There are various myths about good writing and bad writing techniques. The teaching ideas about writing are presented by Ball and Drew in their book. There are various misconceptions about writing and each misconception may bring different problems for writers. “Bad ideas about writing” is considered one of the most important books to be used for the purposes of changing the misconceptions. The various misconceptions brought concerning the idea of writing involving official American English is the best, teaching grammar improves writing, African American language is not good English, formal outlines are always useful, machines can evaluate writing well, anyone can teach writing, texting ruins students grammar skills and five paragraph essay transmits knowledge (Ball and Drew). Such misconceptions are major and they may affect the quality of the writing materials. The aim of the research is to provide a wealth of knowledge on good ideas needed in putting to an end to the dangerous myth of how to improve on writing down expressions. That is important in improving the skills of the writers because the basic ideas provided to them helps in focusing on the text and the analyzing of different events.
Bad Ideas about Writing
Credit: https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf
Writing has to be open and every person has to be provided with an equal capability to write. The skills related to writing can also be used to create better readers because of the focus generated (Valdez). Writing has to be exposed to all people and the capabilities not only belong to the gifted people, but they also belong to the self-taught too. The connection established in writing is developed through the love of content and the love of passing on knowledge from one entity to the other. Stereotyping on who is good writers has been rampant in the writing society because most of the ideas passed show that good writers should have specific characteristics. Anyone can be a good writer and most of them can be taught too. Most people have a misconception that only geniuses can write and that most of the writers are mythical and damaged people (Ball and Drew). That amplifies the belief that the writers should have specific characteristics to enable them to be ranked higher. There is only one correct way of writing and speaking according to the misconceptions of writing. That cannot be true because there are different techniques and processes used in writing. The writing techniques are developed from the desire of changing the writing to suit the technological changes and developments in different forms of presenting ideas.
Strong Writing and Writers Don’t Need Revision
According to Laura Giovanelli in “Strong writing and writers don’t need revision”, revision is the writing process and therefore there is need to have constant revisions to enhance the writing skills. The writers take the revision activities as the process of changing the grammar and the punctuations and reading through the entire document after writing (Giovanelli). However, the entire writing process is composed of various revisions making the accomplishment of the writing goals possible. An ideal reader is the one who takes the aspects of revision into consideration and makes them work. The revision strategies adopted have to be effective in making the writing better. The writing process of most writers should put into consideration the various mistakes and it should be written to precisions while meeting all the instructions. Revision according to the writing is a process composed of the heavy lifting of the work through establishing a clear purpose of why a person is writing, who the person is writing for and the arrangement of the work logically to meet the requirements. That helps in forming a better revision and avoid the famous misconception that the strong writings and writers do not need revision in their work.
Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies
According to Wardle, the various misconceptions about writing can be solved through the threshold concepts. The core principles of knowledge and writing studies have to be done through the threshold concepts (Kassner and Wardle). That would be effective in making the learning activities better. The concepts provided are important because they provide a wealth of information about writing into small good packages. The big ideas about writing are also passed through the writing techniques. That is important in generating sufficient knowledge about writing and its importance to the various people especially the librarians. The concepts of writing are mostly addressed through the book because there is an elaboration of the freedom provided to the writers in compiling the different texts (Kassner and Wardle). The writers can be good through the ways they build themselves from reading different texts. The connection between reading and writing can be established by developing a passion.
The creation of better writing ideas is highly dependent on understanding the contents and the language to be used. The analysis of the content and development of ideas freely would also be helpful to most writers in their compositions. It is important to have good writing skills far from basic misconceptions. That would be important in making the writers feel better in expressing their main ideologies.
Work cited
Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle. Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2015.
Ball, Cheryl E. and Drew M. Loewe. Bad Ideas About Writing. Morgantown: West Virginia University, 2017.
Giovanelli, Laura. “Strong Writing and Writers Don’t Need Revision .” Ball, Cheryl E. and Drew M. Loewe. Bad Ideas About wrIting. Morgantown: West Virginia University Libraries, 2017, pp. 104-108.
Valdez, Katherine. “Drop what you’re writing if you have a better idea.” 23 January 2015. Coloradoan. 22 April 2019. Retrieved from https://www.coloradoan.com/story/life/2015/01/24/drop-writing-better-idea/22250577/.