Elements of good writing

Unit 1: Five Elements of Good
Writing
Developed by:
• Mr. Sam Oeun UK (M.A in TESOL)
• H/P: 098 555 936/ 092 649 601
• E-mail: samoeun.uk@gmail.com
1

Content
In this unit, you will learn five
elements of good writing:
1. Purpose
2. Audience
3. Clarity
4. Unity
5. Coherence
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Element 1: Purpose
• For writers to stay focused on the
topic, they must understand the
purpose that they are trying to
accomplish.
• The purpose is the goal the writer is
trying to achieve.
• The three most common purposes of
academic writing are
1. To inform
2. To persuade
3. To entertain
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Paragraph 1 (Process)
Grilling
Preparing a grill for a summer cookout is easy if you
follow certain steps. First, it is important to start with a
clean grill, so you should remove all rust from the
grilling surface. After removing the top rack, place
one layer of briquettes in the bottom rack. Stack the
briquettes in a pyramid shape with the highest point
at the center of the grill. Once the briquettes have
been stacked, cover them with lighter fluid. Make
sure fluid is not near any open flame as you cover
the charcoal. After the charcoal has been soaked in
fluid, use a long match or a long lighter to ignite it. Be
careful not to burn yourself since the fumes of the
lighter fluid may ignite before the charcoal catches
fire. Next, wait for the flames to die out and the
charcoal to turn white. Finally, spread the briquettes
out in an even layer and replace the top rack. Once
you have followed these simple steps, you are ready
to grill.
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Activity 1: Read the paragraph and answer the
questions.
1. What is the writer‟s purpose in writing
this paragraph?
2. Does the writer stay focused on one
idea or topic? If not, explain where
the writer gets off topic.
3. Do you think the writer achieved his
or her goal in writing this paragraph?
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1.1 Purpose Statement
• Writers often create a purpose statement
before they write.
• A purpose statement is a short sentence that
clearly defines the purpose of the paragraph,
which is the reason that you are writing this
information.
• The purpose statement will help you to stay
within your topic and maintain the focus of your
writing.
• Purpose statements are simple and to the point.
For example, if you are going to write a
paragraph about how to clean your room, your
purpose statement would read something like
this:
The purpose of this paragraph is to explain how to
clean your room.
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Here are some sample topics followed by example
purpose statements (PS):
Topic How to play „fish‟
PS The purpose of this paragraph is to explain
to the reader how to play the card game
called „fish‟.
Topic The effects of insufficient sleep
PS The purpose of this paragraph is to tell the
negative effects or results of not getting
enough sleep each day.
Topic The messiest room that I have ever seen.
PS The purpose of this paragraph is to describe
the messiest room that I have ever seen.
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Activity 2: Read each of following topics. Then write a
purpose statement for each.
1. Topic: Your craziest experience in a
restaurant
Purpose statement: The purpose of this
paragraph is to tell about the time that
my uncle started a food fight in a
restaurant.
2. Topic: Alternative resources of energy
3. Topic: The most important invention of the
last century
4. Topic: My worst family vacation
5. Topic: The effects of smoking
6. Topic: How to learn up to fifty idioms per
day
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Element 2: Audience
• The term audience refers to the
readers that the writer expects to
read the paragraph.
• Good writers know who their
audience is before they start writing.
• Consider these two main techniques
for establishing audience:
1. Person (first, second, or third)
2. Formal or Informal
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2.1 Person
• Writers can choose among three different
persons, or point of view, when writing.
• The first person refers to the person or thing that
is speaking.
• First-person pronoun (I, we) or first-person
possessive adjectives (my and our).
• Paragraphs that explain personal experience
often use the first person.
Yesterday I went to the beach with my girlfriend.
First-person words
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• The second person refers to the person or thing
that is being spoken to.
• It is usually used to give directions or instructions.
• The second person is often used for informal
writing.
• Second-person pronouns (you and yours) and
the second-person possessive adjective (your).
• Process paragraphs often use the second
person (with or without the pronoun you.)
After filling the sink, you must then add detergent.
Second-person word
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• The third person refers to the person or thing that
is being spoken about.
• Think of the third person as someone telling a
story about another person or thing.
• Third-person pronouns (he, she, it, they, him, her,
them, his, hers, theirs) and third-person possessive
adjectives (his, her, their).
• Most academic paragraph use third person.
He turned quickly and saw them leaving the theatre.
Third-person words
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Activity 3: Following sentences change person within the sentence
(unnecessary shifts in person). Rewrite the sentence, changing the
incorrect pronoun. (Hint: Pay careful attention to the pronouns in the
sentences.)
1. When a person goes shopping, you should
always look for sales.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
2. One should carpool if you want to save on gas.
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
3. Doctors warn people that you should watch
what you eat.
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
4. Jeff brought pizza home for dinner. He told his
mother that you should wait until it cooled
down before eating it.
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
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Choosing Person in Formal or Informal Writing
• Most of the writing that you do for
school is considered formal writing.
• The first person is generally used in
writing a personal story or description.
• In most cases, academic writing uses
formal techniques in the third person.
• If you are unsure about the formality
level of an assignment, ask your
instruction
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• Certain topics work better using a particular
person (first, second, or third).
• Here are some examples of topics, the person
you use for each, and the level of writing.
Topic Person Level of Writing
1. The
importance of
voting
Third Formal
2. A letter to
your best friend
First or second Informal
3. Description of
your best
vacation
First Formal or
Informal,
depending on
audience
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Activity 4: Read each topic and decide whether it requires first,
second, or third person. Then decide whether the writing should be
formal or informal. There may be more than one correct answer.
Topic Person Formal or
Informal
1. A letter to
your cousin
First and
Second Person
Informal
2. A paragraph
about the
causes of the
Civil War
3. A paragraph
about your trip
to Mexico
4. A paragraph
telling about
how to bake a
cake
16

