Writing+Suggestions

Mr. Donnelly’s Writing Tips 1. Choose a narrow topic.

A smaller topic is easier to write about than a broad topic, like shopping. But seriously folks, trying to write about too much makes for bad papers. The writer is unable to fully explore her or his topic in depth. For example, it is easier to write about the Mississippi River than rivers in general. Rivers in general would have to cover a lot more ground. It is easier to write about the best day of your life than your life entire – this idea should be pretty straight-forward – one could gives examples //ad nauseam//. I want depth, not breadth. If I ask you to write a page about your favorite movie, I would be disappointed if you wrote about your three favorite movies in one page, not so much because you did not do what I asked, but because you would only be able to skim the surface of those three movies. If you only wrote about one (narrowed your topic), you would be able to explore that one film more fully than you could three in that same space.

2. Be specific

Imagine you are writing an essay about a person you admire – you choose your mom – she’s a nice lady. You write that she is kind, loving, and does everything in her life for you. That is great. Can’t many people make that claim about their mother though? What makes your mom different? Instead of telling your reader about your mother, show them how your mom is – show, don’t tell. This ability comes in handy for those of you writing college application essays – tell something that distinguishes you, makes you different and special (like the wonderful, unique snowflake that you are). Admissions officers read hundreds of essays – what makes you specifically you?

Another way of understanding this idea is thinking of good speakers you have heard before, or good homilies at mass. Generally, what I remember from those are the stories – I may not remember point by point what the speaker went through, but I remember the stories that tied into their points, and maybe by remembering the story, I can remember the point of the story. If a person just goes through a bunch of theories and ideas, more abstract things – that is harder for me to remember. Details make the best writing – good, active verb choice too.

3. Be concise

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

I take this paragraph from Strunk & White’s (E.B. of //Charlotte’s Web// fame) //Elements of Style//, 4th edition. It is the best paragraph about writing that I have ever read from the best writing guide I know – more on it later. Again going back to the speaker/homily example from above – isn’t it easier to remember a ten minute talk than a twenty minute one? If you can say (or write) something in half the time or words, do so – it is the greatest challenge to being a good or great writer.

4. Back up all claims

This idea goes back to the show, not tell point from above. So your mom is the best mom in the world and loves you. Prove it (as best you can). Instead of saying that she does everything for you, write about how she took a second job at night to pay for your education – write about the job she has, how she comes home haggard every day out of love for you (good word choice, like haggard, and maybe a touch of alliteration – has, how, home, haggard, never hurt either). Those things demonstrate what you have just claimed – you should back up all claims that you make in your paper.

One of the writers who changed the way I write (and think for that matter) is Rob Neyer, who wrote about baseball for espn.com. He uses all sorts of statistics to back up his claims. Once I started reading his writing, I started hesitating before I would raise a point in my classes – could I find something in the book I was reading to support what I was going to say? I think that an important idea, that we be able to support that which we believe. You will find yourself anticipating and answering your audience’s questions before they can raise them, which is a great thing – you will find yourself starting to think about the person reading your work – a relationship develops – it will make you a better writer.

5. No summary

This point is more specific to my class, but has some broader application also. If you are writing about a movie you watched in my class and I ask you to write about it, do not give me much (if any) summary in your paper – I do not need it – I was there – I saw the movie too, matter of fact, I have probably seen it a dozen times. This idea ties into knowing your audience – do not tell them things they already know. I would not tell you that summary never has a place in writing, sometimes it is necessary, but by and large it is filler, not killer. You want your papers to be all killer, no filler.

6. Find a good writing guide.

Some writing rules are BS. Not ending sentences with prepositions is one of my favorite silly rules that I do not always pay attention to. You should know the rules though, and only break them if you feel it makes your writing work better. Two of my favorite writing guides are Strunk and White’s //Elements of Style// (mentioned above) and Garner’s //Guide to American Usage//. The former is fantastic in that it is a wonderful anomaly to the great mass of writing guides out there. It is much shorter, and therefore easier to get through, than any other writing guide, which fits, since its central claim is that vigorous writing is concise. Garner just takes a very good, balanced approach to different language questions.

7. Read! This quest to have people read has been a life-long battle of mine, and one that has been an everyday defeat. Relevant to your writing, the more you read, the better you will probably write. The only writing ability I have comes from reading good writing. Don’t you learn English as a child by hear it being spoken? How will you learn to write well if you do not read?

A quick final, tangential note – please read – almost nothing in my life has brought me greater happiness than reading – it is about my absolute favorite thing to do. I cannot tell any of you in a real direct way how reading has benefitted me in a practical way, but I will quote (and whole-heartedly agree with) a favorite writer of mine, David Foster Wallace, when he was asked what he found magical about fiction:

“There is this loneliness in the real world. I don’t know what you’re thinking or what it’s like inside you and you don’t know what it’s like inside me. In fiction I think we can leap over that wall in a certain way. . . Somebody at least for a moment feels about something or sees something the way that I do. It doesn’t happen all the time. It’s these brief flashes or flames, but I get that sometimes. I feel unalone – intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. I feel human and unalone and that I’m in a deep, significant conversation with another consciousness in fiction and poetry in a way that I don’t with other art.”