Characteristics of Good Writing
Since part of the responsibility of English 101
is to prepare students for the writing that they will do in other
courses at Calvin College, English 101 instructors should be aware
of the statement on "Characteristics of Good Writing" published
by the Writing Program Committee in 1991.
- Defining Good Writing. Defining good writing
is almost as difficult as defining pornography. One is tempted
to paraphrase Justice Stewart and say, "I can't define it, but
I know it when I read it." Far be it from us to press the parallels
between good writing and pornography too far, but only to note
that-as with pornography, so with good writing-"community standards"
differ from community to community and from discipline to discipline,
even to the point of flat contradiction between what various disciplines
consider good or merely competent writing. Generally speaking,
we can agree on the following.
- Most academics will probably agree on the
fundamental qualities of good writing. We may broadly agree
that basic errors of grammar and mechanics must be avoided.
We may part ways, however, on whether a particular usage is
incorrect. For example, broadcast news agencies may allow split
infinitives, even though literary critics may not tolerate them.
In short, the well-written report or essay will be free of grammatical
and mechanical errors; it will conform to the conventions of
standard academic English; it will avoid traces of inappropriate
dialect or colloquialisms; and it will be sensitive to the level
of formality called for by an assignment.
- Most faculty will similarly agree that good
writing conveys a clear sense of the writer's purpose. It is
insightful and illuminating, and communicates a content that
is unified and significant. We are concerned here with what
might be called the intellectual impact of the writing; it is
theoretically possible (though admittedly unlikely) for writing
to avoid the errors of grammar and mechanics mentioned above
and still be poorly written. The rare student might write in
a way that is both conceptually pointless and grammatically
perfect.
- The writer's strategy goes beyond grammar
and conception but is just as fundamental to the paper's success.
Most faculty will agree that a paper's structure and development-the
way its conception is advanced from assertion through argumentation
and details to conclusion-are critical to its success. Good
writing at this level often depends upon the writer's willingness
to outline, to cut and paste, to discard. In principle, students
should complete these are activities well before they begin
a final draft, but even good students are often loathe to carry
them out.
- Good writing must also show an effective
style. Here we recognize, however, an element of subjectivity
in evaluation, as well as a difference in the styles commended
by various disciplines. Although many faculty may have difficulty
characterizing the style of a specific piece of writing as appropriate
or inappropriate, they will generally agree that an effective
style conveys ideas and information precisely, concisely and
in a manner appropriate to the context of a particular paper
or report. An effectively styled essay generates interest and
even emphasis through its choice of diction; it demonstrates
the ability to use punctuation rhetorically-for effect as well
as clarity.
- From the Fundamentals to the Disciplines.
English 101 introduces students to the qualities of effective
writing, as outlined above. But when students move into various
academic disciplines, they often find that what a professor means
by effective organizational strategy or appropriate style is differs
from what they learned in English 101. For example, a business
student might be surprised to learn that she is expected to begin
the opening paragraph of a case study with a precise and succinct
statement of the bottom line, and that supporting detail (which
her English teacher suggested was crucial) may even be relegated
to an appendix. Students of the natural sciences may discover
that a given organizational plan (abstract, introduction, methods
and materials, results, discussion) is preferred by a journal,
even though the organizational strategies they learned for freshman
English papers were virtually limitless. To take a final example,
English 101 teaches students to favor the active voice over the
passive; this stylistic preference serves students of the humanities
well enough, but the chemistry student who prefers the active
voice in his lab report may be asked to revise.
- Different writing styles are demanded by various
academic courses and disciplines. Moreover, it is very difficult
to predict the career options of most of our students, not to
mention those of traditional liberal arts students. It is also
true that the notion of "lifework" is becoming obsolete in a society
where workers change careers with increasing frequency. Given
these facts, we owe it to our students to prepare then to write
competently in as many contexts as possible. The Writing Program
Committee suggests that it be the goal of writing instruction
at Calvin College to develop students who are capable of writing
effectively in various academic and work-related contexts. It
would be irresponsible of this committee to propose general characteristics
of good writing in a manner that ignored discipline-specific differences
in the particular definitions of those characteristics. We are
consistent with Calvin's historically liberal arts approach to
scholarship if we emphasize breadth of preparation in an area
as general as writing.
- If we define our notions of "competence" and
"incompetence" broadly, with a view to the various disciplines,
the competent writer will effectively fulfill the stylistic expectations
of more than one discipline (for example, business and the humanities).
A less competent writer may be only marginally effective in only
one discipline, and the incompetent writer will be incapable of
writing effectively according to the conventions of any discipline.
We know that under these guidelines true excellence in student
writing will be not only hard to define but also quite rare. Our
emphasis on developing a student writer's ability to cross disciplinary
lines suggests that excellence lies in the ability to appropriate
the expectations of one academic style and apply them effectively
in a different discipline.
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