Ben.
 Ben’s car was damaged.
c. A synonym can be eliminated.
 We are reviewing and rechecking your order.
 We are reviewing your order.

A sentence can be changed in more than one way to achieve conciseness. During the revision phase,
the writer seeks to ‘tighten’ the construction without losing the meaning or intent of the message.

To conclude we can say that effective writing requires discovering, planning, proposing a thesis to
the audience in a language which is unified, coherent and concise.

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