Writing for Mass Media I II Unit

B.A. (HONS.) Mass Communication II Semester Sub.
– Writing For Mass Media
SYLLABUS
Class – B.A. (HONS.) MASS COMMUNICATION
II Semester
Subject – WRITING FOR MASS MEDIA
UNIT-I Introduction to Writing

Historical background
Elements of language
Fundamentals of Writing
UNIT-II Characteristics of good Writing
Lucidity & Directness
Credibility & Objectivity
Forms of Writing& Essay, Poetry, Feature, Articles, Novels.
UNIT-III Structure of Writing: Content selection, Focus, Conclusion,
Presentation, Introduction, Body, and Conclusion
Writing Style
Translation
UNIT-IV Art in Writing
Art Symbols
Situations
Aesthetics Sense
UNIT-V Data use & handling
Preparing Glossary & Index
Bibliography
45, Anurag Nagar, Behind Press Complex, Indore (M.P.) Ph.: 4262100, www.rccmindore.com
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B.A. (HONS.) Mass Communication II Semester Sub. – Writing For Mass Media
UNIT-I
INTRODUCTION
It is said that Leonardo da Vinci before ever lifting his brush saw all his paintings in the damp stains on
his walls. Herman Melville stared at Mount Grey lock every day until one day it turned into devilish great
white whale Moby Dick. In our young imaginative years we look up at the clouds and see old women,
fairy, houses, alligators, and dinosaurs rather than constellations. According to biologists, man can no
longer be defined as different from other animals by virtue of speech or tool making. But we are
absolutely unique in our dazzling ability to make metaphors. Creativity is the art of living metaphorically.
HISTORY OF WRITING
The first writing - Writing has its origins in the strip of fertile land stretching from the Nile up into the
area often referred to as the Fertile Crescent. This name was given, in the early 20th century, to the
inverted U-shape of territory that stretches up the east Mediterranean coast and then curves east
through northern Syria and down the Euphrates and the Tigris to the Persian Gulf.
The first known writing derives from the lower reaches of the two greatest rivers in this extended
region, the Nile and the Tigris. So the two civilizations separately responsible for this totally
transforming human development are the Egyptian and the Sumerian (in what is now Iraq). It has been
conventional to give priority, by a short margin, to Sumer – dating the Sumerian script to about 3100 BC
and the Egyptian version a century or so later.
However, in 1988 a German archaeologist, Günter Dreyer, unearths at Abydos, on the Nile in central
Egypt, small bone and ivory tablets recording in early hieroglyphic form the items delivered to a temple
– mainly linen and oil. These fragments have been carbon-dated to between 3300 and 3200 BC.
Meanwhile the dating of the earliest cuneiform tablets from Sumeria has been pushed further back, also
to around 3200 BC. So any claim to priority by either side is at present too speculative to carry
conviction.
Evolution of a script - Most early writing systems begin with small images used as words, literally
depicting the thing in question. But pictograms of this kind are limited. Some physical objects are too
difficult to depict. And many words are concepts rather than objects.
There are several ways in which early writing evolves beyond the pictorial stage. One is by combining
pictures to suggest a concept. Another is by a form of pun, in which a pictorial version of one object is
modified to suggest another quite different object which sounds the same when spoken.
An example of both developments could begin with a simple symbol representing a roof - a shallow
inverted V. This would be a valid character to mean 'house'. If one places under this roof a similar
symbol for a woman, the resulting character could well stand for some such idea as 'home' or 'family'.
(In fact, in Chinese, a woman under a roof is one of the characters which can be used to mean 'peace').
This is a conceptual character. The punning kind might put under the same roof a sloping symbol
representing the bank of a river. The combined character, roof and bank, would then stand for a
financial institution - the type of 'house' which is a 'bank'.
Cuneiform in Mesopotamia: from 3100 BC - In about 3200 BC temple officials in Sumer develop a
reliable and lasting method of keeping track of the animals and other goods which are the temple's
wealth. On lumps of wet clay the scribes draw a simpified picture of the item in question. They then
make a similar mark in the clay for the number counted and recorded. When allowed to bake hard in the
sun, the clay tablet becomes a permanent document.
Significantly the chief official of many Sumerian temples is known by a word, sangu, which seems to
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mean 'accountant'. But however non-literary the purpose, these practical jottings in Sumer are the first
steps in writing.
As writing develops, a standardized method of doing it begins to emerge. This is essential to the very
purpose of writing, making it capable of carrying a message over unlimited distances of space or time.
Doing so depends on the second scribe, in a faraway place or the distant future, being able to read what
the first scribe has written
In Mesopotamia clay remains the most common writing surface, and the standard writing implement
becomes the end of a sharply cut reed. These two ingredients define this early human script. Characters
are formed from the wedge-shaped marks which the reed makes when pressed into the damp clay, so
the style of writing becomes known as cuneiform (from the Latincuneus, meaning wedge).
Hieroglyphs and papyrus in Egypt: from 3000 BC- The second civilization to develop writing, shortly
after the Sumerians, is Egypt. The Egyptian characters are much more directly pictorial in kind than the
Sumerian, but the system of suggesting objects and concepts is similar. The Egyptian characters are
called hieroglyphs by the Greeks in about 500 BC, because by that time this form of writing is reserved
for holy texts;hieros andglypho mean 'sacred' and 'engrave' in Greek.
Because of the importance of hieroglyphic inscriptions in temples and tombs, much of the creation of
these beautiful characters is by painters, sculptors in relief and craftsmen modelling in plaster. But with
the introduction of papyrus, the Egyptian script is also the business of scribes.
The seals of the Indus valley: from 2500 BC- As in the other great early civilizations, the bureaucrats
of the Indus valley have the benefit of writing to help them in their administration. The Indus script,
which has not yet been deciphered, is known from thousands of seals, carved in steatite or soapstone.
Usually the centre of each seal is occupied by a realistic depiction of an animal, with above it a short line
of formal symbols. The lack of longer inscriptions or texts suggests that this script is probably limited to
trading and accountancy purposes, with the signs establishing quantities and ownership of a
commodity.
Chinese characters: from 1600 BC - The last of the early civilizations to develop writing is China, in
about 1600 BC. But China outdoes the others in devising a system which has evolved, as a working
script, from that day to this. Chinese characters are profoundly ill-suited to such labor-saving
innovations as printing, typewriting or word-processing. Yet they have survived. They have even
provided the script for an entirely different language, Japanese.
The Non-phonetic Chinese script has been a crucial binding agent in China's vast empire. Officials
from far-flung places, often unable to speak each other's language, have been able to communicate
fluently in writing.
Phonetics and the alphabet: from the 15th century BC- The most significant development in the
history of writing, since the first development of a script in about 3200 BC, is the move from a
pictographic or syllabic system (characteristic of Sumerian, ancient Egyptian and Chinese) to a phonetic
one, based on recording the spoken sound of a word. This change has one enormous potential. It can
liberate writing from the status of an arcane skill, requiring years of study to learn large numbers of
characters. It makes possible the ideal of a literate community.
The first tentative steps in this direction are taken in the second millennium BC in the
trading communities of Phoenicia.
Phoenician is a Semitic language and the new approach to writing is adopted by the
various Semitic groups in Phoenicia and Palestine. Versions of it are used, for example,
for Aramaic and Hebrew. Only the consonants are written, leaving the vowels to be
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understood by the reader (as is still the case today with a widespread Semitic language, Arabic).
The contribution of the Greeks, adapting the Phoenician system of writing in the 8th century BC, is to
add vowels. For some they use the names of existing Phoenician letters (alpha for example). For others
entirely new signs are added. The result is a Greek alphabet of twenty-four letters.
The alphabet takes its name from the first two letters in the Phoenician system, alphaand beta,
borrowed and adapted by the Greeks.
The Romans in their turn deveolop the Greek alphabet to form letters suitable for the writing of Latin. It
is in the Roman form - and through the Roman empire - that the alphabet spreads through Europe, and
eventually through much of the world, as a standard system of writing. With a system as simple as this,
and with portable writing materials such aspapyrus,wooden tablets or leaves written correspondence
becomes a familiar part of everyday life.
The Arabic script: from the 5th century BC - A stele, or inscribed column, is set
up at Tema in northwest Arabia. Dating from the 5th century BC, its inscription is
the earliest known example of the writing which evolves a millennium later into the
Arabic script.
The script is developed from the 1st century BC by the Nabataeans, a people
speaking a Semitic language whose stronghold atPetra, on a main caravan route,
brings them prosperity and the need for records. Writing is not much needed by
thenomads of Arabia, but when it becomes urgently required for the Qur'an(to
record accurately the words of God in the 7th century AD), the Nabataean example is to hand.
ThroughIslam and the spread of Arabic, it becomes one of the world's standard scripts.
The first American script: 2nd c. BC - 3rd c. AD- Of the various early civilizations of central America,
the Maya make the greatest use of writing. In their ceremonial centres they set up numerous columns,
or stelae, engraved with hieroglyphs. But they are not the inventors of writing in America.
Credit for this should possibly go back as far as the Olmecs. Certainly there is some evidence that they
are the first in the region to devise acalendar, in which writing of some sort is almost essential.
The Zapotecs, preceding the Maya, have left the earliest surviving inscriptions, dating from about the
2nd century BC. The first Mayan stele to be securely dated is erected at Tikal in the equivalent of the
year AD 292.
The Mayan script is hieroglyphic with some phonetic elements. Its interpretation has been a long
struggle, going back to the 16th century, and even today only about 80% of thehieroglyphs are
understood. They reveal that the script is used almost exclusively for two purposes: the recording of
calculations connected with the calendar and astronomy; and the listing of rulers, their dynasties and
their conquests.
Thus the priests and the palace officials of early America succeed in preserving writing for their own
privileged purposes. In doing so they deny their societies the liberating magic of literacy.
Ulfilas and his alphabet: AD c.360 - Ulfilas is the first man known to have undertaken an
extraordinarily difficult intellectual task - writing down, from scratch, a language which is as yet purely
oral. He even devises a new alphabet to capture accurately the sounds of spoken Gothic, using a total of
twenty-seven letters adapted from examples in the Greek and Roman alphabets.
God's work is Ulfilas' purpose. He needs the alphabet for his translation of the Bible from Greek into the
language of the Goths. It is not known how much he completes, but large sections of the Gospels and the
Epistles survive in his version - dating from several years before Jerome begins work on his Latin text.
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The achievement of Ulfilas is repeated in the 9th century by two missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, who
adapt their own Greek alphabet for the purposes of writing down a previously oral Slavonic language.
Cyril and Methodius: 9th century AD - Cyril and his elder brother Methodius already have a
distinguished reputation as theologians and linguists when the Byzantine emperor sends them as
missionaries, in 863, to the Slavs of Moravia. The brothers are Greek but they know the Slavonic
language spoken in their native region of Salonika. In Moravia they conduct church services in Slavonic.
Naturally they wish to write down this liturgy, together with their own Slavonic translation of parts of
the Bible. But there is no Slavonic script.
Like Ulfilas before them with Gothic, the brothers need to devise a new alphabet for their purpose.
Cyril and Methodius base their new letters loosely on Greek examples. The Slavonic alphabet is known
today as cyrillic after the more forceful of the brothers - though in its surviving form it is probably
