Writing Top Ten

Long have I lamented the poor state of college writing and considered strategies to improve it. Like writing itself, my top-ten list is an on-going process of deliberation and revision. Consider this page the executive summary. Each point below will have a separate and detailed post as I get to it.

While it may not be complete, I endeavor to give students the foundational concepts for solid college writing. Consider the following, and let me know what I missed. I’ll call this a beta version for now. Here we go.

Let’s begin with the Golden Rule: All writing online should stand on its own.

In other words, make each post understandable to anyone who might happen to stumble upon it. You might have various reasons for posting online, like an assignment for a class, a reaction to an event, or your thoughts about a the latest episode of Doctor Who, but unless you contextualize each of these, they will make little sense to a general audience. Even if you’re writing to fulfill a class assignment, don’t write it like you might have when submitting it on paper to your professor — where each of you understand the context. Writing online is accessible to a much broader audience, so be sure you include them in your discussion.

 NOTE: While this list is presented like commandments, they are just suggestions and will not be true for every platform. In other words, many platforms, like Wikipedia, will have their own set of guidelines that might contradict those listed below. These are meant to be guidelines for digital writing and not rules to always be followed. Always be aware of the specific requirements for the medium on which you’re writing.

Be Focused

Focus your writing’s content: always have a point and state a specific claim. In writing classes, we call this a thesis statement. However, we needn’t be so formal; let’s call this our primary argument or the main point. All solid writing states a claim then supports it with evidence. Whatever you’re writing remains incomplete unless you can point to your assertion.

When writing for the screen, write a headline that briefly abstracts your post, like the "nutshell" above. This way, users know exactly what your post is about and your position on it.

In the Yahoo! Style Guide, Chris Barr suggests front-loading your most important content and keeping it short and simple. You only have a couple of seconds to get and keep your readers’ attention, so front-loading your point will have the greatest chance of encouraging readers to continue.

Furthermore, Jakob Nielson shows that users do not even read on the screen—they scan. He suggests using keywords, meaningful headers and subheads, and keeping to one idea per paragraph.

Be Credible

Use specific evidence to support your claims. The Greeks promoted ethos as a foundation for successful rhetoric. Think of credibility as supporting what you write with the best evidence. Why “believe” or “feel” or “opine” when you can “know”? Support ideas, suppositions, and claims with specific evidence. Remember Hitchens’ Razor:

“ That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. ”

Unless you are an expert in your field, you should support any assertions you make not considered factual or common knowledge with specific, verifiable evidence and concrete examples. For example, the statement “Barack Obama was the first African-American president of the USA” does not need support. However, “Barack Obama has done more than any other US president to strengthen the second amendment” needs several reliable sources to back it up.

In other words: do your homework. Cite reliable sources in a clear, consistent manner.

Be Active

Default to the active voice: use verbs as verbs, nouns as nouns. Describing uses more words than doing. Be like Mike and his Nikes: Just Do It. Be aware of the parts of speech and how each word will optimally function in a sentence. Avoid “zombie nouns,” jargon, and academicese when possible.