Chapter 1:Writing for Readers

 

Chapter 1:Writing for Readers

1. Academic, Public, and Work Communities
2. Analyzing Electronic Communities
3. Myths and Realities about Writing

1. Academic, Public, and Work Communities

The term community has two distinct commutative meanings: 1) Community can refer to a usually small, social unit of any size that shares common values. The term can also refer to the national community or international community, and 2) in biology, a community is a group of interacting living organisms sharing a populated environment. However, Different communities exhibit different characteristics and communication styles.

A community is not just a group of people bounded by a geographical links, such as a village, settlement or district, but also includes those brought together by lifestyle, religion, hobby, interest etc.A community group often pursues a common goal, concern or interest on an entirely voluntary basis. In human communities, purpose, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness.

For example, the purpose of an Academic Community is to create, share and apply knowledge. The primary activity in an academic community is learning.  The hallmarks of academic community are “intellectual inquiry, investigation, discovery, an open exchange of ideas, and ethical behavior.” A university is an example of academic community.  Being a student of the university you are also member of an academic community.  Similarly, all of the people in a given location are an example of the public community.

People working in an organization can be called as Work Community.

2. Analyzing Electronic Communities

Since the beginning of the Internet, the concept of community has less geographical limitation, as people can now gather virtually in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location. Prior to the internet, virtual communities (like social or academic organizations) were far more limited by the constraints of available communication and transportation technologies.

An Electronic Community, also called Virtual Community, is a social network of individuals who interact through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals.

Electronic communities all encourage interaction, sometimes focusing around a particular interest or just to communicate. Some virtual communities do both. Community members are allowed to interact over a shared passion through various means: email groups, message boards, Internet message boards,chat rooms, social networking sites, or virtual worlds.  As the traditional definition of a community is of geographically bounded entity (neighborhoods, villages, etc.), so electronic or virtual communities are not communities under the original definition. Some online communities are linked geographically, and are known as community websites. However, if one considers communities to simply possess boundaries of some sort between their members and non-members, then a electronic community is certainly a community.

Electronic communities resemble real life communities in the sense that they both provide support, information, friendship and acceptance between strangers.

Electronic communities are used for a variety of social and professional groups; interactions between community members vary from personal to purely formal. For example, an email distribution list operates on an informational level.  Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace are all virtual communities. With these sites, one often creates a profile or account, and adds friends or follows friends. This allows people to connect and look for support using the social networking service as a gathering place. These websites often allow for people to keep up to date with their friends and acquaintances’ activities without making much of an effort

Advantages of Internet Communities:

 Internet communities offer the advantage of instant information exchange that is not possible in a real-life community. This interaction allows people to engage in many activities from their home, such as: shopping, paying bills, and searching for specific information. Users of online communities also have access to thousands of specific discussion groups where they can form specialized relationships and access information in such categories as: politics, technical assistance, social activities, health (see above) and recreational pleasures.

Virtual communities provide an ideal medium for these types of relationships because information can easily be posted and response times can be very fast. Another benefit is that these types of communities can give users a feeling of membership and belonging. Users can give and receive support, and it is simple and cheap to use.

Economically, electronic communities can be commercially successful, making money through membership fees, subscriptions, usage fees, and advertising commission. Consumers generally feel very comfortable making transactions online provided that the seller has a good reputation throughout the community.

Virtual communities also provide the advantage of disintermediation in commercial transactions, which eliminates vendors and connects buyers directly to suppliers. Disintermediation eliminates pricey mark-ups and allows for a more direct line of contact between the consumer and the manufacturer. While instant communication means fast access, it also means that information is posted without being reviewed for correctness. It is difficult to choose reliable sources because there is no editor who reviews each post and makes sure it is up to a certain degree of quality. Everything comes from the writer with no filter in between.

3.   Myths and Realities about Writing

Writing is often perceived as one of life's secret realms entered by only a privileged few. Frequently we discover worthy writers who protect their interests by giving the impression that to be a first-class writer you must analyze the mechanics of English for a good many years and only after painstaking study will one be able to master the art. Here we will discuss some of the Myths and Realities of Writing Well and Great Writing

Myth: Writing well is a gift.

Reality: Writing well is a learned skill.

Many people believe that great writers are born, not made – a most unfortunate misconception. Throughout elementary, middle, and high school, students are taught to write through a structured process. With consistent formal instruction, extensive practice, and helpful feedback, most students can become proficient writers.

Myth: Writing well is often thought of as a single special skill.
Reality: Writing well is the cumulative outcome of mastering a large number of skills.

Good writing starts with a student having a clear idea of what they want to say and the type of writing they need to use. Many times students are given a writing prompt from which to begin the writing process. Are they trying to inform (expository writing), persuade (persuasive writing), narrate (narrative writing), document research (research reports), or report (journalistic writing)? When they write, students need to apply grammar and vocabulary skills. They need to organize their paragraphs around a single thought, to organize an essay around a collection of tightly organized ideas, and to structure an essay that succeeds in purposeful communication. Successfully writing an essay demonstrates mastery of all these skills and the ability to use them all together.