devised by Cyril's followers inBulgaria rather than the saint himself (whose original invention is more
likely to be the now extinct glagolitic alphabet).
Nevertheless the remarkable fact is that cyrillic remains the script of all the Slav regions which adopt
the Greek Orthodox faith - including Serbia, Bulgaria and above all Russia.
From handwriting to print: 7th - 15th century - It is a striking fact that the letters which we take for
granted today, in printed books, derive for the most part from handwriting in the last centuries of the
Roman empire. Indeed the script in fragments of Latin messages, written by members of the Roman
garrison atHadrian's Wall in about100, is visibly related to the letters taught in western European
languages in the 20th century.
When Christian monks in western Europe write out their holy texts, they do so in Latin onparchment -
in the relatively new form of the codex. The script they use is that of the Roman empire, but there are
many regional variations.
Manuscripts written in Italy in the 7th to 8th centuryare entirely in capital letters, giving a neat and
intensely formal look. But Celtic monks in Ireland, who are among the most prolific of scribes at this
time, prefer a more workaday script (the everyday hand of the Roman legionaries at Hadrian's
Wall must have survived in many outlying regions as the normal style of handwriting).
A very early surviving example is the so-called Cathach ofSt Columba(cathachmeaning 'battler', because
this book of psalms is believed to have been carried into battle as a sacred talisman).
The Cathach of St Columba, dating perhaps from the early 7th century and possibly written by the saint
himself, also exemplifies one profoundly influential innovation of the Irish monks. To emphasize the
beginning of an important passage, the scribes write its first letter much larger than the rest of the text
and in a grander style. Slightly embarrassed by the difference in scale, they tend to reduce each
succeeding letter by a little until reaching the small scale of the ordinary text.
Here, already, is the distinction between capitals and lower case (or in manuscript terms, majuscule and
minuscule) which is later a standard feature of the western European script.
The early Christian manuscripts influence the later standards of calligraphy and of print in two widely
separated stages. At the court of Charlemagne, in the 8th century, the existing manuscript traditions
are deliberately tidied up into one official style of exquisite clarity. This becomes cluttered again during
the later Middle Ages, until calligraphers of the Renaissance, in the 15th century, rediscover the earlier
style. From them, still within the spirit of the Renaissance, it is adopted by the early printers - and thus
enshrined for succeeding centuries.
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The Carolingian script: 8th century – In 780 the emperorCharlemagnemeets Alcuin, a distinguished
scholar from York, and invites him to direct his palace school atAachen. Twelve months or more later,
in October 781, Charlemagne commissions from a scribe, by the name of Godesalc, a manuscript of the
gospels. Godesalc completes his magnificent book for the emperor in April 783. The Godesalc
Evangelistary, as it is now called, is the first book in which the script known as Carolingian minuscule
appears. The text uses conventional capitals, but the dedication is in these lower-case letters.
It is probably not too fanciful to see the influence of Alcuin, recently arrived at court, in Godesalc's
experiment with this new script. Over the next two decades Alcuin rigorously researches and refines a
new calligraphy for Charlemagne's new empire. Just as Charlemagne sees himself as a Roman emperor,
so Alcuin goes back to Rome for his inspiration. With a passion and a thoroughness which prefigures the
scholars of the Renaissance, he copies the letters carved on Roman monuments or written in surviving
manuscripts and selects from them to establish a pure classical style - with the addition of
theminuscule letters of monastic tradition.
The results are superb. Carolingian manuscripts (produced in large numbers in a monastery at Tours, of
which Alcuin becomes abbot in 796) are among the most clear and legible documents in the history of
writing.
Black-letter style: 11th - 15th century - In the later Middle Ages, the clarity of the Carolingian script
becomes lost. A much darker and denser style evolves in northern Europe from the 11th century. It is
known as 'black letter', because of the almost oppressive weight of dark ink on each densely packed
page.
This medieval style derives partly from an aesthetic impulse (there is drama in dark pen strokes and in
the angular ends left by a broad nib), but it is above all a matter of economy. Parchment is expensive.
Books are much in demand, particularly with the growth of universities. If the letters in a word and the
words in a sentence are squashed more closely together, less pages are used and the book is cheaper.
The black-letter style is the convention in German manuscripts when printing is developed there in the
1450s. It therefore becomes the type face used for the earliest European printed books, such
asGutenberg's Bible. Angular letters of this kind remain the normal convention in German books until
the early 20th century.
But within the first century of printing there is a reaction in Italy against this heavy style.
Italian humanistsof the Renaissance associate it with all that they consider dark and barbarous about
the Middle Ages. Like medieval architecture, it is given the dismissive name of Gothic.
Roman and italic: 15th century - Italian scholars of the 14th and 15th century, followers of
Petrarch in their reverence for classical culture, search through libraries for ancient texts. Copying out
their discoveries, they aspire also to an authentic script. They find their models in beautifully written
manuscripts which they take to be Roman but which are in fact Carolingian.
The error is a fortunate one. The script devised for Charlemagne's monastic
workshops in the 8th century is a model of clarity and elegance. It is adapted
for practical use, in slightly different ways, by two Florentine friends - Poggio
Bracciolini and Niccolò Niccoli. Bracciolini, employed as secretary at the papal
court in Rome from 1403, uses the ancient script for important documents. To
the rounded lower-case letters of the the Carolingian script he adds straight-
edged capital letters which he copies from Roman monuments.
By contrast his friend Niccoli adapts the Carolingian script to the faster requirements of everyday
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writing. To this end he finds it more convenient to slope the letters a little (the result of holding the pen
at a more comfortable angle), and to allow some of them to join up. Joining up is not in itself new. In
several forms of medieval hand-writing the letters flow together to become what is known as a 'cursive'
hand.
Printers in Venice later in the century, attempting to reflect the classical spirit of humanism, turn to the
scripts of Bracciolini and Niccoli. The rounded but upright style of Bracciolini is first used by the French
printer Nicolas Jenson shortly after his arrival in the city in 1470. This type face is given the name
roman, reflecting its ancient origins.
In 1501 another great Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius, needs a contrasting and smaller type for a
'pocket edition' of Virgil. He turns to the script of Niccoli, in everyday use by fashionable Italians, and
calls it accordingly italic. Roman and italic eventually become a standard part of every printer's
repertoire.
Copperplate: from the 16th century - For purposes of handwriting a version of the italic script
eventually becomes the norm in most western societies. The reason is partly accidental. Flowing letters
are easily engraved, as can be seen in the captions of anyengraving. The natural movement of the burin
through the metal is in elegant curves, ending in elongated points. A nib, filled with ink, can easily make
the same flowing marks on paper.
As writing becomes a necessary accomplishment for the middle classes, a new profession is created -
that of the writing master.
The writing master needs examples for his pupils to copy. The engraverprovides these, as separate
sheets or as plates bound into manuals, and the manuals soon have the effect of standardizing
handwriting. The conventional form becomes known as copper-plate - imitating the letters which the
engraver has cut in his copper plate.
Many such manuals are published, starting with theEssemplare('Examples') of Gianfrancesco Cresci, a
Vatican writer, in 1560. The most successful collection of copper-plate examples is theUniversal
Penmanof George Bickham, first published in 1733 and still in use as a teaching aid in Britain in the early
part of the 20th century.
The talking leaves of the Cherokee: 1821 – 1828 - The magic of writing is encapsulated in an
achievement of theCherokee Indians of north America. In the early 19th century, recognizing the
advantage that writing brings to the white Americans, they resolve to acquire the same benefit for their
own people.
They analyze the spoken sounds of the Cherokee language and decide that it consists of eighty-six
identifiable syllables. A symbol is selected for each syllable - by adapting letters in the English alphabet,
and perhaps also by borrowing from fragments of Greek and Hebrew in the books distributed by
missionaries.
Traditionally this exacting task has been said to be the work of Sequoyah (the illiterate son of a British
trader and a Cherokee woman), helped only by his daughter. More recently it has been suggested that
others invented the system and that Sequoyah's main contribution was in popularizing it. Whatever the
precise detail, the achievement is an even more striking example of what Ulfilasdid for the Goths in the
4th century.
Written Cherokee, described as 'talking leaves', becomes accepted with a rapidity which testifies both to
the magic of writing and to the persuasive powers of Sequoyah. The system is completed in 1821. The
first issue of the Cherokee Phoenix, written in the syllables, is dated 21 February 1828.
CREATIVE WRITING
The creative spark within an individual, leading to creative endeavours stems from a basic, yet strong,
feeling of dissatisfaction with the usual process and activities. Some may not feel dissatisfied at all with
the way things are. And, those who do feel discontented may react or respond in one of the following
ways:
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Simply complaining or feeling frustrated without doing anything about the existing state of things.
- Trying to change the state of affairs by creating something new in a new way or even
attempting to mould the public opinion or attitude by writing about the state of affairs in an original
style with a skillful use of words and expressions.
Definition: Creative writing is the process of inventing or rather presenting your thoughts in an
appealing way. The writer thinks critically and reshapes something known into something that is
different and original. Each piece of writing has a purpose and is targeted at an audience. It is organized
cohesively with a clear beginning, middle and an end. Attention is paid to choice of apt vocabulary,
figurative use of language and style. The following can be taken as key points for understanding of
writing creatively:
1. The Beginning: Creative writing takes its first breath when the writer asks, "What can I create
out of a particular feeling, image, experience, or memory?"
2. The Purpose: It carries out a writer's compelling desire to imagine, invent, explore, or share.
Writing satisfies the creative soul. It often takes on a life of its own; the writer merely follows along.
3. The Form: Any form using a writer's imagination is suitable for creative development of some
element of fiction. Some of the most common types of creative writing are poetry, essays, character-
sketches, short-fiction, anecdotes, play-scripts, songs, parodies, reminiscences, historical fiction etc.
4. The Audience: A specific audience may not be known in the beginning, and each situation is
different. However, if the finished piece has a universal meaning, the story will speak to a wide range of
readers and may have varied meaning for various people.
5. The Style: A writer's style comes from an array of choices that result in the sole ownership of the
finished product. The key to attaining a unique style is focused control. The writer lays out a viewpoint
and if it appeals to the readers, it influences them.
CREATIVE PROCESS
1) Breathe the fresh air and think.
2) Allow your thoughts to float.
3) The journey of your thought will find the seeds to plant your story.
4) Revisit your ideas for topics and scan through the entries in your Portfolio that focus on your experiences.
5) Mind map a simple plan that contains a few characters, a basic setting and a problem that will be resolved.
6) Give life to your plan and write your first draft.
7) Take time to revise the basic frame of story.
8) Evaluate character development, conflict in plot, exciting twist and turns.
9) And Voila! You have a creative output!
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ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE
1. Phonology - (fuh-nol-uh-jee) (n.) the sound system of a language –Pronunciation.

