Sources:

Writing Well by Roy Bunn retrieved from https://slideplayer.com/slide/3548426/

1 Writing Well AGED 3142

2 Types of Writing Creative Writing Goals: to entertain, provoke thought, or express an idea artistically
Audience: usually general, possibly targeted Meaning: abstract and open to interpretation Style and
format: open to creative discretion (submitted works generally follow MLA style) Examples Poetry Lyrics
Short stories Novels Play/Movie scripts

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3 Types of Writing Journalistic Writing Goals: to inform or persuade Audience: usually general, possibly
targeted Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation Style and format: structured according to AP
style and various publications’ in-house style manuals Examples News stories Feature stories News
releases Editorial columns Advice columns

4 Types of Writing Academic Writing Goals: to demonstrate understanding of complex topics, to explore
new concepts Audience: usually an instructor, but other experts if work is publishable Meaning:
concrete and not open to interpretation Style and format: structured according to various academic
style manuals (Chicago, APA, MLA, American Society of Agronomists, etc.) and instructor’s directions
Examples Essays and subjective exams Class research and other project papers Position papers and
literature reviews

5 Types of Writing Scientific Writing Goal: to share results of scientific investigation with various
audiences Audience: possibly expert, but possibly lay Meaning: concrete and not open to interpretation
Style and format: structured according to various professional, academic, and University style manuals
Examples Journal articles Research proposals, theses, and dissertations Popular science articles
Conference papers Theoretical pieces
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6 Types of Writing Professional Writing Goal: to facilitate in-house and external communications in
business settings Audience: experts, executives, technicians, operators, and laypersons Meaning:
concrete and not open to interpretation Style and format: structured according to business conventions
and in-house style manuals Examples Letters, e-mails, and memos Résumés and vitae Sales and
marketing proposals Project reports Final reports

7 Types of Writing Technical Writing Goal: to facilitate in-house and external communications in a
business setting Audience: possibly expert, but possibly lay Meaning: concrete and not open to
interpretation Style and format: structured according to various professional and in-house style manuals
Examples Solicited proposals for grants and technical contracts In-house proposals for project plans
Progress reports Auditing and evaluation reports Final reports Technical descriptions Instructions and
training manuals

8 Regardless of the genre… All good writing has some of the same characteristics.

9 Good Writing Is Always the Result of Hard Work Writing is a process, and good writing usually evolves
over time Often, writing becomes “good writing” during the revision part of the process During revision,
you should ask yourself: “Does my writing have the qualities associated with ‘good writing’”? If those
qualities aren’t there, REVISE

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10 Qualities of Good Writing Appropriate for audience and purpose Organized with a recognizable
structure Introductions and overviews Supporting paragraphs that focus on one topic or supporting idea
Consistent in style, tone, and form Consistent spelling, grammar, punctuation Either informal or formal
tone Consistent structure of info (headings)
11 Qualities, cont’d. Clear message No contradictions No beating around the bush Concise sentences
and paragraphs For general audiences (and print media), the best average sentence length is about 17
words However, good writers vary sentence length around this average

12 Qualities, cont’d. Make every word count Example Wordy: He is a man who procrastinates
Concise: He procrastinates Concrete language Definite, specific, descriptive words and sentences
Example: Vague: A period of unfavorable weather set in Concrete: It snowed for 12 hours yesterday

13 Qualities, cont’d. Smooth If you stumble over your own words, it’s a sure bet that someone else will
Read your writing aloud to yourself or to someone else Let someone else read a draft

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14 You don’t have to be William Shakespeare In the journalistic, professional, and technical writing that
is the focus of this class, creativity is nice, but functionality is the key (think audience and purpose) Don’t
shoot yourself in the foot trying to be creative

15 One Type of Writing: Proposals Proposals are detailed offers to do work and can sometimes serve as
contracts Proposals are always informative and persuasive They inform an audience of a plan to solve a
problem They persuade the audience that the plan is logical, effective, and efficient They persuade the
audience that the proposing organization is likely to do a good job

16 Proposals Proposals usually contain these basic sections: Title page Table of contents Abstract or
executive summary Introduction Background and overview Situation analysis Strategic plan or plans for
solution Plans for evaluation Budget Conclusion References Appendices

17 Proposals Proposals are formatted according to industry conventions and according to the request
for proposals (RFP) All proposals should look professional Quality printing and binding Quality graphics
and photos Eloquent choices in fonts and leading Sensible layout Good use of white space
18 Proposal Styles The writing and formatting styles of proposals (and other academic, scientific,
professional, and technical writing) may depend on a professional style manual APA (social sciences)
MLA (languages and communication) Chicago (biological and physical sciences) Some organizations have
their own style manuals, and some RFPs include stylistic guidelines

19 APA Style and Formatting The Publication Manual of the APA provided guidelines on how to…
Punctuate Cite sources in text Format references pages Paginate Using running headers and footers
Display appendices Etc.

20 Citations Any information that was not the result of the writer’s own thought process should be
cited in a proposal Citations add credibility to a persuasive argument Citations demonstrate that the
proposers have done their homework on the topic Citations give credit to researchers and experts for
their work Citations help avoid problems with plagiarism, academic misconduct, and academic
dishonesty

21 References APA style uses parenthetical citations (Author, date) References should be written so
that others can easily locate the source They should include (in general) Authors’ names, year, title of
article, title of publication, volume and issue numbers, and page numbers. The APA manual specifically
describes formats for many types of references.