english 1010 week 1 chapter 1 Writing: A First Look

But I will, from now on, keep the volume on my iPod at an ear-friendly level, as the experts advise:

"The message is, we've got to stop what we are doing," said Dr. Tommie Robinson Jr., president of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Assn.

2. Identify ways in which each author appeals to a specific audience.

1. Nanotechnology is the creation of functional materials, devices and systems through control of matter on the nanometer length scale

Read the passages carefully; then answer the following questions:

1. What audience does each author address? How do you know?

CNT Center for Nanotechnology

2. Today's manufacturing methods are very crude at the molecular level.

Some writing merely entertains; some writing couples entertainment with a more serious purpose.

A lighthearted approach can help your reader absorb dull or difficult material.

A student in computer science could post a blog on a class instructional site on how to create a web page.

A medical researcher shares her research in her publications with other doctors and other research professionals.

In fact, much electronic media, such as blogging and tweeting, have increased the amount of writing people do.

Although devices such as cell phones have made some writing unnecessary, the written word still flourishes both on campus and in the world of work.

Faced with a close deadline for a research paper or report, you may tell yourself, "I'm doing this because I have to."

An authentic purpose requires you to answer this question:

To do this, you'll need to read carefully in your major field, acquainting yourself with its current issues and concerns and learning how to write about them.

As you start reading in any professional area, ask yourself these questions:

Address your readers as colleagues who want precise information.

Audience shapes all types of writing in a similar fashion, even your personal writing.

The members of a community share goals, values, concerns, background information, and expectations, and this fact in turn affects how they write.

Because such writing is closely tied to the interests of the community, professional articles often start with a section linking their content to previous research projects and articles.

More Specific Purposes

Besides having one or more general purposes, each writing project has its own specific purpose.

I don't even want to think about it.

But for my hearing's sake in the future, I will. I'm 28, long out of teeniedom, so no doubt some damage has been done.

Explain the basic process, including the positioning of patient and equipment.

Comment on the safety and reliability of the procedure.

Avoid technical language.

Compare an X-ray to a photograph.

Indicate how much time it would take. If, however, you were writing for radiology students, you might

Consistently use the technical language appropriate for this audience.

This new pollution free manufacturing technology will also let us inexpensively fabricate a cornucopia of new products that are remarkably light, strong, smart, and durable.

Dr. Ralph Merkle, Nanotechology

The Audience for Your Writing

Everything you write is aimed at some audience—a person or group you want to reach.

Professionals often write as members of specific communities.

For example, biologists with similar interests often exchange information about their research.

If you don't know why you're writing, neither will your reader.

Fulfilling an assignment doesn't qualify as a real writing purpose.

We all, of course, belong to many different communities.

Furthermore, a community can involve competing groups, conflicting values, differing kinds of writing projects, and varying approaches to writing.

The Qualities of Good Writing

Good writing is essential if you want your ideas to be taken seriously.

What attitudes, needs, and expectations do they have?

How are they likely to respond to what I say? Can I expect them to be neutral? Opposed? Friendly?

To what works do writers regularly refer?

How do those in the field go about answering questions?

School is fun and I am learning a lot.—to a young relative to reassure

I went to the greatest party.—to your best friend to entertain

Suppose you are explaining how to take a certain type of X-ray.

If your audience is a group of lay readers who have never had an X-ray, you might

poorly worded or marred by errors in grammar and spelling.

In a world where most people are drowning under an information overload, few have the time or inclination to hunt through bad writing to search for quality ideas.

Often, though, you'll be writing for people you know only casually or not at all: employers, customers, fellow citizens, and the like.

In such situations, you'll need to assess your audience before starting to write and/or later in the writing process.

Yes, you can push the LEGO blocks into great heaps and pile them up, but you can't really snap them together the way you'd like.

In the future, nanotechnology more specifically, molecular nanotechnology or MNT will let us take off the boxing gloves.

But the bottom line is,"Once there, the damage is irreversible," said Dr. Gary C. Curhan of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Irreversible, you HEAR him. Gone. NEVER to return.

But there are a number of qualities that make a video game player want to keep coming back to the game and any good game designer needs to know those qualities.

Is the paper for game addicts to get them to quit, a humorous analogy, or a serious recommendation to game designers?

Writing offers very real advantages to both writers and readers:

It gives writers time to reflect on and research what they want to communicate and then lets them shape and reshape the material to their satisfaction.

It makes communication more precise and effective.

It provides a permanent record of thoughts, actions, and decisions.

You don't get to see how people are responding.

It would be hard for people to get questions to you.

Casting, grinding milling and even lithography move atoms in great thundering statistical herds.

It's like trying to make things out of LEGO blocks with boxing gloves on your hands.

At college you may be asked to write lab reports, project proposals, research papers, essay exams, marketing plans.

Job hunting requires application letters.

Many experts think the culprit is the use of headphones to listen to portable music.

LA Times said: Most teens think they are invulnerable and for most of them, the hearing loss is not readily perceptible so they are not aware of the damage.

The Effect of Audience on Your Writing

Let's see how audience can shape a paper.

Why write? Aren't texting, e-mail, voice mail, and cellular phones dooming ordinary writing?

Not long ago, some people thought and said so, but events haven't supported those predictions.

The last two single-sentence paragraphs provide the reader with a stark choice and reaffirms the essay's purpose.

Now examine this paragraph, which does not have a specific purpose:

Readers can reread your text.

Once written work has left your hands, it's on its own.

College writing assignments sometimes ask you to envision a reader who is intelligent but lacking specialized knowledge, receptive but unwilling to put up with boring or trite material.

Or perhaps you'll be assigned, or choose, to write for a certain age group or readers with particular interests.

In a letter to the editor, you might attack a proposal to establish a nearby chemical waste dump.

Or, alarmed by a sharp jump in state unemployment, you might write to your state senator and argue for a new job-training program.

A scientific and technical revolution has just begun based upon the ability to systematically organize and manipulate matter at nanoscale.

Payoff is anticipated within the next 10-15 years.

On the job, you might describe the advantages of new computer equipment, report on a conference you attend, explain a new procedure, suggest a new security system, or present a marketing plan.

Personally, you may need to defend a medical reimbursement, request a refund for a faulty product, or find a solution to a personal problem.

Emphasize exposure factors, film size and required view.

Provide a detailed explanation of the procedure, including how to position patients for different kinds of X-rays.

What do I want this piece of writing to do for both my reader and for me?

Purpose, as you might expect, grows out of the writing situation.

It is expected that gravity would play a lesser role in the interaction of nanotools and that surface tension and van der Waals forces would play greater roles.

Sage Reference Online, Encyclopedia of Governance

I have had a Walkman, CD Walkman or iPod surgically attached to my ears via headphones since about the age of about five (anatomically strange. But true).

So chances are that I'm a case in point for the recent LA Times article. It says that one in every five teens has at least a slight hearing loss.

Video games can be addictive as players struggle to get to the next level.

Still, this negative effect is exaggerated.

But, no ear protection now, hearing aid later...

Suddenly ear protection never sounded so good.

But as part of your growth as a writer and professional, you'll need to understand the goals and rules of any community you enter.

The following three excerpts deal with the same subject nanotechnology but each explanation is geared to a different audience.

To grab her reader in a busy Internet environment, Marianne Halavage announces her purpose boldly in her title.

The remainder of the paragraphs provide, alternately, statements by authority arguing that listening to loud music is likely to result in hearing loss with her own personal reaction where she identifies with her audience.

Once the writer decides on a purpose, the paragraph can be focused.

The stereotype of gamers is that they are so glued to their computers that they forget to eat, sleep, or work.

While this is a gross exaggeration, game designers do want their players to be hooked on their games.

There are in fact a number of qualities that make video players want to keep returning to a favorite game, and any good game designer needs to know those qualities.

Um, not so sure that many teens will take to wearing ear protection at concerts.

They'd probably rather lose their hearing than have their pals laugh at them for looking a bit naff in it.

At other times, you'll be asked to write for a specialized audience—one with some expertise in your topic.

This difference will affect what you say to each audience and how you say it.

A good way to size up your readers is to develop an audience profile.

This profile will emerge gradually as you answer the following questions:

The following example from the Internet has a clear and specific purpose.

Turn Down Your iPod Volume (or Go Deaf) Marianne Halavage

To Inform

We all have our areas of expertise and often share that information with each other.

When we write, it is often in response to a situation that shapes the purpose and audience of our writing.

We rarely write in isolation, but instead write to others who have an interest in our message.

"We have to step back and say: OK, turn down the volume on iPods and earbuds and MP3 players.

Wear ear protection at rock concerts or when you are exposed to loud noises for long periods of time," like when using a lawn mower.

How are different writing projects organized?

What conventions do writers follow?

How much do they know about my topic? (Your answer here will help you gauge whether you're saying too little or too much.)

What kind of language will communicate with them most effectively? (See "Level of Diction" in Chapter 7.)

It saves the reader's time; we absorb information more swiftly when we read it than when we hear it.

