Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How Writing Works by Roslyn Petelin (Extract)
How Writing Works by Roslyn Petelin (Extract)
How Writing Works by Roslyn Petelin (Extract)
A field guide
to effective writing
r o s ly n p e t e l i n
how
how
writing
writing
works
wA o
rks
field guide
to effective writing
A field guide
to effective writing
r o s ly n p e t e l i n
r o s ly n p e t e l i n
Contents
Prefaceix
1
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2
3
4
5
6
9
11
13
13
14
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15
18
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21
25
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67
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84
100
101
107
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120
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122
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125
130
130
132
145
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150
150
150
151
166
174
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177
202
202
206
206
208
210
212
214
234
236
10
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240
241
246
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256
259
261
262
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264
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265
269
273
277
278
278
285
286
287
Acknowledgements291
Answers to the activities
293
Further reading
301
References305
Index315
Preface
to use the right words in the right order in the right places at the right
time for the right reasons.
The book introduces the core concepts of writing and reading, then
follows with a discussion of writing at the word, sentence (including
punctuation), and paragraph level. It then covers the structure and design
of documents in the most common academic and workplace genres,
followed by a chapter on digital writing and a concluding chapter on
revising, editing, and proofreading. The book also contains a wide range
of resources, with references to useful print and online sites for further
reading and learning. One of the student readers of an earlier draft of the
book told me to remove the instances of Google it! that I had inserted
here and there, because she said that millennials wouldnt need that
advice. Ihave therefore removed the instruction to google, and I know
that many non-millennials wont need Google it suggestions but will also
spontaneously turn to the glorious resources of the internet to explore
rich pickings alluded to in the book.
Although I have written this book primarily for university and workplace writers, Ifirmly believe that much of the material and advice will be
valuable for creative writers, who also need to be their own best editors.
Some of the content in this book is based on material that I wrote for
Professional Communication: Principles and applications by Peter Putnis
and Roslyn Petelin (Prentice Hall, 2nd edition, 1999). Ihave also adapted
a small amount of the material that I wrote and which was published in
The Professional Writing Guide: Writing well and knowing why by Roslyn
Petelin and Marsha Durham (Longman Professional, 1992). Many of the
examples have been drawn from my work in consulting about writing
and editing to the corporate sphere.
I have made every effort to locate sources and copyright holders of
other original material reproduced in the book, but if there are any errors
or omissions, Iwill be pleased to insert the appropriate credit in any
subsequent edition.
Roslyn Petelin
1
How writing works
You have to let words talk to words.
K EN M ACRORI E
What is writing?
Writing is a process in which thinking and learning take place. This
process is known as the writingthinkinglearning connection. Its a
process that results in a communicative product that conforms to grammatical, syntactical, mechanical, and genre conventions. Importantly,
writing also performs recognisable social functions that have increased
in importance with the rise of social media. We live in what has been
called a participatory society, where social media consistently provides
us with opportunities to interact in global conversations.
People often think that they cant begin to write until theyve decided
what they want to say, but writing well is a complex skill that develops slowly
over time and not necessarily in a linear fashion. Experienced writers know
that writing is a difficult, complex, time-consuming, recursive process.
They draft so that they can revise (re-see what they have written). Put
another way, they write with the intention of revising. They write knowing
that its easier to correct than to create, confident that once words are on
the page or on the computer screen, those words will talk to other words.
The influential writing teacher Joseph Williams, who wrote the best
book on writing at the sentence level that I have ever read, Style: Toward
clarity and grace, uses a cookbook analogy to explain that knowing
the ingredients and knowing how to use them is the difference between
reading cookbooks and Cooking. Williams says that describing a few of
the devices that some graceful writers use ... is about as useful as listing
the ingredients of the bouillabaisse of a great cook and then expecting
anyone to make it (1995, p.153). He points out that writing success is
highly dependent on learning and adapting to the often implicit rules
and genre conventions of a discourse communitythat is, of the context
in which writing takesplace.
To understand the conventions, writers need excellent briefing and
excellent exemplars to imitate, or, better still, to emulate. They need to
be able to identify errors that characterise non-standard English (see
Chapter 4). They need to be able to identify rectifiable weaknesses. They
need to know how to read for substance and subtext. They need to be
able to discern perspectives, inaccuracies, biases, gaps, and blind spots.
