Ashton+Scoggins'+First+Essay

Ashton Scoggins Intro. To College Writing Dr. Vanderslice September 20, 2011 ** My Definition of Good Writing ** "Good writing is the best kind of conversation you never heard. It’s talking tidied up. It’s speaking compressed, clarified, enriched, and heightened by thought and art, and set down on paper." -Mark Tredinnick Everyone has their own definition and ideas about what good writing may be. It is all a matter of opinion, usually derived from outside influences or possibly even doing readings of their own. My definition of good writing is one that can draw in an audience, and keep them interested throughout the whole reading as well as keeping the reader’s minds’ engaged the whole time while reading. Fluent sentences that are smooth and expressive make the writing understandable and more enjoyable to read. It is not confusing or difficult to comprehend, and it does not have to be read multiple times to understand. It can draw in emotions as well. It can make one feel a certain way, such as happy, sad, mad, etc., making the reader feel like a part of the story; like they are actually in the writing. Good writing also chooses the right words that are specific and memorable. Teachers and the reading of other people’s writings have mostly influenced my conception of what good writing is. My teachers in high school would always give us students a set of rules of what to do and what not to do. Everyone in the class had to write the same way, the teacher’s way, or it was wrong. In other words, our classes’ version of good writing was actually just our teacher’s idea of what good writing is. Reading other people’s books is another source that influenced my perception of what good writing is. If a story has me interested the whole time, I consider it good writing. If tears are brought to my eyes, or if anger gets built up inside me, or if I feel embarrassed for a character in the book, I consider that good writing because my emotions are being brought out through the words of the author. About a year ago I read the book __A Child Called “It”__. It is about a little boy who’s mother beats him and tries to kill him multiple times. This book made me very angry at the mother. Reading what the little boy was going through also made me cry many times. Choosing the right words can be crucial to a story. It can be what determines if the readers emotions are brought in to the story or not. Saying “The mother hit her son” doesn’t sound as good as “The mother reared back and forcefully smacked her nine-year-old son as hard as she could”. The reader would be much more interested in the second sentence. Therefore, good writing chooses the right words. I have always believed that not everyone’s definition of good writing is the same, but in high school the teachers make you think that it has to be the way they like it, or it is wrong. The book __Writing About Writing__ has really just reinforced my idea of what the definition is. Good writing is always having your audience in mind, and never forgetting who your audience is. That is what determines how you write throughout the whole story. If you are writing to a first grade student, you wouldn’t want to use big, confusing words. You wouldn’t want to use the word surreptitious to talk about doing something secretively. On the other hand, if you are writing to an adult, you would be able to use more suffisticated words. Good writing is also all about messing up, getting stuck, losing focus, but never giving up. It takes a lot of practice and trial and error to make a story great. It doesn’t just appear on paper without these things. I always believed that good writers, such as Shakespeare, never had a hard time writing a good story. I thought writing just came natural to them, and they never lost focus or couldn’t figure out what to say next until I read the book __Writing About Writing__. After reading that, I realized that it can be hard for anyone to write sometimes. Therefore, I now understand that good writing isn’t when the words just flow out and never have to be changed or edited. It takes a lot of thought and pauses and confusion to create a masterpiece. Writing very rarely comes easy. Writers in this book changed my conception of good writing processes and practices. I never thought about the first draft being considered a “down draft”, just getting your ideas and thoughts down on paper, and your second draft being the one where you edit. I always thought that the first draft had to be good. I also never thought about writing down any and all thoughts that come into my head, whether I consider them useful or not. The book said to write like a child in your first draft; saying whatever you want to say, no matter how silly or childish it may sound. I never considered thinking about when and where I should write, until reading this chapter. I have now realized that I write best in a quiet setting, with slow, soft music playing in the background with no words. I also prefer writing when I have a cup of coffee or snacking on fruit, preferably grapes. I like to have something to do while I’m trying to write. A clean room also aids in my writing. I like to have a neat and organized room so I can merely just focus on my writing. I require frequent breaks as well. About every fifteen minutes I have to get up and tend to something else for a few minutes before coming back to finish the writing. This helps me to stay focused and not get distracted as often. The book __Writing About Writing__ has challenged my ideas about good writing strategies. I never thought about writing down all of my thoughts onto my first draft. I never knew you could write like a kindergartener in the first draft and get many good things out of it. I always believed that it had to be close to perfect. Learning how to use my first draft as a “down draft” will make it much easier and more fun to write because I won’t be worrying about whether I had correct punctuation, or if my sentence makes sense, or if I should put that paragraph somewhere else. However, it also reinforced my ideas on a few things, such as always keeping my audience in mind, but for the most part, the chapter completely changed my definition of what good writing is. I am very happy I got the opportunity to read it. It will hopefully help me write better from now on, and hopefully getting started on a new paper will be much easier now that I won’t be so focused on getting the first draft down perfect.