Ex - Z,S ,th,Dh,
2. Morphology - (mawr-fol-uh-jee) (n.) the study of the structure of words
Morphology is the study of word structure. Though it appears on the surface that English words are
irregular and idiosyncratic — go vs. went, foot vs. feet — there is a limited set of processes that allow
speakers to create new words.
First, some preliminaries. All languages have words and morphemes. Words can be freely moved
around in a sentence. For example, cats is a word:
I like cats.
Cats, I like. (Hamsters, I don’t.)
Cats is a complex word, made up of two morphemes; a morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning or
function within a language. The two morphemes are the root cat and –s, which means ‘plural’. –s is a
bound morpheme, meaning that it must attach to something else and cannot be freely moved around; I
can’t just say “-s” in response to the question “Do you have one cat or more than one?” Free
morphemes, on the other hand, can stand alone as words.
English often allows multiple bound morphemes within a single word by a process called affixation.
Affixation is the addition of prefixes, suffixes, and infixes to a root morpheme Bound morphemes that
follow the root are suffixes (things like –ful, -ly, -ness in words like hopeful, quickly, or weirdness), while
morphemes that precede the root are prefixes (for example, mis- as in misunderstand).
So, in a word like mistrustful we have a two bound morphemes, the prefix mis- and the suffix -ful,
surrounding the root, trust:
mis-trust-ful
Or in a word like friendliness, we have a root followed by two suffixes:
friend-li-ness
3. Syntax - (sin-taks) (n.) the study of the structure of sentences : In linguistics, syntax (from
Ancient Greek σύνταξις "coordination" from σύν syn, "together," and τάξις táxis, "an ordering") is "the
study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages."
4. Semantics -(si-man-tiks) (n.) the study of meaning in language
5. Pragmatics - (prag-mat-iks) (n.) , the appropriate use of language in different contexts
ELEMENTS OF GOOD WRITING
PLOT OR STRUCTURE: It is a true that 'all art is an order'. The creative artist seeks to capture the world
in a certain form, so that it could make some sense. Thus there has to be a formal structure to the
writing subject. You will wish to write an arrangement of characters interacting with incidents/
situations for greater effectiveness. However, your skill lies in making it appear that it is no conscious
arrangement, no plan, and no 'plot'. You need to have a well thought-out design or scheme, so that the
story is neither dull, nor meaningless. Whatever the story, theme, or purpose may be, creative writers
try to infuse meaning into the story. Creative writers always try to make their stories interesting and try
to make it lively.
ATMOSPHERE: It is the context in which write-ups are written. Atmosphere is also referred to as
settings. Writers use atmosphere or settings to attract and engage readers in their stories or write-ups.
Most writers try to create a world or realm in which the readers can loose them selves. This setting
could be realistic of imaginary. Many writers, particularly in short stories or novels, try to mix reality
and imaginary. This mix of facts and fantasies makes write ups more credible and reading more
believable. Atmosphere is an important element of writing. It creates moods. It creates physical as well
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as psychological settings. It helps in creating the texture of the settings in which the writer sets the
characters, locale, etc.
CHARACTERS: Characters are another important element of writing. Most writing involves people. And
people form the characters in stories and write-ups. Also most writing is about human conditions.
Human characters in various settings form the backbone of most writing. Also readers mostly identify
and like to read about fellow human beings.
FUNDAMENTALS/ ESSENTIALS OF WRITING