They need to be able to identify and analyse the rhetorical and stylistic
devices that accomplished writers use. They need to be able to analyse,
evaluate, and select information, and structure and synthesise it into
logical, meaningful, economical, persuasive prose of their own. Much
of this competence will come from writing instruction by knowledgeable
teachers, but it also comes from the processes of reading and writing.
Vocation or avocation?
Do you aspire to be a writer? Are you a writer already? Do you regard
writing as a vocation or an avocation, or, perhaps, both? Avocationfrom
the Latin verb vocare, to callis an occupation, acalling. Its roughly
synonymous with career or profession. An avocation is an activity that
one engages in for pleasure outside ones main occupation.
So we have the writer Anton Chekhov, who was a physician by
vocation; the composer Alexander Borodin, who was a chemist; the
poet William Carlos Williams, who was a paediatrician; the poet and
jazz critic Philip Larkin, who was a librarian; the novelist Salley Vickers,
who is a psychoanalyst; the novelist Beryl Bainbridge, who was a painter;
the novelist Joseph Conrad, who was a sea captain; and the poet Wallace
organisations. Untrained writers think that because they can talk they can
write. Thats not necessarily so. In most Australian universities, writing
is under-taught, undervalued, and under-researched. Its importance in
organisations often goes unnoticed until theres a document-related crisis.
Writing is feared by many workers who are not hired as writers but find
that a substantial part of their day, and sometimes their night, is spent
writing. Such a worker may not consider themselves to be a writer by
profession, but they find that they are one by default. As I mentioned
earlier, Brandts North American research on literacy in the workplace
(2015, p.7) revealed an intensifying use of writing for work. These writing
workers need to know about the writingthinkinglearning connection.
Keeping a journal
One way to make thinking and learning central to your writing and
to exploit their connection is to keep a journal/notebook/log/diary/
day bookwhat was once called a commonplace book and even more
quaintly, avade mecum. Many professionals keep a journal in the form of a
field notebook in which they record observations, notes of conversations,
reflections on actions they have carried out, articles and books they
have read, insights they have reached, etc. Management Professor Nancy
Adler headed an article in Harvard Business Review with the title Want
to be an outstanding leader? Keep a journal (2016). She believes that
Writing online doesnt provide the same benefits as writing by hand
and urges her readers to buy a real journal. Shes such a strong believer
in the value of a hand-written journal that she has designed one for sale.
Many people are just as fervent about the benefits of an online journal.
In her Christmas Day message in 2013, Queen Elizabeth II urged
everyone to keep a journal as a record of their lives. Keeping a journal
is valuable for you as a writer because it will enhance your writing
thinkinglearning processes and, of course, supply you with material
for your ongoing writing.
Creating and maintaining a journal will allow you to:
be introspective and self-aware and gain perspective on your thoughts
and feelings by clarifying your thoughts
hold a private conversation with yourself
practise writing by experimenting with different styles
stimulate your imagination and keep your mind open
harness your creativity, such as when you write in a stream-ofconsciousness manner
speculate and brainstorm
keep a record of to-do lists, fragments of text, particulars, thoughts,
observations, incidents, and events that you can come back to later
with no fear about forgetting anything
remain organised and focused
keep sight of your past accomplishments and milestones
develop a sourcebook of materials such as snippets of writing, images,
videos, websites, etc. from which you can extract material to share
with others later, perhaps in blog posts (see Chapter 10).
Many medical professionals and institutions have also endorsed journalling as a method to achieve cathartic release and quieten the mind by
managing overwhelming emotions and thereby reducing anxiety and
stress. There is no doubt that writing can be therapeutic: just remember
the last time you wrote a complaint letter and then didnt send it.
10
walking helps us think. The novelist Neil Gaiman has written about
writing and cooking while talking about writing the short story A Study
in Emerald (2006). Gaiman says Writings a lot like cooking. Sometimes
the cake wont rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the
cake tastes better than you ever could have dreamed it would.
