Professional Documents
Culture Documents
B.Z.University Multan.
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:
Writing, like most tasks, requires solid planning or preparation. In planning for writing our goal is
to accomplish the following few major tasks:
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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EFFECTIVE WRITING Compose
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Asher
Shahid
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.
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.
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:
Shift of pronoun:
Parallelism:
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EFFECTIVE WRITING Compose
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Asher
Shahid
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.
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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EFFECTIVE WRITING Compose
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Asher
Shahid
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.
I wish to take this opportunity to say that 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 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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