1.USING SIMPLE LANGUAGE: Simplicity, it is said, is the hardest thing to achieve in writing. Most good
writers have this art. But this is more of a craft or skill. Practice helps us achieve simplicity. And
simplicity is the best way to achieve clarity, coherency, and comprehension.
2.USING SIMPLE WORDS: Some people use complex, high-sounding, and bombastic words in their
writing. This is usually done to impress the readers. In reality such complex words have the opposite
effect.
3.USING SIMPLE SENTENCES: It is easier to write many simple sentences than one complex or
compound sentence. So why not write simple sentences? Long winding sentences only distract the
reader.
4.ECONOMIZING ON WORDS: Most writers use too many words in their drafts. A careful editor deletes
these at the time of editing. (This sentence itself can be written in simpler way – A careful editor edits
this out). There is no substitute for simple, straightforward prose. You should not try to use one word
more than is necessary.
5.AVOIDING JARGONS: Each profession has a technical language of its own. This is called jargon. You
may be using certain abbreviations or names in your schools, sports field or in an office. Scientists do so
in their labs. These are jargons. Only the select group understands them. As a writer, you should not use
them. You should rather explain the jargon if you have to use it. Your aim should be to make your
message clear to the people who have no direct relationship to such groups. Your writings should not
cut people off from receiving your ideas by a language that they cannot understand.
6.AVOIDING ADJECTIVES: Adjectives and adverbs are often superfluous. You should build up your
sentences around nouns and verbs. Usage of adjectives often weakens your message. We would suggest
that you write two simple sentences than use an adjective, which more often is unnecessary if you
descriptions are clear and vivid.
7.INTRODUCING CONTINUITY OF FLOW: While introducing a new idea or piece of information, do not
do so without tying it to other parts of a story, springing up with sudden thoughts jolts a reader and like
a sudden jerk on a smooth road, he is thrown off balance. Connect any new information in a story to
information already introduced. You have to develop a mental discipline and read your copy with
discerning eyes.
8.BEING SPECIFIC: Brevity is the soul of wit. Just as you try to avoid someone who talks too much, so do
readers about writing, which have too many superfluous or high sounding words or pilings of phrases
or long- winding, and sentences that have run out of thoughts. Eliminate all that which you have said
once. Have to have accuracy and clarity. But never try to sacrifice these for the sake of brevity.
9.AVOIDING REPETITIONS AND REDUNDANCIES: Both these traits show lack of discipline on the part
of the writer. Sometimes facts need to be repeated but that e is not the case very often. Cut out
unnecessary words: Avoid adjectives and adverbs. As you write, such words often creep in. Be alert to
weed these words out. Quite often you write really, actually, very, in fact and similar others.
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UNIT-II
CREATIVE WRITING
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD, EFFECTIVE WRITING
A common misconception among bloggers and writers alike is that good writing can only be achieved
with years of experience, which is far from the truth. If you even think about starting a blog, you
immediately realize that blogs consist primarily of writing new content and further promoting that
content through other forms of writing, advertisements, and copy.
While you do need basic education to begin, very few bloggers have a Ph.D. in English or grammar – as
they probably wouldn’t be working as an independent blogger, with the large risk involved. There is one
set of core elements that you need to achieve whenever you write. As long as you strive for this, you
won’t fail in your pursuit to create the blog that others desire to read everyday.
1. You make a clear point. Don’t let your readers have to ask themselves what your point is. Are
you trying to market a product or simply review a product that you enjoyed, for example. On many
blogs, the entire focus is oblique – it is difficult to define the “overall” focus of the website.
2. A common mistake is length. Good writing is never too long, never too short. It is concise, not
elaborating on too many separate areas. This is particularly true when trying to get points across.
Readers become easily distracted if you focus on one point (especially in list-type posts), leading them
to avoid the rest of the post for that one block.
3. There is information to back up your point. No one is able to store the world’s information in
their head. It’s a simple fact. You need to link to sources within your content, include images, diagrams,
and other forms of media to draw in the readers. Words don’t cut it every time.
4. Time is the best solution for the quality dilemma. Just because you want to create more
shouldn’t mean that the quality of your writing has to take a dive, too. Would people that aren’t a part of
your field be able to understand, even if you leave out something crucial? If your answer was no, that
means that you’ll need to spend more time adding references, details, or elaborate on the finer details.
5. The writing is logical. Understand that some people don’t want to read through the entire post.
Few people do, especially as the content length increases. Although words are words, a paragraph
blurred together with no spaces between any sentences or words is just a long word. People won’t read
it. Although this is an extreme example, be sure that you have set up a post structure that allows readers
to quickly scan the main points (bold, heading text, etc).
6. Good grammar, English, and spelling. Just because you can’t accomplish these two to three
main areas of good writing doesn’t mean that you have “failed” as a writer. Simply improve on these,
and readers will thank you.
7. Readers become engaged. With the focused point and effective writing style that you have
developed (remember, it takes time), readers will become engaged in what you have to say. Writing the
content is one part, but you’ll also need to bring the complete package to your readers in order to truly
accomplish this. Feel what your readers might be going through in order to truly connect with them.
8. Rules are broken all over the place. Writing like everyone else is easy. Writing as yourself;
creating, developing, and mastering a style is the hard part. Similarity is the greatest enemy for writers –
once you become unique, there is little to stop you from reaching great heights.
9. Influence. One powerful word, one powerful point. Set the stage for what may lead to success,
even if you don’t have confidence in yourself. Good writing challenges the reader to think about what
they have done in their life and how they can prepare for a reoccurrence of the event or situation in the
future. Captivating your readers and evaluating their needs can help you accomplish the influence factor.
10. Finally, and one of most important of all, is that great writers and the posts that they create are
from their heart, not just created to profit or for gains. Text is one of the most powerful mediums
out there. When you read text, you can get a good idea of how the writer feels about what they are
writing about, even though no clear evidence is given. Readers can draw conclusions that you aren’t
writing your best copy due to the fact that you are tired and exhausted from writing. This is something
that can’t happen as long as you run your blog.
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Good writing does more than just these ten main characteristics – it inspires, informs, and involves your
readers. When you harness your full potential, you will be able to accomplish this with less work than
you think. It will take quite a few revisions, modifications, and testing before you get it right, but it will
happen.
The now-famous authors born during the past century didn’t start writing with any advanced education
– just the skills and knowledge that they had when they “decided” to pursue writing novels or other
forms of literature. They didn’t become instant sensations, they didn’t lead lives that were extravagant,
and their ideas were often challenged during the time that they were alive. But there was something
that set apart their work from the millions of other aspiring authors – they brought their entire package
to the table, taking enormous risks simply to pursue their passion.
LUCIDITY
1. Easily understood; intelligible.
2. Mentally sound; sane or rational.
3. Translucent or transparent.
Lucidity is basically clarity of thoughts in sense of creative writing. So that we consider the word
’Clarity’ or ‘Clearness” in the place of lucidity to understand the importance of LUCIDITY i.e. Clarity in
writing.
Why does it matter if your writing is clear or not? Surely, anyone with half a brain can make out what
you’re trying to say! Well, when what you’re saying is not very important to you or to your reader, you
don’t need to write with much care.
But when your message is important enough to make you want to get it across clearly, and when
it’s important to the reader that he or she understand it fully, clarity is obviously essential. Importance
calls for understanding on the recipient’s part; achievement of the understanding that both writer and
reader want is possible only in the presence of clarity. If this sounds really obvious to you – it is. Just
think, though, of how much garbled nonsense pours into the world every day, in every form of speech.
Here are some suggestions to help you keep your important writing clear in order to accomplish your
desired impact, whether you’re writing for publication, for a client, for a speech, or just for yourself:
1. Be very clear about what it is you want to convey.
2. Have a good understanding of who you want to convey it to Focus on that audience (and no
other), and get some accurate idea of how to introduce your subject to that audience so they will
willingly read your writing or listen to you.
3. Decide on an approach to your reader or audience (such as: formal, informal, academic, poetic,
journalistic, adversarial, persuasive, explanatory, satirical, ironic, dramatic, familiar, casual, buddy-
buddy, and so on) and match your writing style to that approach; avoid mixing approaches and styles.
4. Plan out the presentation of your ideas from a beginning that is (a) acceptable to your audience,
(b) encourages their interest, and (c) helps them track with you while they read on.
5. In your designing, clearly envision the end result or objective or product of your writing, and
build up to it connectedly and as strongly as you can, and put it in place like an anchor for the whole
piece. If you’ll be wanting the readers to take some action, then prepare the ground for asking or
directing them to take it in such a way as to leave them in no doubt about what you are asking them to
do. And build up the flow of your piece so that as many as possible will be minded to agree with your
request or direction.
6. When your design and objective are clear to you, start writing. As you write, envision a reader’s
response to what you are writing; see if you can pick up any questions the reader might have, or some
element of your persuasion that might make an un-smooth progression of thought for the reader as he
or she follows you along.
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7. Although I’ve emphasized writing according to prepared design and plan, I also advise that as
you start writing, you be alert for the possibility that your writing might just decide to go off in a
direction you hadn’t envisioned. In some circumstances, such as personal writing, essays, op-ed pieces,
term papers, short stories, or novels, and others, this writing can be far more authentic and interesting
than the design would ever be. To succeed in this way of writing, you must (a) keep sight of your
original objective – or you must restate it as soon as you can, and (b) avoid violating any contractual or
other agreements with another for the piece you are writing
8. Whichever way you do it, employ words whose meanings and uses you clearly understand. If
you have any question about what a word means or how to use it correctly, look it up in the dictionary
before including it. Choose words that are themselves clear. When you find yourself writing words like
“awesome,” “unbelievable,” “great,” “cool,” and so on, recognize that you’re introducing distracting fuzz
into your flow – and cut it out. Look for the words that clearly convey what you want the reader to
grasp. If fuzz is part of your design, though, keep it in.
9. There is no substitute for correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Some people will not be
offended by errors in these but they may misdirect themselves away from your message because, for
example, the placing of one comma can completely change the meaning of a sentence. A person who is
familiar with grammar, spelling, and punctuation might reject your message (even though your message
is valid and valuable) if he or she considers that your errors undermine trust in your judgment.
10. Use words and expressions that your audience is familiar with; if you need or want to use a
term, abbreviation, or phrase outside of their presumed vocabulary, use it -- but give a helpful definition
in parenthesis.
11. Design your paragraphs and sentences for greatest impact as your actual writing builds up to the
climax and completion of your message and request for action. Here are some techniques to help you
increase impact:
* In your sentences, try to use the passive mood as little as possible.

