6 Writing Fundamentals
Important Lessons to Understand about Writing
Let’s talk about fundamentals. I don’t mean the fundamentals of writing sentences or stories exactly, but instead some prerequisites to any writing task.
Writing is a process, and one that is not the same for everyone. Some people move through the various elements of the process one at a time, not skipping around or returning to previous elements. Others, especially experienced writers, jump around from one element to another element (often called phases) of the writing process in no particular order based on their needs at any given moment, often revisiting phases they have already visited (in technical terms this revisiting is called being recursive). Additionally, experienced writers also understand that a writer can be in multiple "phases" of the writing process at once, both prewriting and organizing at the same time, for example.
Writing is a skill that can be learned through guidance by an expert writer and continuous practice in meaningful contexts. Instead of the word "skill," some prefer the term "competency" to emphasize the complex social nature of writing, believing that the term "skill" can reduce writing to simple formulas and gives the impression that no particular expertise is needed to teach writing. Consequently, research suggests that teachers of writing should be writers themselves as well as versed in the theories and practices of writing research.
Writing is a social behavior, a social action. Writers who learn this behavior effectively can recognize the circumstances in which any act of writing is necessary. Thus, to learn to write means, partially, that authors must change their behaviors of writing, capitalizing on those behaviors that successful writers use. Furthermore, the important aspects of behavior change (via B.J. Fogg) include three things: trigger, ability, and motivation.
Meaningful writing comes from writers who are motivated to write in particular circumstances. Motivation is encouraged through investment in a given writing task. Investment can take multiple forms and include things like writing for one's career, personal aspirations, for one's personal growth, etc. Ensuring that writers understand some aspect of their motivations can increase their investment.
Great writing does not come simply from great topics, but must include credible research of relevancy and quality. Great research comes from great research questions, since all research starts with questions to which we seek answers. Therefore, one of the most helpful lessons that writer-researchers can learn prior to gathering sources is to learn to develop good research questions.
All writing involves some element of persuasion and as such writers would do well to learn how to construct effective arguments. Some learning of argument strategies is a matter of making implicit structures in the mind explicit while some learning is a matter of introducing and practice new conceptual frameworks of argument.