Element 3: Clarity
• Clarity refers to how easy it is for the
reader to understand your writing.
• Good writers explain their point easily
and clearly.
• Clear sentences are not vague or
indirect; they get the point across to
the reader by using specific, concise
language.
• Here are two ways that you can
improve clarity:
1.Use descriptive (or precise) words
2.Use clear pronoun references
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Using clear, Descriptive Language
• To improve clarity, it is important for
writers to choose words that give an
accurate description of their topic.
• Some words are vague and unclear,
and good writers avoid them.
• You can think of these unclear words
are being too common or boring.
• An example of one of these words is
nice. Read the following sentence:
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Although there were far more
Republican voters than Democrats in
the presidential election of 1976,
people voted for the Democratic
candidate because they perceived
him as being nice.
• The adjective nice does not tell us
very much about the candidate. It
does very little to tell us why voters
chose this candidate over any other.
• An effective writer would choose a
more descriptive word to inform
readers.
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Although there were far more
Republican voters than Democrats in
the presidential election of 1976,
people voted for the Democratic
candidate because they perceived
him as being sincere.
• In this sentence, the word sincere is
more descriptive and informative that
the word nice.
• For a sentence to express the exact
meaning that the writer wants to
share with readers, the writer must use
clear and precise words.
20

Activity 5: Replace each of the unclear and boring
words with three more descriptive or precise words.
1. good wonderful great delightful
2. bad horrible terrible awful
3. fun
4. big
5. small
6. old
21

Writer‟s note: Adding Description
• Good writers also strive to make their
writing clear and specific by adding
adjectives or prepositional phrases.
• Adding adjectives or prepositional phrases
can make your sentences more specific
and descriptive to improve the clarity of
your writing.
22
Original: The soldiers slowly crossed the river.
More
specific:
-The soldiers slowly crossed the dangerous
river.
-The soldiers slowly crossed the river in the
dark.
-The soldiers slowly crossed the dangerous
river in the dark.
-The tired soldiers slowly crossed the
dangerous river in the dark.

Clear Pronoun Reference
• Another thing that good writers do to
maintain clarity is to make sure that every
pronoun refers to a specific noun.
• If the exact meaning, or reference, of the
pronoun is not clear, then repeat the noun
or use a synonym of that noun.
– Children should not be allowed to
watch R-rated movies for many
reasons. They say that these movies
can disturb the children.
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• In the above sentence, who is „they‟?
Does they refer to the children? To R-rated
movies? To people in general?
• Because we do not know who or what
they refers to, this is considered an unclear
pronoun reference.
• The easiest way to correct it is to use
precise noun. In this case, it would be
better to say
– Children should not be allowed to
watch R-rated movies for many
reasons. Most psychologists say that
these movies can disturb the children.
24