* See if you can put the important idea of the sentence at or near its end.
* Vary your sentence lengths and do not be afraid of the occasional long sentence. It is quite all right to
have people think about what they’re reading.
* Ideally, you build up your paragraph so that it’s most important point comes out in its last sentence;
sometimes it’s better to put the point in the first sentence. In the latter case, be sure that you end the
paragraph with one of your strongest arguments for that point, and put it in a strong sentence.
* Review your paragraph for smoothness by reading it out loud, listening for any awkward sounds or
rhythms, and for any jumps in your logic, any excess verbiage, and possibly for a more inspiring phrase.
12. If you come to the point of not seeing clearly where you should go next in writing your build-up
to your climax, take a break. When you come back, read your piece from the beginning. If you don’t see
clearly where you go next, read over your outline and your notes. Should the way forward still not be
clear, examine your last paragraph or two to see if one of them is a little too condensed and needs to be
fleshed out, perhaps even fleshed out into two separate paragraphs.
13. When you’re all done, put the piece away for at least a day. After the break, read it, mark all the
errors you see and the improvements you think of as you read, look to mercilessly slash everything that
is not closely relevant, note any questions that come up for you -- but don’t make any major revisions
yet. Once through the first time, consider the questions and notes you made, and determine how much
substantial editing you will do, and do it. Write your new draft. Put the piece away for at least a day;
share your manuscript with a friend who will give you an objective pair of eyes and ears and perhaps
very helpful comments. Review your piece yet again.
14. Publish! Or deliver! Or read your speech! Observe how it goes down. Note how you can do better
next time, and take all your lessons from the experience to heart. Use them!
DIRECTNESS
The challenge to directness comes from two fronts: WORDINESS and VAGUENESS. A wordy writer uses
more words than are necessary to convey his meaning; a vague writer fails to convey her meaning as
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sharply and clearly as she might. Our objective in writing is to convey our meaning as directly and as
economically as possible, without sacrificing clarity and completeness.
This document focuses on WORDINESS, i.e., on how to spot and eliminate wordiness.
1. Nominals
Nominals are nouns that have been created by adding suffixes to verbs: ESTABLISHMENT,
COMPLETION, DELIVERANCE and so on. While there is nothing wrong with those words, using
unnecessary nominals tends to make writing ponderous and slow moving. That is, VERBS (words which
convey action) have been transformed into NOUNS (words which point to objects). Learn to spot
nominals suffixes, which include -MENT, -TION, -ENCE, -ITY, -IZE, and -NESS.
e.g., Strict ENFORCEMENT of the speed limit by the police will cause a REDUCTION in traffic fatalities. /
If the police strictly enforced the speed limit, traffic fatalities will be reduced.
2. Weak Verbs
Vague, weak verbs such as ALLOW, HAVE, GIVE, MAKE, PROVIDE, and TAKE occur in combination with
nominals as replacements for the stronger, more energetic verbs that have been changed into nouns.
Another weak verb form, the PASSIVE-VOICE verb, also lengthens sentences and reduces vigor because
it focuses on THINGS BEING DONE rather than on DOING THINGS. Consequently, a statement in the
passive-voice requires a prepositional phrase to identify the AGENT or the DOER. Your writing will
become less wordy if you chose specific, concrete, active-voice verbs.
e.g,, At the next meeting, the city council WILL TAKE the fire fighters' request for a raise under
consideration. / At the next meeting, the city council will consider the fire-fighters' request for a raise.
A decision WAS REACHED by the council members to amend the zoning laws. / The council members
decided to amend the zoning laws.
3. Roundabout constructions
Indirect and circuitous wording annoys readers, i.e., it detracts from quick, clear understanding of your
meaning. Words like ANGLE, ASPECT, FACTOR and SITUATION, and phrases like AS IN THE CASE OF, IN
THE LINE OF, IN THE FIELD OF are usually obstacles to directness.
e.g., Another aspect of the situation that needs to be examined is the matter of advertizing. / We should
also examine advertizing.
4. Unnecessary phrases and clauses
Wordiness often results from using clauses when phrases will do, or phrases when single words will do.
Where appropriate, try reducing clauses to participial or appositive phrases or to single-word
compound modifiers.
e.g., The conclusions THAT THE COMMITTEE OF STUDENTS reached are summarized in the newspaper
OF THE COLLEGE THAT WAS TODAY. / The conclusions REACHED BY THE STUDENT COMMITTEE are
summarized in TODAY'S COLLEGE NEWSPAPER.
5. Redundancy
Expressions like I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES and AUDIBLE TO YOU EARS are redundant, i.e., they
express the same idea twice. Redundancies don't clarify or emphasize; they sound stupid, especially
with words that are already absolute and cannot logically be qualified further: UNIQUE, PERFECT,
DEAD, for example.
e.g., ADVANCE FORWARD / advance; COMPLETELY ELIMINATE / eliminate; REFER BACK / refer;
REPEAT AGAIN / repeat; CIRCLE AROUND / circle; CLOSE PROXIMITY / close; FEW IN NUMBER / few;
PAST HISTORY / history, past.
6. Awkward repetition / Marking Code W-4
The repetition of important words can lend emphasis and coherence to your writing, hut careless
repetition is awkward and wordy.
e.g., The investigation revealed that the AVERAGE TEACHERS TEACHING industrial arts in Alberta have
an AVERAGE working and TEACHING experience of five years. / The investigation revealed that
industrial arts teachers of Alberta have on average five years' experience
CREDIBILTY
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Any writer who is looking to build a successful career must gain an authority within the
writing/publishing industry. Credibility assures customers that a writer is an established and respected
professional. If you are searching for ways to gain credibility as a writer, consider the following steps:
1. Write all the time if you want to be respected in the field. The best way to become a credible
writer is to be a better writer, and the best way to improve your writing is to write everyday. Use
whatever mediums are available to you, the Internet, local newspapers and magazines.
2. Improve your writing skills by enhancing your writing knowledge. A credible writer is someone
who knows as much about writing as possible. Understanding the technicalities, writing rules and styles
is imperative in this industry. For this reason, you should take writing classes and workshops in various
areas of writing, and specifically in your own genre of writing, as well as attend conventions and
conferences.
3. Being associated with an already credible writer is useful. Have an established writer provide
some additional content for your site. Once you build your own reputation, ask that credible writer if
you can submit an article. If you are a skilled writer, you will be invited to write for other blogs. Write
for as many as you can and expand your readership. This in turn will build your writing integrity and
reputation.
4. Create a blog so that you can promote your writing skills. If you write a blog that is focused on the
art of writing, then you will build credibility with every entry. Potential clients will read your work. A
blog is better than a resume because it demonstrates your skill of writing. Just make sure that every
entry you write is edited. Just like a blog can build your credibility as a great writer, it can damage it
with a single typo.
5. Use social media to get your name recognized. There are so many opportunities to get your name
out there. Sign up with twitter and Facebook and other social media sites to offer useful writing tips or
update your readers about your professional schedule or calendar. If you are a published author, you
can use these forums to entice readers and get them exciting news about upcoming books or
conferences you will be attending. Post as much as you can online, and on printed media.
6. Provide your best work to all your clients. Word of mouth can make or break your credibility as a
writer. If you do a great job, then you might be asked to do more work for the same client and referred
on to others. Therefore, only take work that you know you can do, and do well; always write you own
content and create and meet realistic deadlines.
7. Do not let writing takes over your life; instead allow it to be part of what you do in your life
OBJECTIVITY
Objectivity means that when covering hard news, reporters don’t convey their own feelings, biases or
prejudices in their stories. They accomplish this by writing stories using a language that is neutral and
avoids characterizing people or institutions in ways good or bad.
But for the beginning reporter accustomed to writing personal essays or journal entries, it can be hard
to keep one’s own feelings out of one’s stories. One trap beginning reporters fall into is the frequent use
of adjectives. Adjectives can easily convey one’s feelings about a subject, subconsciously or otherwise.
Objectivity - This means that the main emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and
the arguments you want to make, rather than you. This is related to the basic nature of academic study
and academic writing, in particular. Nobody really wants to know what you "think" or "believe". They
want to know what you have studied and learned and how this has led you to your various conclusions.
The thoughts and beliefs should be based on your lectures, reading, discussion and research and it is
important to make this clear.
1. Compare these two paragraphs:
The question of what constitutes "language proficiency" and the nature of its cross-lingual dimensions is
also at the core of many hotly debated issues in the areas of bilingual education and second language
pedagogy and testing. Researchers have suggested ways of making second language teaching and testing
more "communicative" (e.g., Canale and Swain, 1980; Oller, 1979b) on the grounds that a
communicative approach better reflects the nature of language proficiency than one which emphasizes
the acquisition of discrete language skills.
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We don't really know what language proficiency is but many people have talked about it for a long time.
Some researchers have tried to find ways for us to make teaching and testing more communicative
because that is how language works. I think that language is something we use for communicating, not
an object for us to study and we remember that when we teach and test it.
Which is the most objective?
2. In general, avoid words like "I", "me", "myself".
A reader will normally assume that any idea not referenced is your own. It is therefore unnecessary to
make this explicit.
Don't write:" In my opinion, this a very interesting study."
Write: "This is a very interesting study."
Avoid "you" to refer to the reader or people in general.
Don't write: "You can easily forget how different life was 50 years ago."
Write: "It is easy to forget how difficult life was 50 years ago."
3. Examples
Clearly this was far less true of France than ...
This is where the disagreements and controversies begin ...
The data indicates that ...
This is not a view shared by everyone; Jones, for example, claims that ...
. . .very few people would claim ...
It is worthwhile at this stage to consider ...
Of course, more concrete evidence is needed before ...
Several possibilities emerge ...
A common solution is .
FORMS OF WRITING
1. FEATURE WRITING
Features are not meant to deliver the news firsthand. They do contain elements of news, but their main
function is to humanize, to add color, to educate, to entertain, to illuminate. They often recap major
news that was reported in a previous news cycle. Features often:
 Profile people who make the news
 Explain events that move or shape the news
 Analyze what is happening in the world, nation or community
 Teach an audience how to do something
 Suggest better ways to live
 Examine trends
 Entertain.
TYPES OF FEATURES
 Personality profiles: A personality profile is written to bring an audience closer to a person in

or out of the news. Interviews and observations, as well as creative writing, are used to paint a vivid
picture of the person. The CBC’s recent profile of Pierre Elliot Trudeau is a classic example of the genre
and makes use of archival film footage, interviews, testimonials, and fair degree of editorializing by the
voice-over commentary.
 Human interest stories: A human interest story is written to show a subject’s oddity or its
practical, emotional, or entertainment value.
 Trend stories: A trend story examines people, things or organizations that are having an impact
on society. Trend stories are popular because people are excited to read or hear about the latest fads.
 In-depth stories: Through extensive research and interviews, in-depth stories provide a
detailed account well beyond a basic news story or feature.
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 Backgrounders: A backgrounder--also called an analysis piec--adds meaning to current issues

in the news by explaining them further. These articles bring an audience up-to-date, explaining how this
country, this organization, this person happens to be where it is now.
WRITING AND ORGANIZING FEATURE STORIES

 Feature writers seldom use the inverted-pyramid form. Instead, they may write a chronology
that builds to a climax at the end, a narrative, a first-person article about one of their own experiences
or a combination of these. Their stories are held together by a thread, and they often end where the lead
started, with a single person or event. Here are the steps typically followed in organizing a feature story:
 Choose the theme. The theme is similar to the thesis of a scholarly paper and provides unity
and coherence to the piece. It should not be too broad or too narrow. Several factors come into play
when choosing a theme: Has the story been done before? Is the story of interest to the audience? Does
the story have holding power (emotional appeal)? What makes the story worthy of being reported? The
theme answers the question, "So what?"
 Write a lead that invites an audience into the story. A summary may not be the best lead for
a feature. A lead block of one or two paragraphs often begins a feature. Rather than put the news
elements of the story in the lead, the feature writer uses the first two or three paragraphs to set a mood,
to arouse readers, to invite them inside. Then the news peg or the significance of the story is provided
in the third or fourth paragraph, the nut graph. Because it explains the reason the story is being
written, the nut graph--also called the "so what" graph--is a vital paragraph in every feature. The nut
graph should be high in the story. Do not make readers wait until the 10th or 11th paragraph before
telling them what the story is about.
 The body provides vital information while it educates, entertains, and emotionally ties an
audience to the subject. The ending will wrap up the story and come back to the lead, often with a
quotation or a surprising climax. Important components of the body of a feature story are background
information, the thread of the story, transition, dialogue, and voice.
 Provide vital background information. If appropriate, a paragraph or two of background
should be placed high in the story to bring the audience up to date.
 Write clear, concise sentences. Sprinkle direct quotations, observations and additional
background throughout the story. Paragraphs can be written chronologically or in order of importance.
 Use a thread. Connect the beginning, body and conclusion of the story. Because a feature
generally runs longer than a news story, it is effective to weave a thread throughout the story, which
connects the lead to the body and to the conclusion. This thread can be a single person, an event or a
thing, and it usually highlights the theme.
 Use transition.Connect paragraphs with transitional words, paraphrases, and direct quotations.
Transition is particularly important in a long feature examining several people or events because it is
the tool writers use to move subtly from one person or topic to the next. Transition keeps readers from
being jarred by the writing.
 Use dialogue when possible. Feature writers, like fiction writers, often use dialogue to keep a
story moving. Of course, feature writers cannot make up dialogue; they listen for it during the reporting
process. Good dialogue is like good observation in a story; it gives readers strong mental images and
keeps them attached to the writing and to the story’s key players.
 Establish a voice. Another key element that holds a feature together is voice, the "signature" or
personal style of each writer. Voice is the personality of the writer and can be used to inject colour, tone,
and subtle emotional commentary into the story. Voice should be used subtly (unless you’re able to
make a fetish of it like Hunter S. Thompson!). The blatant intrusion of a distinctive voice into news
writing has been called gonzo journalism--an irresponsible, if entertaining, trend in contemporary
writing according to traditionalists.
 Conclude with a quotation or another part of the thread. A feature can trail off like a news
story or it can be concluded with a climax. Often, a feature ends where the lead started, with a single
person or event.
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2. POEM
Poems are made up of words that create images or pictures in our minds. They have been
described as “the best words in the best order”, and there are many ways of writing poems.Many poems
sound like songs when you read them aloud. This is because poems have a regular rhythm and repeated
lines, words or sounds.
Poems have a particular appearance that tells you they are poems before you even read the
words. Poems have shorter lines than most sorts of writing. The words of a poem may make short
sentences or lists. Sometimes, poems may be shaped to represent a topic, or they might be scattered all
over the page. There are no special topics for poems. They can be about mosquitoes, babies, the sea,
supermarkets, friends, skateboards, mountains, anything at all. Poems can be conversations, statements,
stories or descriptions. They can be serious or funny.They are written for many purposes: to describe
something, to tell a story, to explain feelings, to make a message on a greeting card or to advertise
products.
Example:
Upon a nice mid-spring day,
Let's take a look at Nature's way,
Breathe the scent of nice fresh air,
Feel the breeze within your hair.
The grass will poke between your toes,
Smell the flowers with your nose,
FEATURES OF POEM
✣ Poems have meaning. Poems can describe an interesting place or person, tell a story or explain
feelings.
✣ Poems have sounds. Poems sound different from other types of writing. Poems may have rhyming
words, a regular rhythm like music, words with repeated sounds, or even words that sound like their
meaning.
✣ Poems have images. Poems create pictures in our mind, called images. Images often refer to our
sense of sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. An image may describe something, or it may compare one
thing to another. Images help you see something as if it is really there.
✣ Poems have lines. Poems have lines that may be long or short, and can be made up of whole
sentences or sentence fragments. Some poems have lines arranged in stanzas. A stanza is a group of
lines that are arranged in a definite pattern. In other poems, the lines make a picture or shape to
illustrate the topic.
✣ Poems have patterns. Poems have patterns of letters, syllables and words. These patterns often help
you to hear the rhythm of a poem. Some types of poems have patterns with a particular number of
syllables in each line, and others have words repeated throughout the poem.
POETRY STYLES
Acrostic Style - where the first letter of each line spells a word, usually using the same words as in the
title. An example,
1. Using First Letter - Spelling out "candy"...
Crunchy chewy
Awesome
Nice and sweet
Delightful and delicious
Yummy treat
2. Using the position - Spelling out "poem"...

