Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

The Road Map Keeping Readers On The Path Of Understanding Writing

Nicholas Salsbury
Antioch University Santa Barbara

Academic Writing
Zack De Piero
December 2014

Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

Abstract

Why is it that we are taught as children and adolescents to learn certain things
about writing that later on in life seem trivial and meaning-less? We focus early on, on
learning to write in cursive. We are taught that the textbooks are the single best recourse
in our school system. We are told that there is only one correct way to write and that we
must mimic the lucrative writing of those before us in order to succeed. This quarter I
challenged all those who spoke these very words to me. After our class readings, a few
videos, and helpful lectures I wasand still amconvinced that how a person formats
their writing is really what makes or break it. A few typos hear-and-there are fixable
mistakes, but failing to get the reader to read in the first place, that is where many fail as
writers. In todays world the competition is high and it is no longer about following a
strict set of guidelines but rather allowing ones self to be free to create writing that can be
considered different and unique. My journey to find out if this is all true is as follows.

Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

I. INTRODUCTION
Until this quarter began I had a feeling my writing hadnt even hit the cusp of
what I would have previously consider good writing. I have since been able to delve
deeper into a more formal idea of what writing is, and explore it as a result of what this
class has taught me thus far. I used to only really think about vocabulary, grammar, and
punctuation as the main components of writing; however, now post-Academic-Writing, I
have been shown that there is a lot more to writing that can either make it, or break it. If
there were one thing that I could pass onto future student in this class, it would be one
thing, and that is the importance of format. From the beginning weeks we were shown
how simply changing the lay-out of a given piece of writing could make it look really
appealing, from what would usually be a boring looking paragraph. As I mentioned
earlier, the world of writing has always been very scripted in terms of having good
grammar skills and sticking to strict vocabulary rules. My thought is why not focus more
on formatsomething that actually plays a huge roll in drawing the reader inso that
the readers can relate the topic to the layout. Let me break this down for you; picture any
piece of writing as a book or a novel. Now think of the amount of times you have actually
put a book (or prospective novel) down because of the boring mundane cover. My guess
is this has happened a lot of times right? The sad truth is most people do judge books by
their covers, so why not take the time and make the presentation of the coveror rather
your writingmore interesting to the reader using formatting.
II. BACKGROUND

Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

For as long as writing has been in the lives of students, starting at a very young
age they have been taught that writing is always about the vocabulary, the grammar, and
writing in cursive. A different approach to writing has taken me to an area of
understanding writing I had no idea existed. How I had seen it before was that writing
was studied out of books that were written, edited, and published. They were then be used
just for scholastics. That being said everyone reads up on how to write from a perspective
of knowledgeable writers that add little character, and even less appeal because of the
kind of book they are writing. According to Losh, the lack of Pathos otherwise known as
emotional appeal to keep you engaged is simply not present in modern textbooks (Losh,
2013). The more effectivedifferentapproach is to go out in to the field and collect
pieces of writing (or writing artifacts) from working professionals and see how it is they
write. This allows a prospective writerlike myselfto not only see the humanity
behind what they are learning, but it puts a person and a face behind what one is reading
in order to better understand the writing. Furthermore, I needed more effective and more
concrete examples of how format alone could change writing into something more than
just words on a page.

Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

III. CONTEXT
I set out first to find someone with a career path similar to my future interests.
David Hefferman, a marketing specialist at the local radio station in Santa Barbara
California known as KEYT, and coworker James Murray were the men I reached out to.
Hefferman is in the process of expanding KEYT to join with a northern San Luis Obispo
station called KCOY. Together the two stations will be covering social justice issues
from San Luis Obispo all the way down to the Ventura area. With some of my prior
knowledge that broadcast work requires a lot of writing I asked both Hefferman, and
Murry to see what they considered to be good writing artifacts in order to catch sight of
how the writing they do for work could possibly make for an easier way to understand
and learn writing techniques; and in my case I was looking very closely at the format. I
spoke with Hefferman and Murray over the phone and told them that my thesis was that
format was at the root of all writing and that the appeal of writing doesnt always have to
be in the writing itself but rather how it is the writing is presented. They were both
interested in seeing what my thesis would yield in terms of answers. Once I had all my
writing artifacts I sat down and got to point out what the main key points were in the
writing that struck me to most valuable. What exactly stood out to me the most?
Hefferman and Murr1y were kind enough to provide me with ten different writing
artifacts ranging from press releases, to rough drafts, to full-page articles. Needless to say
I had plenty to work with. I established that more so than the writing itself the tone of
voice and the structure was the most concrete, and I was able to pick up on a lot of details
based on those ideas alone. This kind of formatting would never happen while reading a

Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

regular scholastic book, at least any that I had read before. Putting a face and a
personality behind the writing was a huge help as well, however it was most shocking to
see where both professionals decided to make the their writing more appealing using
format.
IV. ANALYSIS #1
Mr. Murray was the first person I got in touch with, thankfully he was able to tell
me exactly how and why format was important in his writing. I noticed that there was
more passion behind certain stories, where it looked like there was much more time put
into a given piece. It became clear when Murry expressed to me his take on why certain
stories seem to be more passion filled and other not so much. Murry believed that If you
are doing a press release on hard news then there really is no voice. If you are promoting
a fun event and your goal is to get as much coverage as you can, then you might take a
more fun approach. Finding your voice is so important in this field, but finding a job that
allows you to develop your voice is even more important. I thought this made a lot of
sense, as I hadnt considered the notion of someone assigning you a given story. I figured
they had chosen the stories the writing artifacts were on. That being said I asked him
what his writing process was, and how he got to the end result, and why he chose to
format in certain ways. He quickly explained, I write down everything that comes to my
mind. Then I worry about formatting and structure after the fact. I think its important to
get the bigger ideas on paper and then fine-tune. As I took that in, I still was left
wondering why the formatting was not being taken into as much consideration as I had
imagined, especially at the beginning of the writing process. To me that was the main
draw from many of the writing artifacts so I dug deeper. Again I prompted Murray and

Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

asked him, why not focus on structure, in a way in which you could engage the readers
more? I would Murray hesitated, I would always [want to] make it easy to engage the
reader and make sure the message is clear. People are busy and overwhelmed, but I also
wouldnt want to give anyone any reason to stop reading once engaged. Very valid point
if I do say so myself. Again using a book as a metaphor I though to myself, a book with a
nice cover, which is lacking solid content will still leave the reader bored at the first
chapter. Taking what Murray had said I began to wonder about more details in the
writings format that may, or may not have been intentional. Mr. Murray got to see my
creative side, and though he does not share that trait with me I was able to leave our
phone call realizing that although format is important many people still like to skip past it
to get to the details. This is where marketing specialist David Heffernan came in.
V. ANALYSIS #2
The more I looked over the writing the more I realized that there was formatting
in the writing itself, this was much deeper than just the mere presentation of the words,
this was rhetoric at its finest. Rhetoric has been thought of by many to be the art of
effective or persuasive speaking or writing (Lunsford, 2012). Aristotle himself thought
of rhetoric as, the art of finding the available means of persuasion in each case (Vid,
2011). In my case I had slowly began to see how Hefferman had effectively used his
writing format to engage and/or change my opinion on his writing artifacts. Anything
from bolding important keys pointor wordsto incorporating color to the writing.
Hefferman even went as far as breaking many rules of writing just so the audience would
read it in a much more conversational manner. He did this by adding images and blending
quotations into the text (see artifacts). I asked Hefferman why he chose to format the

Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

writing in a way that was by academic-writing standards considered bad writing? Mr.
Hefferamn was hesitant but then elaborated. I know a lot of written copy can be written
more conversationally [for on air prompters] which can look a little strange. But in
general writing is like anything else in the world, some people do it well and others dont.
I usually write in way that the readers can stay engaged, but it all depends on who it is
for. From class I was instantly reminded of parallelism, a style Lunsford referred to as
the readability being improved via similar sentence structure and word choice
(Lunsdford, 2012). At this point in my sit-down talk with Mr. Hefferman, I deeply
understood that format was a visual tool. However I was now learning that format is
much more than just the front page or lay out of a piece. Format, and rhetoric work hand
in hand in all writing to create that actual art of writing. Combining seductive language,
and the tools within Microsoft Office to enhance the formatting was Mr. Heffermans
strength. As he and I ended our session I asked him one last question witch was; after all
the writing you have done how would you describe your tone of voice? I like to be able
to have my own voice. He stated. I am very interested in the structure of writing, [but]
my skills as a storyteller continue to evolve and Im still developing my voice. One
thing I had predicted that was true was that the voice behind a writing artifact paired with
format definitely seems to be (to me) the most valuable part. Because although
vocabulary and grammar are important, in most of modern day writing it is about making
it yours and setting it apart from the rest of the writing out there. My biggest take away I
got from Hefferman, was that writing isnt always about what the words are, but how
they are presented and how they areor can beeffectively placed.
VI. CONCLUSUON

Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

So was I successful? I think so. I didat least partiallyprove my initial thesis,

which was that making writing more appealing using formatting is more significant than
focusing on the traditional rules of vocabulary and grammar; the rules that have been
engraved into our society. By having both Mr. Murray and Mr. Hefferman let me take a
look at their writing I learned that format is much more than just presentation of writing. I
learned that format and rhetoric are closely bound, and together they compose a
persuasive appeal that draws the audience in and keeps them hungry for more. Learning
from both professionals was also a very easy, informative, and enjoyable task. Learning
from activehumanprofessionals is much more rewarding than reading from an
ungodly textbook. I received different takes and different attitudes towards the questions
I presented however both of them agreed that finding a way to appeal to the reader and
then keeping the reader tuned is the most important. To that Imentallyresponded,
well format is at the root of that idea. Additionally I noted that both of them kept relating
the format of their writing to their voice in their writing. This is exactly what I had
mentioned earlier when talking about how more and more, writing is no longer about
being the same as everyone else in a better way, but rather about being unique, and
developing your own style, making your writing yours. I can confidently say that over the
last ten weeks I now know when to use formattingif not alwaysin a stylistic and
engaging way to claim my writing as my own.

Formatting A Creative Twist On Writing

10

Works Cited
Clemson University, 2011, In Defense of Rhetoric Vid. http://youtu.be/BYMUCz9bHAs
Losh E. (2013), Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing.
Retrieved October, 2014.
Lunsford A. (2012), Everythings An Argument. Retrieved October, 2014
Wikipedia, 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric