An Open Letter to Aspiring Writers

AN OPEN LETTER
TO ASPIRING WRITERS

Dear _____

Yesterday, when we talked about "writing as a thinking process," we were talking about one thing, as it were, consisting conceptually of at least three parts: writing, thinking, and process. Writing is record making. To write is to make a written record of our thoughts. Thinking is problem solving by means of reflection, contemplation, deliberation. To think is to identify and resolve questions that trouble us. Process is a chronological series of actions or operations resulting in some particular end. To follow a process is to follow a step-by-step series of actions, the final result of which is our immediate goal.

The writing process, specifically, consists of invention, arrangement, and style. By invention I mean everything, all of the various methods that we use to come up with our ideas in the first place. Some of these methods are brainstorming, reading and note-taking, listening and note-taking, making lists, doodling, drawing pictures and diagrams, writing rough drafts, and outlining, which brings us to arrangement. By arrangement I mean everything that we do to discover various logical ways of showing the results of our brainstorming, etc., one of the most common methods of arrangement being outlining, which is the condensation of ideas into words or phrases that are then listed in this order or that depending on which ideas we think are most important to the writing job at hand. Words or phrases, not sentences. Sentences, whether simple or compound or complex, have to do with style. By style I mean everything that we do to communicate our ideas clearly (precisely, exactly, accurately), and effectively (with the desired impact, force, enthusiasm, intelligence), and concisely (in the least number of words necessary to achieve the desired effect).

The two biggest problems most writers have are (1) not being aware that writing is, indeed, a thinking process, and not merely a mechanical processing of words, phrases, and sentences into computers and onto sheets of paper, and (2) conflating the writing process into one big bewildering activity that starts in chaos and ends less happily than one would have liked. Once the writer identifies the step-by-step process, whether by means of trial-and-error or formal instruction, and discovers that although the process starts out linear (1, followed by 2, followed by 3), it very quickly becomes circular, even circuitous, tumbling back upon itself (invention, followed by arrangement, followed by some more invention, rough drafting, followed by some sentence and paragraph revising, followed by some more invention, followed by revised outlining, etc., etc.) What this tumbling back upon one's thinking and writing entails is patience, and time. How very often I've said over the years that writing well is not particularly difficult, just very, very time-consuming. And because most people don't make enough time for writing, writing becomes a major source of frustration and irritation and hindrance to academic success.

You've noticed, perhaps, in each of the above paragraphs, that I've tried to do two things: (1) start the paragraph with a unifying sentence that sort of encompasses (i.e., includes, covers, takes in) all of the ideas developed in the sentences that follow in the paragraph, and (2) link the sentences in some way to suggest that the second sentence logically follows the first, the third the second, etc. Writing teachers call the starter or opening sentences topic sentences. A topic is a subject, in this case the subject of the paragraph, which all of the subsequent sentences develop, explain, enlarge upon, clarify. They call the successful linking of sentences in a paragraph cohesiveness, from cohere. To cohere means to fit or join together, in the case of paragraphs by means of various rhetorical devices, such as repetition of words and phrases (e.g., in the paragraph you are reading right now, "start" followed by "starter" in the next sentence, "topic sentence" followed by "topic," "cohere" followed by "to cohere," "unifying" followed by "unity") and pronoun reference (e.g., "writing teachers," a plural noun, followed by "they," a plural pronoun). This unity and cohesiveness demonstrates the workings of a disciplined mind clear in its own thinking with knowledge of audience and readership and many (if not all) of the many skills necessary to communicate successfully with others.

The reason that I said yesterday that we need to start with the body of the paper (i.e., the body paragraphs of the paper) is that from this record of our thinking we can finally draw a conclusion, a statement summing up the results of our efforts to come to terms with the problem, i.e., the question, with which we first began our investigation. This conclusion becomes the topic sentence (which we may or may not choose to elaborate upon, briefly) of our "concluding paragraph," which we then remodel or recast as our "opening paragraph." Then, after all is said and done, we write our abstract, précis, or synopsis, which by definition is a short form or summary of our paper, which, of course, is something that we cannot write until we know exactly what it is that we have thought and written. The abstract's placement first in the finished document belies the fact that it is actually the last thing to be written.

When you have had some time to think about it, I think that you will agree that there is really no way to hurry up this "writing as a thinking process," which is not to say that writing is any more difficult than a number of other activities that require thought and patience, intelligence and discipline. It is naive to think that writing is merely something layered onto our thinking as a means of showing off or proving ourselves to our teachers and professional colleagues. Writing is what we are and do inside our heads, spilled out publicly onto hard drives and sheets of paper for all the world to see. The record, then, speaks for itself.

Best wishes,

Bruce Cantrell

Copyright 2007. 17 Gough Square™ . All rights reserved.