There is a lot to think about when you start preparing to write and even more when it is time to write. As we plan for our long-form writing assignment, we begin by reading about methods for writing and outlining.
Importance of Your Method
The readings from On Writing Well by William Zinsser talk about important methods for writing well. Zinsser points out that you should “get your unities straight” in order to make sure your writing is clear and consistent. There are a number of unities you should think about like unity of pronoun, tense, mood, and more. Once you figure out your approach, you need to focus on the flow of your writing. How are you going to express yourself through your writing and the topic at hand? You need to find your voice for when you write and make sure you don’t change or adjust it based on the subject. Once you figure out your method, you should start making an outline. Writing is a long multi-step process, there is a lot to not only think about but to do to prepare even before you start putting words on the page.
Create an Outline
Once you have prepared by figuring out your approach, it is crucial that you plan it out first or outline. Creating an outline is beneficial for so many things, not just writing. Building a new website or house requires planning before the actual development or construction, for example. Outlining provides you with logical structure and a detailed road map which helps produce clarity and focus for when you start to write. Another thing to keep in mind when outlining is to make sure you have a strong lead that hooks the readers and makes them want to continue to the next point, and then even further to the end. An excerpt from the reading that I think sums up this process is presented below:
All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem. It may be a problem of where to obtain the facts or how to organize the material. It may be a problem of approach or attitude, tone or style. Whatever it is, it has to be confronted and solved. Sometimes you will despair of finding the right solution – or any solution.On Writing Well by William Zinsser, Chapter 8
What do you think? Is writing basically a matter of solving a problem? I think it definitely is! Problem solving can be defined as the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles. As we discussed, we need to prepare and figure out what our method will be first. What will my unities be? How about my tone or style? Will my writing be formal or informal? Lighthearted or serious? Then, it’s a matter of organizing our material. Do I need to research? What information is important to include? How do I organize this information? You should create an outline to help you stay focused. This will lead to more that you will have to work through but it will be very useful when it’s time to write. What is my lead going to be and how will it convince the reader to continue reading? How will each paragraph carry you to the next? What will my ending be and what do I want to leave the reader with? These are the obstacles in writing that we have to overcome to help lead us to achieving our goal, finishing our piece and making sure it has the impact we want it to have on our audience.
I agreed with the idea of writing being an act of problem solving before but it wasn’t until we started making my outline for our long-form article that I truly felt this. Figuring out what points I want to make, facts I want to include, and how to organize them all is the problem I came across when making my outline. As Zinsser points out, sometimes we will despair and feel lost when it comes to finding the right solution. This is definitely something I experienced when I created my outline. I kept getting caught up in finding facts and data to help support my main discussion that ended up being unnecessary for my article. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t trying to argue that one thing is better than the other but that one allows for more conversations and engagement. Once I reminded myself of this, I was able to structure my outline more effectively. In the end, I think that writing is a question of solving a problem and you need to figure out how you want to solve it. There are a number of different solutions to a problem just like there are different ways you can write about a topic.