Pick uP a pen
Think of a tOpic
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Be crEative
Use your iMagination
3. Using Names - Spelling out "Marion"...

Magnificent, a creature of wonder
Alluring, so attractive
Reliable, a buddy you can count on
Interesting, truly fascinating
Obliging, willing to accommodate
Nice, a sweet soul
Ballad Style- A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. The story of
a ballad can originate from a wide range of subject matter, but most frequently deals with folk-lore or
popular legends. Most ballads are suitable for singing and are generally written in ballad meter, last
words of the second and fourth lines rhyming.
Example –
Oh the ocean waves may roll,
and the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping aloft
And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below
And the land lubbers lay down below.
Blank Verse-unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.

Example –
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over-there it is in the water!
Cinquain- 5 lined un--rhyming poem (1-2-3-4-1)- 1 word on the top row, 2 on the second, 3 on the
third, 4 on the fourth and one on the last.
Example –
Season
Springtime bluebells
Within forest spreading
Such picturesque viewing delights
Yearly
Clerihew Style- is a comic verse consisting of two couplets and a specific rhyming scheme, usually aabb.
The poem is about/deals with a person/character within the first rhyme.
Example - Garfield (Clerihew)
Garfield The Cat
He Was Quite Fat.
So Full Of Expressions,
But Never Confessions
Damante Style- is a seven-lined contrast poem set up in a diamond shape.

Line 1: Noun or subject
Line 2: Two Adjectives
Line 3: Three -ing words
Line 4: Four words about the subject
Line 5: Three -ing words
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Line 6: Two adjectives

Line 7: Synonym/antonym for the subject
Didactic Style- is a form of poetry intended for instruction, such as, for knowledge or to teach.
Example :
Old School
When I was a kid wearing a lid
Was something that most people did
And everyone knew
There were things you do or not do
When wearing that hat on your head
If you wished to be seen as well bred
Never, never would you leave it on your dome
When you were in somebody's home
Englyn Milwr-Stanza of three, seven syllable lines turning around the same rhyme.
Epitaph Style- is a brief poem inscribed on a tombstone praising a deceased person, usually with
rhyming lines.
Free Verse- is an irregular form of poetry in which the content free of traditional rules of versification,
(freedom from fixed meter or rhyme).
Haiku- is an un-rhymed Japanese verse consisting of three un-rhymed lines of five, seven, and five
syllables (5, 7, 5). Haiku is usually written in the present tense and focuses on nature (seasons).
Heroic Couplet- lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme in pairs (aa, bb, cc)
Limerick Style- is a rhymed humorous, and or nonsense poem of five lines. With a rhyming scheme of:
a-a-b-b-a
Monody- is a poem in which one person laments another's death.
Monorhyme- is a poem in which all the lines have the same end rhyme
Ode- is a poem praising and glorifying a person, place or thing.
Palindrome- a poem that reads the same forward or backward. sentence example: Mirrored images
reflect images mirrored.
Pantoum- Consists of a series of quatrains rhyming ABAB in which the second and fourth lines of a
quatrain recur as the first and third lines in the succeeding quatrain; each quatrain introduces a new
second rhyme as BCBC, CDCD. The first line of the series recurs as the last line of the closing quatrain,
and third line of the poem recurs as the second line of the closing quatrain, rhyming ZAZA.
The design is simple:

Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4
Line 5 (repeat of line 2)
Line 6
Line 7 (repeat of line 4)
Line 8
Continue with as many stanzas as you wish, but the ending stanza then repeats the second and fourth
lines of the previous stanza (as its first and third lines), and also repeats the third line of the first stanza,
as its second line, and the first line of the first stanza as its fourth. So the first line of the poem is also the
last.
Last stanza:
Line 2 of previous stanza
Line 3 of first stanza
Line 4 of previous stanza
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Line 1 of first stanza
Quatrain Style- is a poem consisting of four lines of verse with a specific rhyming scheme.
A few examples of a quatrain rhyming scheme's are as follows:
#1) abab
#2) abba -- envelope rhyme
#3) aabb
#4) aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd -- chain rhyme
Rictameter - it consist of 9 lines. The first and last lines are the same. An example
by: amaiyaamir "Children"
line 1: two syllables

