Writing is one of many ways to communicate with others. When you write, you want to send information to others, through written media. Certainly you want the others to understand the information well. If they can understand well, it is called that you can send the information effectively. You have an image in your mind to transfer. If the image is transferred as it is to the others, it means you can communicate with the others very effectively. On the other hand, if the image transferred to the others is somehow different – either a little or much – from the image in your mind, it means you communicate somehow ineffectively with the others. Certainly you want to communicate with the others effectively. You want them to understand you as well as possible.
When you write, you have a style of yours. The style is the way you choose words to use as well as the way you arrange the words in sentences. Talking about words used to form sentences, you have at least two choices: using simpler words or more advanced ones. You can choose one of the two choices, or you also may use simpler words but combined with some (not many) advanced ones. It is a choice, so it totally depends on yourself.
But remember, each choice has its consequence. If you choose simple words, others may understand what you write very easily without thinking too hard. On the other hand, if you choose advanced words, others – especially non native beginners – probably have to think harder to understand what you write.
For sure, it is almost impossible to always use simple words. In some occasions, you need some advanced words to precisely represent the idea in your mind. In such condition, you may choose to use the advanced words. But I suggest that you always use simple words as much as possible. Only when you have no other choice, you can use advanced words.
In addition, choosing simple words or advanced ones also depends on where you write. If you write on newspapers, popular magazines, or blogs, you’d better use simple words, because what you write will be read by people with different levels of language proficiency. You should not use advanced words – particularly technical words of a certain field of science – on those media. However, if you write on academic journal, you can use advanced words because what you write will be read by segmented, educated people. You can also use technical words if you are sure that the readers will understand them well.
The style in which you write also includes what kind of sentence structure you use. You have two choices: simple structure or complex structure. There may be the third choice: combining both of them.
In simple structure, you tend to make sentences as short as possible. The shorter the sentences are, the better it is. If you use short sentences in your essay, others will understand the essay very easily. They don’t need to think very hard. On the other hand, the others may have to think very hard if you use complex structure very much in your essay. I suggest you to use simple structure as much as possible in your essay. That way, others will enjoy what you write because they can understand it easily. Keep this in your mind.
There are mainly two steps to write. The first is creating ideas to write, and the second is writing process itself (transferring the ideas into written symbols). Some people prefer making an outline of their ideas before they write. They use the outline because the want the essay to be as systematic as possible. They want to arrange the ideas in a good logical order. Moreover, they use the outline in order not to miss any of the ideas in their mind when they are writing. In this latter case, the outline functions as an idea-reminder for the writer.
It may be easy for some experienced writers to write without any outline. However, for some beginners, it may be very difficult to write well without the outline. So, an outline is made to help a writer, either to arrange sentences as systematically as possible or to remind him what to write. Because it is only to help, you can choose to not use it if you are sure that you can write systematically and that you will not miss any of your ideas without any outline.
Re-writing means reading for the second time what you have written, and then correcting whatever you consider wrong or not suitable. Many experts suggest re-writing as the last step of good writing. However, there is a question. Is re-writing a must? The answer won’t be always yes. It can be no, that means you don’t have to re-write what you have written if you think what you have written is good enough.
Many experts suggest that you should write the first time without too much criticism – on grammar or other language aspects. You had better explore freely all ideas in your mind. Don’t pay attention too much to grammar or any language aspect. What you want to do is moving your pen – or typing the keypads – as quickly as possible just like water flow, following the ideas built in your mind. Don’t let the ideas stop developing due to your criticism.
They suggest you to criticize after you have finished writing all your ideas. They even strongly suggested that you criticize after some hours or on another day. They argue that some time interval will make you criticize much better.
However, some writers prefer criticizing while they are writing. They don’t wait for another time to criticize. They say that they prefer criticizing this way because it works well for them. I think how and when someone criticizes is his preference. Everyone can do whatever that works better for him.
—————————The four things mentioned above – in my opinion – are some important keys to write successfully. Now I ask you: how do you write? Do you prefer simple words or advanced words? Do you prefer simple structure or advanced one? Do you prefer making an outline before writing or not? Do you prefer criticizing while you are writing or after you have finished writing all your ideas? All the things depend on yourself. You are yours.
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