Writing is a process that delivers your own idea to others. There are so many things that we consider when we write, but I think that 3 most important things in composition are critical thinking, audience, and grammar.
When you write, you are expected to express one coherent main idea, so-called topic. To address your topic effectively, it is essential to have critical thinking. Critical thinking helps students to go further into their subjects,contemplate, and organize their ideas. If you do not have critical thinking before you begin to write, it is as if you begin your journey without plan; you do not know where to go next and even your final destination. Supposedly, it is not easy for students to have this concept and keep it in mind. Therefore, we need to help students to delve into the topic and not to digress from the subject that they want to talk by critical thinking.
Moreover, it is important to consider your audience when you write. The purpose of writing is to
deliver my own opinion to the world, and this has meaning only, at least, has a possibility, when it affects something or someone. That is, no matter how you think you express your thought well enough, if your audience do not understand or catch the idea, we cannot say that it is a good writing.
Lastly, I want to emphasize technical aspect of writing. Even though a writer satisfies two conditions above, it still should be expressed in a sophiscated manner to be professional. Sentences with grammatical errors and improper word choices could degrade the credibility of the writer as well as the quality of the paper itself. Thus, it is imperative that students learn and use correct grammar and word, and we can let them achieve this, as teachers, through either reading or grammar lesson.
To conclude, writing is not a simple process in which you can just ramble on whatever you would like to talk about. Students are required to think in a careful and logical manner, and they have to concern about how and to whom their writings would or want to affect. Also, it is crucial to have certain degree of linguistic skills such as grammar. If students are well aware of those three points that I mentioned above, they are off to great start to be good writers.
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2 comments:
I agree. Critical thinking, audience and grammar are essential for good writing. I think that these are skills that students can improve on through Composition courses. Grammar is an important element for effective communication.
Nicely stated, Jeong. As usual, when I read lists of the three most important things, the four types of writing (e.g. in Fulkinson, Berlin), or any list, I am always asking myself if the elements are categorical equal, or if one would be included under another. In this case, we could make the case that grammar would fall under critical thinking. Is it possible to think critically, but ungrammatically? I guess I am an adherent of the strong view of grammar, which suggests that it is not arbitrary, but instead is integral to the thought process.
Thanks for the thoughtful post.
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