Effective Writing Requires Effective Planning

Ever wondered how an article in the newspaper or in your favorite magazine glued you to itself? Ever found yourself murmuring the words as you read your favorite poem? All of us have marveled at the beauty of words, phrases and the whole write-ups at some point in our lives. If we go deep into the writings of some of the icons and legends in literature, we find that we are not reading the text alone; we are reading the minds of the authors. There are people who pour their hearts out in their works. What comes out is the masterpiece of their writing. Be it romance or severance, satire or tragedy, fiction or fact; writings have the seed somewhere deep in the mind of the author and that is why they easily touch the reader’s heart. In the professional world, writing has become the litmus test to measure one’s skill level and proficiency in any trade. Majority of the entrance exams and the English courses and English tests worldwide have writing sections in addition to sections like reading comprehension, grammar, etc. to grade a test-taker’s ability to write. This is because writing claims a major share in the modes of communication across the globe.

The astonishing fact, however, is that people with fair skill level and good knowledge of grammar also sometimes fail to score well or communicate effectively when it comes to formal writing. Such people have the intellect and the communication skills and yet they cannot bring themselves to put the same into black and white. Wonder what else one needs to write well. Well! What they fail to consider, perhaps, is that effective writing is much more than an unstructured expression of creative ideas, and it goes well beyond usage of rich vocabulary and correct grammar.

Think before you speak, they say. Let us modify it to “think before you write”. A methodical approach towards writing results in masterpieces and makes the write-up effective and cohesive in content.

The first step, therefore, towards creative and effective writing is brainstorming for ideas pertaining to the topic or the issue on hand. The ideas need not “all” be scholarly. Let the “wild” ones also be jotted down, to start with. Screening will come later. And if it is an opinion based topic, let the ideas be jotted down separately on both sides of the divide. It does not mean that we have to contradict ourselves. Even if we hold a certain opinion, don’t we need to know the logic behind the diagonally opposite view? We might have to acknowledge our opponents, acknowledge their logic and counter it by our riposte.

The next step involves the screening; segregating the grain from the chaff. Only the best from the inspired ideas need be chosen and put in a descending order of relevance or effectiveness. By now we know what we need to discuss in how many different paragraphs. Mind you these are only the body paragraphs. We haven’t talked about the head (introduction) or the foot (conclusion) as yet.

If we have to describe the beauty of, say, a woman, what do we concentrate on, first and foremost? The face, of course! First of all it is the face that will attract attention. The same holds true for your write up. Give it an attractive face (introduction), scintillating enough to win the fancy of the reader’s eyes and mind. Well begun is half done! Let the introductory lines attract and hold the attention of the reader. Make them idiomatic if you can. Lot more thought ought to go into the phrasing of introductory lines than into the phrasing (language) of the body paragraphs or the conclusion. Perhaps we could give finishing touches to the introductory lines only after completing the rest of the write-up, by which time we are a little wiser about the topic under discussion.

Something penned down with just plain ideas often results in monotony, regardless of how good or effective the content is. A salad without dressing or a hotdog without mustard is not simply worth it. Similarly a write-up that lacks impressive references, quotes, examples fails to catch the interest of readers. Quotes, phrases, idioms etc. add to the appeal of writings and thereby increase the weight of the ideas too. Let the ideas be supported with relevant examples from the current scenario, examples that your target audience (readership) may relate to. Beware! Examples are meant to support your ideas; they are not your ideas. So, let your write-up not be cluttered with examples. Quotes, when used in the beginning or towards the ending of a write-up, work like cherry on the cake. Idioms, phrases and quotes also are a layman’s way of conveying ideas and thoughts. But once again emphasis should be laid on how much and in what manner. English spellings are important only as far as they don’t hinder the reader’s comprehension of the text.

And now a little word about the tail, the conclusion. Let it not be abrupt. Let it summarize and restate in brief the thrust of your argument and let it invite your readers to exercise their minds on the ideas presented.

So next time when you pick up the pen to write an English essay or a blog, thou shall not find yourself in a soup as to what, how, where to write. In other words you will be in a better position to write better English. Always remember that an easy reading has a hard writing effort behind it. Maximize your efforts while you write in order to minimize the reader’s effort to comprehend what you have penned down. Put the weight of your thoughts, your imagination well behind your write-up

Happy Writing!

Effective Writing Requires Effective Planning