1
Sit Down and Write
This chapter attempts to demystify the subject of writing for the student. Writing is a process that
draws on a person’s mental, emotional and physical resources. A person does not have to be
greatly talented or inherently gifted to write well. More importantly, a person must have the
willingness to try to write. Once this willingness is there, the writer can use a number of
techniques to improve the writing. The two keys to good writing are:
Practice — Writing is hard work. It’s also a
lonely business. But the only way that any of us
can improve our writing is to do it and do it
consistently. A person must be willing to “sit
down and write” (thus, the name of this
chapter). This book attempts to give students
and instructors many opportunities to practice
writing.
Editing — Writing is a process, and a key part of
that process is editing. None of us — particularly
students who are learning the process — should
fall in love with what we write. Students should
learn that our first drafts are not always our best
attempts, and they should expect to edit and
change their work as a part of the writing process. Writers should always ask questions about
what they have written, such as, “Does this make sense?”, “Have I said this the best way I
could?”, “Have I used too many words?”, “Are my sentences too long?”, “If I were telling my
best friend this information, would this be the way I would say it?”
The second part of the chapter discusses briefly some of the rules and circumstances that are
imposed on a writer when he or she is writing for the mass media. Writers for the mass media
must learn the appropriate forms their writing must appear in, and most of the rest of this book is
devoted to examining and teaching the proper forms of writing for the mass media. Students
should also understand that writing for the mass media often involves writing under deadline
pressure. Many students in writing classes will say, “If I just had more time, I could complete this
assignment and do a much better job on it.” The thing a writer for the mass media often does not
have is time, however. Students need to learn that writing under pressure is part of the process of
writing for the mass media.
Key terms and concepts
The following are key terms or concepts that the student should understand.
Good writing — Good writing is defined with a number of descriptions at the beginning of the
chapter. Students should be encouraged to add to these descriptions of their own ideas about
what good writing is and how it is achieved. The instructor should present a number of examples
of his or her favorite writing to demonstrate some of the concepts in this chapter.
Verbs as engines of the language — Verbs are the strongest words in the language. They are also
the best descriptors in the language. A well-selected verb can do more to enliven and enhance
writing than any other part of speech. In editing and rewriting, students should first pay
attention to the verbs that they have used. Too many linking verbs, passive verbs and abstract
constructions (“there is,” “it is”) will deaden a piece of writing.
Linking — Linking is a technical term in which a reader can move to different points on the Web
to obtain information.
Suggestions for lecture and discussion
I often begin a discussion of good writing with an overhead that has the following quotation:
At this point in time, the current levels of societal tension are enough to create a high degree
of anxiety among citizens of every persuasion and every economic and cultural class.
Thomas Paine wrote those words in 1776 when he was trying to keep a
revolution going. They are the first words of An American Crisis, a
pamphlet that so impressed George Washington that he had it read out
loud to his discouraged troops at Valley Forge. The power of Paine’s language comes not only
with his ideas but with the simplicity he used to express them — expressions so simple that we
remember them more than 200 years later.
Examples of student writing for analysis in class or lab
The examples below come from assignments that students have written. They can be
photocopied or put on transparencies for class discussion.
Whenever we finished a beer we had a contest to see who could throw it the farthest over the
side of the hill.
There were many days spent sitting on the white sandy beach in which we took toll of our
lives.
It was par for the course.
It really is a small world.
She rode that Big Wheel down Montgomery Lane as fast as her little legs would carry her.
On the scorching, hot June day, she was playing with four two week old, Siamese kittens under
a large bush which was next to the dog on a leach.
The choices I have are numerous to an extent.
Upon entering the cathedral ceilinged work of art, her mouth dropped and was filled with the
spirit as she charged through the crowds searching for a force that was unmistakably pulling her
into the ring of spenders. (Author’s note: This student was attempting to describe a trip to a
shopping mall.)
Pledging allowed her to meet and get to know girls she otherwise never would have even said
hello to.
Links and resources
The writerly life. Blair Hurley is not a journalist. She writes fiction, but she is interested in the
disciplines and techniques of good writing, and her website, WriterlyLife.com, is a good one for
your students to check in with occasionally. In particular, direct them to her essay on the 5 Things
Your High School English Teacher Didn’t Tell You. One of them is: Bigger words don’t mean
better writing.