Myth: There is a single writing process that all students should follow.
Reality: Most students follow the writing process in their own unique way.

This myth might come from confusion over the teaching of the writing process. Time4Writing teaches a writing process that consists of pre-writing, writing, revising, proofreading, and publishing. Formally learning and using the steps is a reliable technique to create quality writing. In reality, most students adapt these steps in a way that works best for their individual learning style. For instance, many students find it easier to brainstorm as they write, especially since word processors make it easy to reorganize their thoughts. Then, after writing the first draft, they will create an outline to tighten the essay structure and start editing and revising based on that structure.

 

Myth: Brilliant writing and story-telling is probably teachable.
Reality: This one is debatable. Many great writers share some common traits that come from within and simply cannot be taught.

The most common characteristic of great writers seems to be that early on, they start to read differently than the rest of us. It’s often been observed that the people who grow up to be writers start studying the writing craft on their own. Not only are they voracious readers, but they also tend to be intrigued by how authors put stories together. Do they use short or long sentences? Lots of details and modifiers or are they concise and matter-of-fact? How do they handle point of view and what insights do they provide into characters? There is some interesting literature on “reading like a writer.” And while these skills of analyzing an author’s style and technique can be taught, most authors explain that they started down this path on their own.

While your child might not become the next Shakespeare, the bottom line is that anyone can learn to become a good writer. From their first sentences to complex essays, children can hone their writing skills throughout the years. All it takes is a little motivation and lots of practice.

Here are some other myths about writing Adapted fromFrank Smith (1983)

Myth: Writing is for the transmission of information.

Reality: While in the end the writing may convey information, it’s major function is to explore ideas. The danger of the information-transmission myth is that it focuses on how texts are presented from the point of view of the reader rather than on what the act of writing can accomplish for the developing thought of the writer. The writer is overlooked.

 

 

Myth: Writing is for communication.

Reality:The writer is always the FIRST reader and may often be the only reader.

 

Myth: Writing involves transferring thoughts from the mind to paper.

Reality: Thoughts are created in the act of writing, which changes the writer and changes the emerging text.

 

Myth: Writing is permanent.

Reality: Speech, once uttered, can rarely be revised; writing can be reflected upon, altered, and even erased at will.

 

Myth: Writing is a linear process.

Reality: Writing can be done in several places and directions concurrently and is as easily manipulated in space as it is in time. Texts can be constructed from writing done on separate pieces of paper; words, sentences, paragraphs, whole sections can be shuffled into different sequences. Writing is recursive.

 

Myth: Writing is speech plus spelling and punctuation.

Reality: Every kind of writing has its own conventions of form and expression quite different from speech. Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, indentation, word-dividing, layout, and so forth, are necessary aspects of transcription necessary to make written language readable for readers. For all writers, undue concern with transcription can interfere with the exploratory aspects of writing.

 

Myth: You must have something to say in order to write.

Reality: We need to write in order to have anything to say! Thought comes with writing, and writing may never come if it is postponed until we are satisfied we have something to say. Write first, see what you had to say later.

 

 

Myth: Writing should be easy.

Reality: Writing is often hard work—it requires concentration, physical effort, and a tolerance for frustration and disappointment.

 

Myth: Writing should be right the first time.

Reality: Writing generally requires many drafts and revisions to get ideas into a form that satisfies the writer. A separate editorial polishing is required to make any text appropriate for another reader.

Myth: Writing should be unambiguous.

Reality: There is no way writing can be unambiguous. “The” meaning of a text is not embedded in the words on the page but constructed by readers. The sense a reader constructs depends on what the reader knows and brings to the text. There is no way for any writer to know exactly what any reader brings to a text.

 

Myth: Writing can be done to order.

Reality:Writing is most often reluctant to come when it is most urgently required, yet quite likely to begin to flow at inconvenient or impossible times.

 

Myth: A fixed period of “prewriting” should precede composing.

Reality: Writing involves a lifetime of preparation—of experience, reading, reflecting and arguing. It is only from a transcription point of view that an author can say that work began on a particular text at a particular time. In fact, writing itself can be prewriting. As we draft one part of a text, we reflect on what we might write next or on what we have written already.

Myth: Writing is a solitary activity.

Reality: Writing often requires other people to stimulate discussion, to listen to choice phrases, to provide feedback of various kinds.

 

Myth: Writing is a tidy activity.

Reality: Writing is messy; it spreads itself all over the writing surface, in many different files.

 

Myth: Writing should be the same for everyone.

Reality: Each of us develops an idiosyncratic set of strategies we’re comfortable with and that work for us.