What kind of writing will people expect you to do?

To Express Yourself

When you text a friend, you choose words and phrases to show off who you are.

The Purposes of Writing

Whenever you write, some clear purpose should guide your efforts.

What methods do they follow?

Which kinds of knowledge are acceptable? Which are not?

What are the educational level, age, social class, and economic status of the audience I want to reach?

Why will this audience read my writing? To gain information? Learn my views on a controversial issue? Enjoy my creative flair? Be entertained?

Further, think how inappropriate it would be if you accidentally sent the e-mail intended for one to the other.

Without doubt, different readers call for different approaches.

There is little record of what you say.

Writing

Assume you've recently become engaged, and to share your news you write two e-mails: one to your minister or rabbi and the other to your best friend back home.

You can imagine the differences in details, language, and general tone of each e-mail.

You can observe body language and vary what you are saying in response.

You can respond to immediate questions.

Establishing rapport with your audience is easy when you're writing for your friends or someone else you know a great deal about.

You can then judge the likely response to what you say.

Consider the difference in the papers you could write about solar homes.

You might explain how readers could build one, argue that readers should buy one, express the advantages of solar homes to urge Congress to enact a tax credit for them, or satirize the solar home craze so that readers might reevaluate their plans to buy one.

To Persuade

You probably have strong views on many issues, and these feelings may sometimes impel you to try swaying your reader.

The ultimate purpose of all writing is to have an effect on a reader (even if that reader is you), and therefore purpose and audience are closely linked.

You would write differently about your college experience to a young relative, your best friend, your parents, your advisor, or a future employer.

You explore the consequences of the greenhouse effect in a report for your science instructor.

You write an editorial for the college newspaper to air your frustration over inadequate campus parking.

Just as you would have trouble listening to someone with his shirt on backwards and wearing two different kinds of shoes,

most readers dismiss out of hand writing that is disorganized,

Just as you would not dial a telephone number at random and then expect to carry on a meaningful conversation,

so you should not expect to communicate effectively without a specific audience in mind. One other note:

An important aspect of nanotechnology is the belief that as tools get smaller,

the physical forces acting on them will produce differing effects than what we currently observe.

3. Nanotechnology is a general term used to refer to technological research and developments on the nanometer scale,

with one nanometer equal to one millionth of a millimeter.

It is important to recognize that writing, even texting, is very different from face to face conversations.

Face to Face

You propose that your organization replace an outdated piece of equipment with a state-of-the-art model.

Following are four common general writing purposes, two or more of which often join forces in a single piece:

1-100 nanometers and exploitation of novel phenomena and properties (physical, chemical, biological, mechanical, electrical... at that length scale.

For comparison, 10 nanometers is 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

I am working hard.—to your parents to persuade them to send extra support

I have learned many things that will help me contribute to your company. to an employer to persuade them to consider you for a job

Having a specific purpose assists you at every stage of the writing process.

It helps you define your audience; select the details, language, and approach that best suit their needs; and avoid going off in directions that won't interest them.

Imagine people so glued to their computers that they forget to eat or sleep and even miss work.

It is like a strange version of a zombie movie. What could have eaten their brains?

The idea of losing my hearing, even a little bit, terrifies me.

Struggling to hear my music: my first love, my passion and my therapist; unable to hear my family and friends.

We'll be able to snap together the fundamental building blocks of nature easily, inexpensively and in most of the ways permitted by the laws of nature.

This will let us continue the revolution in computer hardware to its ultimate limits: molecular computers made from molecular logic gates connected by molecular wires.

Employers discard job seekers with poorly worded cover letters; badly written proposals are rejected; and few bother to read poorly written articles.

Three qualities

Often custom dictates what information must be included, the pattern of organization and the style the paper should follow.

Throughout college, you will discover that part of learning to write is becoming familiar with the values and customs of different discourse communities.

By your topic, word choice, example, or turn of phrase, you display a bit of yourself whether in e-mails, journals, poetry, essays, or fiction.

To Entertain

What values seem to guide the field?

What kinds of information must writers include in papers?

What are the major concerns and questions in this field?

What seems to be common knowledge?

You can't call it back to clear up a misunderstanding or adjust your tone.

What this means is that as a writer, you need to be able to anticipate your readers' needs and responses.

Here is the raw truth: the ability to write will help you earn better grades, land the job you want, and advance in your career.

Writing will help you create the future you want in a competitive world.

As you shape your paper, it is important that the writing please you as well as your audience—that it, satisfy your sense of what good writing is and what the writing task requires.

You are, after all, your own first reader