1. Seven Principles of Effective
Writing
Presented by
Faheem Ullah (007)
Zaman Arshad Khan (008)
Safeer Akhtar (012)
2. contents
• Definition of writing
• Principles of effective writing
Appropriate content to the audience
Focus
Unity
Organization
Sentence structure
Diction
Word usage
Mechanics
3. Definition of writing
• Writing can be said to be the act of forming the symbols: making
marks on flat surface of some kind.
• Writing is a process where symbols have to be arranged according to
a certain convention to form words and words have to be arranged to
form sentences.
• Writing involves encoding of a message of some kind: that is, we
translate our thoughts into language.
4. Principles of Writing
1. Appropriate content to the audience
• The most important element of your writing.
• knowing your audience helps you to make decisions about what
information you should include, how you should arrange that
information, and what kind of supporting details will be necessary for
the reader to understand what you are presenting
• It also influences the tone and structure of the document.
• To develop and present an effective argument, you need to be able to
appeal to and address your audience.
5. 2.Focus and Unity
Focus
Focus is the Feature of Effective Writing that answers the question “So
What”
Focus is the topic/subject established by the writer in response to the
writing task.
. The writer must clearly establish a focus as he/she fulfills the
assignment of the prompt. If the writer retreats from the subject
matter presented in the prompt or addresses it too broadly, the focus is
weakened.
6. • . Focus determines what choices the writer makes about everything
from organizational structure to elaborative details to word choice,
sentence length, and punctuation.
• At the same time, effective writers take advantage of the appropriate
supporting features to strengthen the focus of their writing.
7. Unity
Unity comes in many forms:
• Unity of pronoun: first person, third person, as an observer, etc.
• Unity of tense: past, present, future, etc. Don’t switch back and forth
(with some exceptions).
• Unity of mood: casual voice, formal, personal but formal, dry
understatement, humor, etc. Don’t mix two or three.
• Unity of attitude: involved, detached, judgmental, ironic, etc.
8. • Unity of purpose: as the first principle of writing well states, make
one point, and make it well. Authors often have a definitiveness
complex and feel obligated to make their article the last word on a
subject. There is no last word. Bite off one corner of your subject. Be
content to cover it well and stop. Every writing project must be
reduced before you start to write.
9. 3.Organization
• Organization is the progression, relatedness, and completeness of ideas
• Chronological order:Items, events, or even ideas are arranged in the
order in which they occur. This pattern is marked by such transitions
as next, then, the following morning, a few hours later, still later, that
Wednesday, by noon, when she was seventeen, before the sun rose,
that April, and so on.
10. • Climactic order/Order of importance: In this pattern, items are
arranged from least important to most important. Typical transitions
would include more important, most difficult, still harder, by far the
most expensive, even more damaging, worse yet, and so on. This is a
flexible principle of organization, and may guide the organization of
all or part of example, comparison & contrast, cause & effect, and
description.
11. • Topical order: It refers to organization that emerges from the topic
itself. For example, a description of a computer might naturally
involve the separate components of the central processing unit, the
monitor, and the keyboard, while a discussion of a computer
purchase might discuss needs, products, vendors, and service.
• Spatial order: In this pattern, items are arranged according to their
physical position or relationships.
12. 4. Sentence structure
• In English grammar, sentence structure is the arrangement of words,
phrases, and clauses in a sentence.
• The most common word order in English sentences is Subject-Verb-
Object (SVO).
• A sentence should contain a single unit of information. Therefore,
avoid compound sentences wherever possible - be on the lookout for
words like AND, OR, WHILE which are often used unnecessarily to
build a compound sentence.
13. • Check your sentences for faulty construction. Incorrect use of
commas is a common cause of poorly constructed and excessively
long sentences.
• Use parentheses sparingly. Most uses are due to sheer laziness and
can be avoided by breaking up the sentence. NEVER use nested
parentheses under any circumstances if you want to retain your
reader.
15. 5. Diction and word usage
Diction
In rhetoric and composition, diction is the choice and use of words in
speech or writing. Also called word choice.
In phonology and phonetics, diction is a way of speaking, usually
judged in terms of prevailing standards of pronunciation and elocution.
Also called enunciation and articulation.
16. Word Usage
Usage refers to conventions of both written and spoken language that
include word order, verb tense, and subject-verb agreement.
Usage may be easier than mechanics to teach because children enter
school with a basic knowledge of how to use language to communicate.
As children are learning to use oral language, they experiment with
usage and learn by practice what is expected and appropriate.
17. 6. Mechanics
• Mechanics are the conventions of print that do not exist in oral
language, including spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and
paragraphs.
• they do not exist in oral language, students have to consciously learn
how mechanics function in written language.
• For example, while speakers do not have to be conscious of the
spellings of words, writers not only have to use standard spelling for
each word but may even have to use different spellings for words that
sound the same but have different meanings.