In an essay titled Cooking dumb, eating dumb, Nahum Waxman,
who owns a fabulous cookbook shop on the Upper East Side of
Manhattan called Kitchen Arts & Letters, says that he dreads being
asked by customers if the recipes in a cookbook work. He tells them that
it is they who must work. He says that his customers must think, must
apply their intelligence and judgment to ideas and to the materials that
will be turned into a dish (1996). He could well be talking about some
of the potential pitfalls of writing when he goes on to say that customers
need to bring their own good sense to cookingtheir ability to understand variability in ingredients, to recognise error in a written text, to
acknowledge their own tastes and preferences, to not let themselves be
intimidated by the food arbiters into dreary cooking-by-numbers.
You could add to this list of suggestions one of the key tenets of writing
and editing advice: first you make a mess and then you clean it up. There
is a section, Further Reading, towards the end of this book that contains
suggestions for material that may provide topics for reflection. You may
be motivated to follow up on some of these by writing about them in
your journal. When you are ready, go back and reflect on your earlier
entries. This is where your double-entry journal comes into play: use
your original entries to self-evaluate your personal and writing progress.
Features of journals
Because journal entries can be self-reflective, speculative, and experimental, written in the rhythms of everyday speech, you may use colloquial
diction, first-person stance (I), loosely structured and meandering
sentences, and informal punctuation. However, if you subsequently use
material from your journal in academic or professional contexts, youll
need to adhere to more formal conventions.
If you use journal entries as the basis for later blog posts, as I suggest
in Chapter 10, here are the criteria to aim for:
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Getting started
How do you start to write?
Exploit the writingthinkinglearning connection by keeping it in
mind at all times.
Use predetermined headings and subheadings in templates, if
available.
Recognise that its easier to correct than to create. Satisfice (make
do) on a first draft (also known as a zero or discovery draft).
Use WIRMI (what I really mean is). WIRMI is the strategy to use
to talk to yourself when you cant immediately express yourself in
the formal style that your document requires. For example, in a job
application you might use WIRMI to write I know if you gave me this
job I could do it, and subsequently translate that into I believe that
my qualifications and experience make me an appropriate applicant
for this position.
Avoid premature editing. Elbow reminds us that our editorial instinct
is often much better developed than [our] producing instinct (1973,
p.25). He goes on to say that Producing writing, then, is not so much
filling a basin once, but rather getting water to keep flowing through
it till it finally runs clear (p. 28).
So, value iteration (looping and recursivity), not linearity: writing is
rewriting.
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Activities
1. Watch on YouTube my video interview with Geoffrey Pullum (2014) about
the upsurge of writing with the rise of the internet, listed in the Further
Reading list, and/or watch The history of English in 10 minutes, also on
YouTube, and respond by writing in your journal about any aspects that
interest you.
2. Comment in your journal on whether you can identify with writing educator
Peter Elbows (1998) statements below about writing with power.
Writing means getting power over words and readers; writing
clearly and correctly; writing what is true or real or interesting; and
writing persuasively or making some kind of contact with your
readers so that they actually experience your meaning or vision.
But writing with power also means getting power over yourself
and over the writing process; knowing what you are doing as you
write; being in charge; having control; not feeling stuck or helpless
or intimidated. Iam particularly interested in this second kind
of power in writing and I have found that without it you seldom
achieve the first kind. (1998, p.1)
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James Jones said: As long as I dont get too drunk, I can write
anywhere.
Agatha Christie apparently wrote in a large Victorian bathtub.
Edith Sitwell liked to write lying down in an open coffin.
James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Truman Capote also liked to lie
down to write, while Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway preferred
to stand up.
Several writers have written in sheds, including Roald Dahl, Dylan
Thomas, and Philip Pullman.
Percy Bysshe Shelley and Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote bareheaded
in the sunshine.
Vladimir Nabokov liked to write in his car.
Gertrude Stein liked to write in her Model T Ford while parked in a
Parisian street. (Burnham, 1994; Isard, 2015)
5. What is your reaction when you are asked to do some writing? Why? Can
you remember when you first started to feel that way? Reflect on a time
when writing worked for you. What form did it take? What processes did
you follow? (Where? When? How?) Explore your metaknowledge; that
is, reflect on what you have learned about writing. If you had to pass on
your best advice about writing, what would it be?