How to Write Effectively

                               Support for various statements in your paper can take many forms, details of which are in most composition books. For instance, you might offer examples or statistics. Actually, the documentation you offer throughout your paper will be the major support for what you write. Using authoritative sources is a part of such documentation.

Emphasis

                                When you speak to somebody, you can emphasize what you believe is important by repeating words, by stressing particular ideas with your voice, or by pausing beforemaking an important statement. Only repitition is available when you write, and even then it doesn’t work the same way as in speaking.

Concreteness and Specificity

                                 Good writing tells the audience exactly what you convey, leaving nothing to chance or to guesswork. Therefore, wording ought to be concrete rather than abstract, and specific rather than general.

                                 Concrete words name what you want to ascertain through the senses; what you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. Abstract words on the other hand, name feelings, beliefs, or ideas “beauty,” “happiness,” “honor,”  “intellectual freedom,” and the “American way” are examples of abstractions, because they may signify different concepts to those who read or hear such words. Although you don’t do much advanced or sophisticated writing without it using abstractions, concrete words are of great in coveying your own thoughts (even abstractions) directly to your audience.

                                 Specific words limit meaning in another way; they narrow the concept expressed by a general word. “Animal” is a general world, because it signifies a wide range of living creatures, from whales to amoebas. “Whale” is more specific than animal, but even it can be made more specific. In writing your paper, the more specific the wording you use, the more accurately  you convey your thoughts to readers.