Element 4: Unity
• Unity in a paragraph means that all the
sentences are related to the topic
sentence and its controlling idea.
• Good writes stay on topic by making sure
that each supporting detail sentence
relates to the topic sentence.
• You can use a purpose statement to help
establish your purpose, and you can also
use it to help establish unity.
• You can also check to see whether each
sentence follows the writer‟s purpose
statement: “The purpose of the following
paragraph is to explain how to clean your
room.”
25

(1) Cleaning your room is not difficult if
you follow some simple guideline. (2)
First, you must pick up all of your clothes
off the floor. (3) Then you need to
decide which clothes are dirty and
which clothes are clean and put them in
their appropriate places. (4) It is
important to wash your clothes with
good-quality laundry detergent to keep
them looking neat and clean. (5) After
that, you should put away any items that
are out of place. (6) The next step is to
dust all of your furniture, such as your
nightstand or your dresser. (7) The final
step is to mop or vacuum the floor,
depending on the surface. (8) When you
have finished these steps, you can relax
as you think about your good work.
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Study these questions and answers about the
above paragraph.
1. Does the first sentence maintain the unity
of paragraph?
Yes. Here, the first sentence is the topic
sentence. It lets readers know that the
paragraph will give the steps necessary to
clean their room.
2. Does the second sentence maintain the
unity of paragraph?
Yes. It gives the first step to cleaning your
room.
3. Does the second sentence maintain the
unity of paragraph?
Yes. It provides information describing
what to do with the clothes. It provides
extra information about the 2nd sentence.
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4. Does the fourth sentence maintain the
unity of paragraph?
No. It tells the reader about the
importance of doing laundry with a
specific type of laundry detergent.
Because sentence 4 does not support the
purpose of the paragraph, it should not
be included.
5. Does sentences 5-7 maintain the unity of
paragraph?
Yes, each give a step in how to clean
your room.
6. What about sentence 8? Does it belong?
Yes. This is the concluding sentence for
the ideas in this paragraph. It sums up
everything.
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Element 5: Coherence
• A piece of writing is said to have
coherence when all of its parts are
organized and flow smoothly and
logically from one idea to the next.
• Writers strive for coherence so that the
reader can follow along more easily.
• Three important features of
coherence are:
1. Logical order
2. Repetition of key words
3. Use of transitional words and
phrases
29

5.1. Logical Order
• It is important to follow a logical
order in your writing.
• The next activity will help you to
understand the importance of
logical order.
30

Activity 6: The following sentences form a paragraph, but they
are not in the best order. Read the sentences and then
number them from one to five to indicate the best order.
a. ___ He starts his day by putting on face
makeup and a large red nose.
b. ___ When he arrives, he puts on a
performance that includes jokes, balloon
animals, funny stories, and magic tricks.
c. ___ When his performance ends and the
audience is happy, Michael returns
home, satisfied that he has done his job
as a clown well.
d. ___ Michael‟s typical day at work is far
from ordinary.
e. ___ He then puts on his oversize shoes
and gets into his polka-dotted car and
drives to a different location each day,
usually a birthday party or other special
event.
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5.2. Repetition of Key Words
• Good writers know that certain key
words need to be repeated in a
paragraph to keep the reader
focused on the topic.
• Sometimes students worry that using
the same word again and again can
sound too repetitive.
• To avoid this, writers can also use
pronouns to take the place of these
key nouns.
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For example, look at the paragraph that you
put in order in slide #32 and answer the
following questions:
1. What is the main subject of the
paragraph?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
2. What is the writer‟s purpose?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
3. What key words (nouns or pronouns) does
the writer repeat to keep the reader
focused on the topic?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
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5.3. Transitional Words and Phrases
• Transitional words and
phrases are essential to
maintain the flow and
coherence of a
paragraph. They are the
links between ideas.
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Commonly Used Transitional Words and Phrases
To give
examples:
for example, for instance
To add
information:
and, next, in addition, first
To compare
or contrast:
in contrast, by comparison,
on the other hand
To show time: finally, after, before, when
To emphasize: For these reasons, obviously,
without a doubt
To show
sequence:
First (second, third, etc.), next,
as the same time
To summarize: Therefore, thus, in conclusion
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Elements of good writing

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