Weekly Blog

Using the class blog for a little bit of inspiration, I decided to focus this week's blog on the question: "What important decisions do writers make when they approaching a writing task?"

I think one of the most important decisions is simple: deciding what to write about. However, this goes far beyond just selecting a topic. It is about choosing a topic that interests you, a topic that you know something about, and a topic that can be written about clearly. I think a sign of weak writing is straying from the purpose, so the writer needs to have a focused, clear topic/purpose before he starts to write.

I also believe another decision writers make is how they should write (their style). Should it be persuasive? Informative? Informal? Formal? The tone of the writing impacts the way the audience views the work. An essay about the serious health effects of smoking, for example, should be approached informatively, with a serious tone. If the essay was written informally, using lots of informal words and sarcasm, the audience wouldn't walk away from the essay the same way they would have had it been written formally. Writers consistently need to keep in mind who their audience is throughout the whole writing process.