Associated Press Sports Editors. The main site of the APSE organization provides links to
previous award winners dating back to 1998. Visitors, in many cases, may view the winning
A handout from
Principles of clear, effective writing
1. Use short words rather than long ones.
2. Prefer familiar words over unfamiliar ones.
5. Watch use of qualifying words and phrases. Check your adjectives, adverbs and prepositional
phrases. Are they needed? If not, strike them out. Be especially alert for long strings of
prepositional phrases. Prefer the use of nouns and verbs to adjectives and adverbs.
6. Use short sentences. Try not to average more than 20 words a sentence.
7. Vary sentence length. Balance long sentences with short ones. Monotony in sentence length
puts the reader to sleep.
8. Be straightforward. Rambling sentences, filled with qualifying clauses, cause the reader to lose
the train of thought. You should take the most direct route between subject, verb and object.
11. Revise. Read and reread what you have written. Then revise and rewrite until you have
achieved clarity and a pleasing style.
12. Use transitions. Weave the copy into a coherent whole by using transitional words, phrases
and paragraphs to bridge any gaps that would jar the reader. Avoid abrupt shifts from one
topic to another in a story.
13. Read your story aloud. This will help you hear how the story will sound to the reader and
make it easier to catch lapses in grammar or phrasing.
Exercises
The exercises are a series of short writing opportunities designed to help the student practice
some of the basic concepts introduced in the chapter. They are the types of writing problems that
students may have already encountered.
Exercise 1-12
Below is a suggested rewrite of the letter from the company president. The original version is an
example of the complicated and convoluted language that afflicts much of the writing we
encounter today. This mythical president thought he had to use stiff and formal language to
convey a very simple message to the stockholders of his company. (Had I been a stockholder in
this company, I would have attended the meeting and demanded the resignation of the president
Dear Stockholder:
The annual meeting of stockholders for our company will be
at 9 a.m. on March 30 in the ballroom of the Waldorf Hotel,
323 Lexington Ave., New York, New York. I hope that you will
be able to attend this important meeting.
Sincerely,
The company president
A handout from
Simple words
Should a journalist try to build a large vocabulary?
One of the things good writing instructors do is to use simple, familiar words — words that mass audiences
will understand. Does that mean all those hours spent in high school learning words like “egregious”1 were a
waste of time?
As a budding professional writer, should you stop trying to
learn new words? Is something like A Word a Day, a daily e-
mail service about words, useless?
The answer, of course, is no. Your business is words, and you
should have as many of them at your disposal as possible. No
telling what you will want to say, and in what circumstances.
Still, it’s true that you should be using simple, familiar words
when you are writing for a mass audience. The point is that you do want to talk to the audience in a
language that they will understand. The point of your communication is its content, not the way in which it is
communicated.
Question bank
The questions in this section are based on the text of Chapter 1 or extrapolated from that text.
They may be used to build other questions for your quizzes and exams. Answers are marked
with an asterisk (*).
1. One of the keys to clarity in writing is
2. The strongest words in the English language are
3. News writers who use big words when simple ones would do and who use more words than
are necessary so that they can make what they write appear more important are writing.
4. Most people find that good, simple, clear writing is fairly easy and just takes a little practice.
5. Jargon is a specialized language that
6. One of the reasons that writing is such hard work is that it
7. One of the ways to achieve simplicity in writing
8. “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
“I have a dream.”
“To be or not to be; that is the question.”
We remember all of these famous sayings because of their
9. Writers should never edit their own copy — it’s too painful.
10. Clichés were once out of fashion with most writers, but now they are generally accepted as
promoting clear, fresh writing.
11. What are the four characteristics of media writing?
12. The sentence below is an example of what kind of writing error:
He always arrived at the exact same time on Sunday.
13. The sentence below is an example of what kind of writing error:
When her business failed, she found herself in dire straits financially.
14. The sentence below is an example of what kind of writing error:
They said it was important for their website to increase their revenue stream.
15. The chief goal of a journalist is
16. When we talk about precision in writing, we are referring to
17. Efficiency in writing means
18. One of the techniques a writer has of tying information together is through the use of