line 2: four syllables
line 3: six syllables
line 4: eight syllables
line 5: ten syllables
line 6: eight syllables
line 7: six syllables
line 8: four syllables
line 9: two syllables same as first
Sestina Style- is a poem consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. The six words that end
each of the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the
subsequent five stanzas. The particular pattern is given below. (This kind of recurrent pattern is "lexical
repetition".)
Pattern:
1 2 3 4 5 6 - End words of lines in first sestet.
6 1 5 2 4 3 - End words of lines in secondsestet.
3 6 4 1 2 5 - End words of lines in third sestet.
5 3 2 6 1 4 - End words of lines in fourth sestet.
4 5 1 3 6 2 - End words of lines in fifth sestet.
2 4 6 5 3 1 - End words of lines in sixth sestet.
(6 2)(1 4)(5 3) - Middle and end words of lines in tercet.
Shape Poetry or Concrete Poetry -Shape is one of the main things that separates prose and poetry.
Poetry can take on many formats, but one of the most inventive forms is for the poem to take on the
shape of its subject. So if the subject of your poem is a tree, then the poem's lines would be written so
that the poem appears to take on the shape of a tree.
Sonnet- 14 lined poem in iambic pentameter that usually deals with love, religion or some other serious
concern. The Italian sonnet rhyme scheme is (abbaabba-cdecde-aa or abbaabba-cdccdc-aa). The English
(Shakespearian) has 3 quatrains w/ a concluding couplet.
Tongue Twister-are made up of lines that are hard to say fast. In other words, the poem ties your
tongue into knots.
3.ESSAY
Essays are brief, non-fiction compositions that describe, clarify, argue, or analyze a subject. Students
might encounter essay assignments in any school subject and at any level of school, from a personal
experience "vacation" essay in middle school to a complex analysis of a scientific process in graduate
school. Components of an essay include an introduction, thesis statement, body, and conclusion.
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ESSAY STRUCTURE
Proper essay structure is critical for the success of a paper. It allows you to align your thoughts and
ideas logically, making them readable and easy to understand for your reader. Basic essay logic starts
out with the introduction of the essay’s main idea and then explains it further in the body paragraphs
and ends the essay by summing everything up in the last paragraph - the conclusion (see the scheme on
the left). To better understand why essay structure is so important, try to imagine an essay that starts out
with body paragraphs, followed with a thesis and a conclusion. Such essay would be impossible to read
because of its faulty logic. Let’s take a closer look at each of the components.
Introduction - The introduction is the main component within the structure of your essay. This part
contains the main thought of the essay and states the purpose of your writing. The introduction typically
consists of a thesis statement (also called “a topic sentence”) and a few more sentences that explain or
expand the main statement. The topic sentence together with these few sentences are collectively
referred to as the “introduction.”
Body - The two or three paragraphs that follow the introduction are called “the body” of the essay. They
are called so because they make up the body, or the main bulk of the paper. This part of the essay
usually contains research data and information that supports your thesis. The purpose of every
paragraph within the body of your essay should be to support your thesis.
Using Paragraphs - Each paragraph should contain one main idea and should provide supporting details
for your topic and thesis. The topic (introductory) sentence of each paragraph should support the main
idea.
Paragraph Size - Even though there are no hard and fast rules regarding paragraph length, a general rule
of thumb prescribes that a paragraph should not be neither too long (over 8 sentences) nor too short
(under 2 sentences). Paragraph size varies depending on the essay style: for example the average
paragraph length in business writing is generally 4-5 sentences, while the average paragraph length in
academic writing is around 8-10 sentences. Academic writing tends to be longer because the author has
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to state a point, back it up with research data, and come to a conclusion. Such kind of writing usually
requires a greater amount of writing.
Review Your Writing - Reviewing your writing or the post-writing phase takes place when you are done
writing your paper. It’s always a good idea to put your essay aside for a couple of hours and then come
back to it later. It is important to read through each paragraph to make sure your ideas make sense and
convey your points clearly. Also, be sure that you have not strayed away from your main point. Each
paragraph should be relevant to your thesis. If you have found that any of your body paragraphs strays
from your thesis, a rewrite or omission may be necessary.
Conclusion - The final part in your essay structure is the conclusion. It summarizes the points made in
the introduction and the body paragraphs of your paper. The core function of the conclusion is not only
to summarize ideas stated in the introduction and the body, but to show how they relate to the thesis. A
good technique is to use logical connections like: “as we can see”, “therefore”, “naturally”, “summing up”
etc. Such connecting phrases help you to tie the points made previously with the actual text of the
conclusion that you are writing. Once again, a conclusion should review your thesis and give a summary
of your main ideas. Depending on your instructor’s requirements, your conclusion can range from one
paragraph to a page in length.
Admission Essay -Essays are used to learn more about your reasons for applying to the course,
university or company and your ability to benefit from and contribute to it. Your answers will let you
state your case more fully than other sections of the application, and provide the evaluator with better
insight about you and how you differ from the other applicants. In marginal cases, the essays are used to
decide whether an applicant will be selected. The purpose of the admissions essay is to convey a sense
of your unique character to the admissions committee. The essay also demonstrates your writing skills
as well as your ability to organize your thoughts coherently.
Argumentative Essay -The function of an argumentative essay is to show that your assertion (opinion,
theory, hypothesis) about some phenomenon or phenomena is correct or more truthful than others'.
The art of argumentation is not an easy skill to acquire. Many people might think that if one simply has
an opinion, one can argue it successfully, and these folks are always surprised when others don't agree
with them because their logic seems so correct. Argumentative writing is the act of forming reasons,
making inductions, drawing conclusions, and applying them to the case in discussion; the operation of
inferring propositions, not known or admitted as true, from facts or principles known, admitted, or
proved to be true. It clearly explains the process of your reasoning from the known or assumed to the
unknown. Without doing this you do not have an argument, you have only an assertion, an essay that is
just your unsubstantiated opinion.
Cause and Effect Essay - Cause and effect essays are concerned with why things happen (causes) and
what happens as a result (effects). Cause and effect is a common method of organizing and discussing
ideas.
Classification Essay - In a classification essay, a writer organizes, or sorts, things into categories.
Comparison Essay - To write a comparison or contrast essay that is easy to follow, first decide what the
similarities or differences are by writing lists on scrap paper. Which are more significant, the similarities
or the differences? Plan to discuss the less significant first, followed by the more significant. It is much
easier to discuss ONLY the similarities or ONLY the differences, but you can also do both.
Then for organizing your essay, choose one of the plans described below whichever best fits your list.
Finally, and this is important, what main point (thesis) might you make in the essay about the two
people/things being compared? Do not begin writing until you have a point that the similarities or
differences you want to use help to prove. Your point should help shape the rest of what you say: For
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example, if you see that one of your similarities or differences is unrelated to the point, throw it out and
think of one that is related. Or revise your point. Be sure this main point is clearly and prominently
expressed somewhere in the essay.
Critical Essay - The word "critical" has positive as well as negative meanings. You can write a critical
essay that agrees entirely with the reading. The word "critical" describes your attitude when you read
the article.
This attitude is best described as "detached evaluation," meaning that you weigh the coherence of the
reading, the completeness of its data, and so on, before you accept or reject it.
Deductive Essay - Deductive essays are an important factor in evaluating the knowledge level of
students in many courses. Deductive reasoning is based on the concept that given as set of
circumstances or clues (premises), one can draw a reasonable assumption as to the state of the
situation. More simply, a person can solve a puzzle or identify a person if given enough information.
Definition Essay - A definition essay is writing that explains what a term means. Some terms have
definite, concrete meanings, such as glass, book, or tree. Terms such as honesty, honor, or love are
abstract and depend more on a person's point of view.
Exploratory Essay - The concept of an exploratory essay is that you start without an end in mind. You
don't necessarily know how you feel about a subject or what you want to say about the subject, you
allow the research and your own direction to determine the outcome. This is writing to learn rather
than writing to prove what you know. The exploratory essay builds on the inquiry essay by having you
look at and contribute to a range of arguments rather than just one at a time. Whereas the inquiry essay
introduced you to a debate by looking at one argument a time, the exploratory essay asks you to widen
your vision to the whole conversation.
Expository Essay - The purpose of an expository essay is to present, completely and fairly, other
people's views or to report about an event or a situation. Expository writing, or exposition, presents a
subject in detail, apart from criticism, argument, or development; i.e., the writer elucidates a subject by
analyzing it. Such writing is discourse designed to convey information or explain what is difficult to
understand. Exposition usually proceeds by the orderly analysis of parts and the use of familiar
illustrations or analogies.
Informal Essay - The informal essay is written mainly for enjoyment. This is not to say that it cannot be
informative or persuasive; however, it is less a formal statement than a relaxed expression of opinion,
observation, humor or pleasure. A good informal essay has a relaxed style but retains a strong structure,
though that structure may be less rigid than in a formal paper.
Narrative Essay - As a mode of expository writing, the narrative approach, more than any other, offers
writers a chance to think and write about themselves. We all have experiences lodged in our memories,
which are worthy of sharing with readers. Yet sometimes they are so fused with other memories that a
lot of the time spent in writing narrative is in the prewriting stage.
Personal Essay - The overall application package will represent who "you" are to people whom you will
most likely not know personally. The written expression of your qualities as an applicant will often be a
very important way for committee members to get to know why you are an acceptable candidate for
their program. Thus, it is essential to take great care in preparing this part of your application. Because
graduate schools make important selection decisions that are partly based on what you say in this essay,
the writing of it can be an intimidating prospect.
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Persuasive Essay - Persuasive writing, also known as the argument essay, utilizes logic and reason to
show that one idea is more legitimate than another idea. It attempts to persuade a reader to adopt a
certain point of view or to take a particular action. The argument must always use sound reasoning and
solid evidence by stating facts, giving logical reasons, using examples, and quoting experts.
Research Essay - Take care in selecting your thesis. This is really a type of persuasive essay, but you
don't want to be stuck either just repeating someone else's opinion, or citing all the same sources. Try to
come up with an original thesis or take an aspect of someone's thesis and develop it. You can also take a
thesis and "transplant" it into different circumstances. For example, use tools of modern economics to
argue about the role of medieval guilds in the development of early European settlements. Or take a
study done on children in France and try to show it is/isn't applicable to elderly Florida residents. An
original thesis is the best start you can make to get a high grade in a research essay.
Scholarship Essay - Scholarship essays vary dramatically in subject. However, most of them require a
recounting of personal experience. These tips will be more helpful for writing personal essays, like for
the National Merit Scholarship, than for writing academic essays.
4. ARTICLE
Whether it's for a magazine, newspaper writing an amazing article is within your grasp. Here are a few
basic steps to take to craft an interesting, informative article.
1. Get to know your audience. Decide who you need to write for before proceeding with planning or
writing an article. Writing for an academic audience vs. writing for pre-teens is very different and you
will need to plan accordingly.
2. Identify the needs of your readership. What do your readers need to know? How does your own
knowledge match up against the information they need? This will be the easiest way for you to find a
topic to write about.
3.Be unique. If you are writing an article about something that other people are also writing about, try
to be unique in how you approach the material. You should add to the conversation, not exist alongside
it. This will draw your readers in and keep them coming back for more.
 Write about your topic in a way that no one has ever written about it before. You can take a
different tone, a more visual approach, or any number of other methods of altering the material.
 Bring new ideas to the topic. Make suggestions or offer information that other people don’t have.
This will give people a reason to read your work over others.
4.Be passionate. You should care about the topic you choose to write about, or even write on
something you yourself are good at. Your enthusiasm will show in your writing and it will be much more
engaging for your readers. You may even be able to make them care about something they did not care
about previously, like current events or historical concepts.
5.Learn the basics. Get the general explanation of whatever you are trying to write about. This will give
you a basic framework for what to look for as you research. You can use a website like Wikipedia, read
newspaper articles or a book, or talk to someone knowledgeable on the subject. It will depend what you
are writing about.
6.Find reliable sources. Now that you know what to look for, research your topic. You can use the
internet, a library, conduct interviews, watch documentaries, or whatever you feel is appropriate to
teach you everything you need to know about your topic.
7.Get different types of material. During your research, look for material that isn’t text. This can be
used or altered to add to your article. You can look for data to make your own charts or templates, take
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photographs to match your text, or anything else which you feel might help your readers understand the
information better and make them care about the topic as much as you do.
8.Decide your length. Does this article have a word count? Do you need to fill a certain number of
pages? Consider what type of content you’re writing about and how much space that can fill, as well as
how much needs to be written in order to cover the topic adequately, before proceeding with writing
your article.
9.Outline your article. Before you begin formal writing, you will want to outline your article. This
outline, which will break down which information goes where, will serve as a guide and help you see
where more information may be needed.
10.Pay attention to style, structure and voice. You will want to write with a style, structure, and voice
which makes sense for the type of article you are writing. Evaluate your audience to determine what the
best method would be to present your information to them.
11.Edit your work. Before you submit your work, you will want to do some editing and revision. If time
allows, wait for a day or two before editing. This will allow the information to filter out of your brain, so
that you will be less likely to read the text with what you intended to write rather that what you actually
wrote (skipping words, writing the wrong word, etc.). Reading aloud can also help with this.
12.Make it better. Add to the amazing text you’ve written with videos, pictures, charts, and any other
visual or audio material which you found or made in the course of your research. This will make your
information more engaging and easier to understand.
13.Respect the rights of other writers. If you are using information from an external source, be sure
to cite the source at the bottom of the article. Depending on the license of the content, you may or may
not need to cite the external source. However, it's always better (and certainly more polite) to ask for
permission if you are unsure.
14. Submit your work. When you’ve finished, submit your work in the appropriate manner.
15. Ignore the trolls. People like to get angry about other people’s opinions. It’s just a part of life. The
internet has made this even easier and far more vicious and common. If your article is submitted online,
you may find that people post negative comments about what you have said. Even with journal articles,
you will have colleagues disagree with you and use very complex language to essentially call you
schoolyard names. The healthiest practice with trolls is to ignore them. You can’t please everybody.
NOVEL
A novel is a long narrative that is normally in prose, which describes fictionalcharacters and events,
usually in the form of a sequential story.
While Ian Watt in The Rise of the Novel (1957) suggests that the novel came into being in the early 18th
century, the genre has also been described as having "a continuous history of about two thousand
years", with historical roots in Classical Greece and Rome, medieval, early modern romance, and in the
tradition of the novella. The latter, an Italian word used to describe short stories, supplied the present
generic English term in the 18th century. Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, is frequently cited
as the first significant European novelist of the modern era; the first part of Don Quixote was published
in 1605.
TYPES OF NOVELS - COMMERCIAL FICTION

