BASICS TO WRITING

Knowing words: parts of speech, since these are the building blocks of speech
Crafting sentences: To properly put sentences together. Sentences must be well written in
terms of SPELLING, DICTION (word choice), PUNCTUATION, and GRAMMAR.
Sentences must display: CLARITY, PRECISION and GRACE.
Crafting a paragraph: here the following things must be taken into account: CADENCE,
CONSISTENCY OF TONE, WORD REPETITION, TRANSITIONS BETWEEN
SENTENCES, and PARAGRAPH LENGTH.
The above is pretty much all there is to writing properly in English. There are other
specifics as to the piece of writing youre aiming to produce; those are to be dealt with
eventually, when the time to talk about such pieces of writing comes.
How to measure the effectiveness of you writing: this can be done by thinking about your
target reader.
Bad writing introduces: BOREDOM, ANNOYANCE, INCOMPREHENSION, and/or
DAYDREAMING
A well-written text makes a reader experience it as all of, or some of the following:
CLEAR, READABLE, PERSUASIVE, and PLEASING.
Some problems writers may come across are: awkwardness, comma splice, faulty
parallelism, dangling modifiers.
TIPS
1. Dont use a long word if theres a shorter one that means the same thing.
2. Avoid word repetition. Rather use nouns or recast the whole sentence. E.g. Write,
The boy Im babysitting tomorrow is usually well behaved instead of, The boy
Im babysitting tomorrow is usually a well behaved boy.
3. If you are considering a word you are even slightly doubtful about, look it up.
Crimes against good prose:
AWKWARDNESS
WORDINESS
WORD CHOICE (FORTUNATE AND UNFORTUNATE)
BAD RHYTHM
CLICHES
DULLNESS
Standards are constantly changing keeping language away from stagnation.
Comma splice
Now, writing for a computer is somehow closer to talking than writing for print

Paradoxically, it takes more effort to be concise than to be prolix

Good writing: holds readers attention, clearly communicates the writers point of view,
and sometimes even convinces reader of the writers point.
Things that help improve your writing:
Reading
Read aloud
Transparent prose: clear, precise, concise
Mindful writing: awareness of and attentiveness the person who will eventually be reading
your words.
Lowercase: seasons, directions, relatives
E.g. [Every Summer, my Mother and Father and I got in the car and drove West.]
Every summer, my mother and father and I got in the car and drove west.
Italics: emphasis, titles of books and other compositions, to indicate words as words, for
words in languages other than English.
Boldface: only in section headings