Thinking Like a Writer
Major Purposes for writing:
Boredom
To get dates
To earn money
To annoy others
All true, to be sure, but Troyka and Hesse state that they are:
“To express yourself
To inform a reader
To persuade a reader
To create a literary work” (4).
You write to express:
how you feel
what you think
what you want
When it’s done publicly, it’s literary writing, like a memoir.
See Detritus for an example of literary writing (hah, just plugged myself!)
You write to inform:
also known as expository writing
to provide information and explain it
See http://kwombles.com/psycunit2.html for an example of informative writing.
You write to persuade:
also called argumentative writing
to convince others of a position and the correctness of it
See Countering for many examples of my persuasive writing.
Audience:
Who you are writing for.
In this class, your essays are written for my eyes. Your critical thinking pieces will be shared with a
classmate who will critique your piece and for me.
Audience determines tone.
Tone
How your writing is conveyed.
An objective, impartial, apparently unbiased tone is used for informative writing.
Angry, forceful, determined tone may be used for persuasive writing, although so can a pleading tone.
Expressive and creative literary writing may have several different tones, and spread the range of
emotional expression.
My recommendation: don’t take a snarky or sarcastic tone when writing for me as your audience.
Unless your snarkiness and sarcasm is directed at others. Right?
Sources
You will use sources (websites, journal articles, etc. for many of your papers).
You will know how to document these sources as I will show you in another lecture.
How to manage your writing:
USB drive will be helpful for you.
Multiple files for each essay, saving draft with different name every time you change it.
Outlines for all essays just makes sense. Thesis statement in the outline. Just because you don't have
to hand it in doesn't mean I won't know you didn't use one. Clear points to be made happen with an
outline.
These notes do NOT exonerate you from reading the actual textbook.