Commercial fiction is divided into many genres, or categories. This kind of classification helps readers
find the types of novels they like to read.Each genre also has its own traditions. If you're interested in
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writing in a particular genre, it's important to read a lot of books in that genre in order to learn more
about it and understand what readers will expect.Some major genres:
 Mysteries - A mystery is about a crime, usually a murder, and the process of discovering who
committed it. The hero(ine) is usually a detective or an amateur doing detective work.
 Science fiction - Science fiction is fiction that imagines possible alternatives to reality. It is
reality + "What-if." For example: What if the world ended? What if there were life on other planets? The
imaginary part of science fiction is based on known scientific facts. For example, if there is time travel in
a science fiction book, it would be done with technology, not by waving a magic wand.
 Fantasy - Like science fiction, fantasy is about imaginary worlds. But the imaginary part of
fantasy novels usually involves magic, where the imaginary part of science fiction involves
science or technology.
 Westerns - Westerns normally take place in the Western U.S. (although sometimes in other
locations), most often during the 19th century. Common elements include cowboys, ranchers,
the difficulties of frontier life, frontier justice, and conflicts between natives and settlers.
 Horror - Horror fiction gets its name because it is focused on creating emotions of terror and
dread in the reader. Horror fiction often accomplish this through the use of scary supernatural
elements or gore, but, according to the Horror Writers Association, these elements are not
required.
 Thrillers - Like horror, a thriller gets its name because of the feeling it creates in the reader.
Thrillers are designed to make the reader's pulse race, to keep him or her turning pages. Often
thrillers are about a crime that is going to be committed or a disaster that is going to happen... if
the hero(ine) doesn't prevent it.
 Romance - Romance fiction is about love and passion. Normally, the focus is on two characters
who fall in love but have problems or obstacles keeping them apart, and there is a happy ending.
 Historical - Historical novels are set in a past time period, normally at least fifty years before
they were written. They combine a made-up story with realistic details of that time period.
TYPES OF NOVELS - LITERARY FICTION

Literary fiction is generally lumped all together in bookstores as "General Fiction" or "Literature."
Because the first priority of literary authors is creating works of art, while selling books is only a second
consideration, literary authors are less likely to think in terms of writing a specific genre or category of
novel and following the customs of that genre.
Some literary authors today write in a realistic way about the daily lives of ordinary people, what is
known as contemporary realism. Some choose to introduce an element of magic or a spirit world in an
otherwise realistic story, what is known asmagical realism. Others create works of art that incorporate
the traditions of commercial fiction genres such as mysteries and science fiction. A number of literary
authors also innovate with non-traditional approaches to story-telling, such as breaking up the order of
events in the story, offering several alternative endings, or treating the reader as a character in the book.
In this type of novel, the main point often isn't just the story itself, but also the way the story is told.
ELEMENTS OF NOVEL
1. Plot : Plot is what happens in a work of fiction, and the order that it happens in.
For a work of fiction to be worth reading, something has to happen by the end. You have to take the
reader to from Point A to Point B. This journey might be:
 A change in the character (for example, the character matures or overcomes a challenge).
 A change in the situation (for example, zombies take over the town).
 A change in the readers' understanding (for example, in the beginning, readers think the
protagonist was falsely accused of murder, and at the end, readers understand that he is guilty).
Your novel's plot is the roadmap you will take from Point A to Point B.
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2. Setting: Setting is where your novel takes place. Your setting might be a room, a forest, a battlefield, a
spaceship.. .Setting can:
 Create atmosphere for your fiction, help your reader imagine the scenes.
 Convey information about a character. For example, if your character's life is in chaos, you could
express this by showing her in her messy home.
 Provide plot opportunities. For example, if your setting is a Florida swamp, and you put a hungry
alligator in your character's path, then something interesting is likely to happen.
3. Point of View: Narrative point of view is the perspective from which you tell a work of fiction. From
what angle do the readers see the action? Another way to think of point of view: If your novel were a
movie, the point of view would be the location of the camera.
Your narrator is the voice that's telling the story.

 A first-person narrator tells the story using the words "I" and "me," as if he/she were actually
there.
 A third-person narrator tells the story from the outside and doesn't use the word "I" and "me" to
describe the story's events because he or she isn't a participant. Instead, this type of narrator describes
the characters as "he/him" or "she/her," etc.
4. Dialogue
Dialogue is your characters' conversation presented directly on the page. If I tell you that Marcia asked
John out, that's not dialogue. Dialogue is when I show it to you in Marcia's exact words. Example: "Want
to go to a movie?" Marcia asked John.
Different fiction writers have different approaches for getting started. Here are some of your options:
1) Start with a character. Invent a character .Think of something your character desperately wants.
Then invent obstacles or problems that will get in the way of the character's achieving his or her heart's
desire. Show the character trying to overcome these problems, and you've got yourself a plot.
2) Start with a problem. This might be anything from a disease to a career crisis to a difficult mother-
in-law who decides to move in. Then invent a character who might have this problem and who would
react in an interesting way. Put it all together, and you've got the beginning of a plot.
3) Start with a setting. Is there a particular place that you can write about vividly? Maybe your
neighborhood, the city where you grew up, a creepy house on the corner, a woods where you go
camping? Great, now you have a setting for your novel. Next, you need characters and some kind of
problem or conflict that you can turn into a plot. What kind of problems do people have in your
particular setting? Snakes, crime, forest fires, pollution? What kind of person is likely to react to your
setting in an interesting way? Maybe a small town girl who feels lost in the big city? A real estate
developer who will immediately want to turn your nature preserve into condominiums... unless the
locals can find a way to stop him? You have the beginnings of a novel.
4) Start with a concept. Some people think in abstractions. Maybe you want to write about "Creativity"
or "Religion" or "The Corrupting Influence of Power." Great! Since you will be writing a novel and not a
philosophy dissertation, your next step is to turn the abstract idea into a specific situation where your
idea plays a central role. For example, if you want to write about "Religion," you could invent a character
who has a crisis of faith after something terrible happens to his family. Come up with a concrete
problem related to your abstraction, and invent a character that this problem will happen to. Your
abstract idea will be the novel's theme, and the character's battle with the problem will be your plot.
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HOW TO GENERATE CREATIVE WRITING IDEAS

 Keep a journal - Record your observations, things that happen to you and how they feel, stories
you hear from your friends, curious events on the news, gossip, memories. Any of these can become the
seed of a story, novel, or poem. And you can go back to your journal as you're writing to find the details
and descriptions that will make your scenes seem real.
 Eavesdrop - I know it's rude... but only if you get caught. Listen to conversations on the bus, at
the coffeehouse or the supermarket. You'll catch fragments of people's lives that you can use in your
creative writing. Imagine what each person speaking is actually thinking. Imagine what happened to
cause the conversation and what might happen next.
 People-watch - Writers tend to be interested in other people's lives. (This is a nice way of
saying that writers are nosy.) So watch the couple at the restaurant table next to you and imagine their
story. Is it a first date? Is one of them bored with the other one? Can you hear what they're talking
about? How could you describe their appearance, their body language, their voices, and what do these
details say about them? All of this is a gold mine of creative writing material. So put on your dark glasses
and go sit in a crowded place.
 Pick a name from the phone book - Picture a woman named Gertrude. Now picture a woman
named Jen, a woman named Shoshana. Chances are, each of these names inspired a very different
mental image. Names call up a complex set of associations, and you can use them as the starting point
for a fictional character. Then invent a problem for the character, and you have the beginning of a plot.
What about a Shoshana trapped inside the body and life of a Gertrude, or vice-versa?
 Watch the news - In addition to your own life and the lives of people you know, the news is an
endless source of creative writing ideas. Take a local news story and imagine the event from the point of
view of one of the people who was involved. What would he or she have felt? Imagine the event as a
scene -- what would have been the sights, sounds, smells, sensations? What would have happened next?
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Writing for Mass Media I II Unit

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Writing for Mass Media I II Unit

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B.A. (HONS.) Mass Communication II Semester Sub.

– Writing For Mass Media

Subject – WRITING FOR MASS MEDIA

UNIT-I Introduction to Writing

1. Phonology - (fuh-nol-uh-jee) (n.) the sound system of a language –Pronunciation.

ELEMENTS OF GOOD WRITING

FUNDAMENTALS/ ESSENTIALS OF WRITING

* In your sentences, try to use the passive mood as little as possible.

 Personality profiles: A personality profile is written to bring an audience closer to a person in

 Backgrounders: A backgrounder--also called an analysis piec--adds meaning to current issues

WRITING AND ORGANIZING FEATURE STORIES

2. Using the position - Spelling out "poem"...

3. Using Names - Spelling out "Marion"...

Blank Verse-unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.

Damante Style- is a seven-lined contrast poem set up in a diamond shape.

Line 6: Two adjectives

The design is simple:

Line 1 of first stanza

line 1: two syllables

TYPES OF NOVELS - COMMERCIAL FICTION

TYPES OF NOVELS - LITERARY FICTION

Your narrator is the voice that's telling the story.

HOW TO GENERATE CREATIVE WRITING IDEAS

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