How to write for a particular purpose

Introduction

In presenting a work that is well written, you strive to communicate your point of view and, or other information effectively. Your readers and audience are made to be in no doubt as to your style, purpose or direction. Being logical and following a clear-cut structure and convention are fundamental to all writings: Meanings must be clarified by language and grammars expressed in simple terms, word usage must not be confusing and so should punctuation rules be properly and consistently followed. In addition to being constant in following a focal path with a governing theme that explains or advocate particular concern, create tension, if need be, to suck in your reader. Be yourself and give your readers room to play their role. The appropriateness of any writing depends on its objectives and among whom the writ up are to be primarily circulated. And, even though every writing address different needs and differ in volume, length, structure, focus, and style, they all have sets of common requirements. The following guiding principles point out the main aspects that, particularly, budding writers should choose and use when writing.
Do I follow the rules below always, always? Not really but I learned what rules there were before breaking them. So, please do as I say, not as I do.

General principles on writing for a particular purpose; style and structure

1.    Style

                                                                                                                

1.1.        Vary your sentences

Try to use mixture of sentence types to keep your writing appealing; use short or long sentences as appropriate. Use simple sentence, compound or complex types:

a)     A simple sentence has one subject and one statement; two boys were involved in the accident yesterday.

b)     Compound sentences have two simple sentences joined by a conjunction; two boys were involved in the accident yesterday and one hardly scratched, and

c)      Complex sentences have one principle statement and one or more subordinate statements; two boys in accidents, who were rushed to the hospital, were still being kept for further observation.

There are other types and forms of sentences, they include, balanced sentences, loose sentences, compound-complex sentences, etc. In all you do, be careful to avoid prolong sentences joined by ‘ands,’ ‘buts,’ ‘howevers,’ that go on end. It is best to break such into shorter sentences that address particular thoughts.

1.2.          Abstract, concrete or meaningless words

Avoid universal and over kill words; where in doubt, give concrete details that show concrete numbers; 'the meeting or assemblage of men of God in Jos...,' can best be described by - about fifty-one men and woman of God in met Jos... Instead of ‘the people were met with absolute silence,’ delete the ‘absolute,’ the qualification is not necessary.

1.3.          Use of active/passive voice. And, ‘showing,’ rather than ‘telling.’

When a subject is the receiver of a verb, the voice becomes ‘passive;’ Ibrahim was sentenced to three years jail term by the court yesterday is passive, instead write, ‘the court sentenced Ibrahim to three years jail term yesterday. Passive voices are boring and tiring to read, so also are sentences such as, ‘Ibrahim was warm in the warm weather,’ which is ‘telling,’ instead, say ‘Ibrahim sweated in the warm weather.’ Try and avoid these usages, particularly when still at an early stage of writing. At a later stage of your writing, you may not necessarily strictly follow the rule of always, ‘showing,’ except of course, where ‘showing can greatly improve and help develop your story-line.

1.4.          Avoid the use of clichés

There are words, sentence and metaphors that have become overuse that they have gone sour, or old; ‘the ugly looking villain always up to no good is a bit of cliché,’ being for all intend and purpose,’ ‘thorny issues,’ ‘To have peace and quiet’.

2.     Purpose

2.1.          Know your readership

The more you know or can find out about your primary readers, the better you can communicate purposefully and appropriately in your write up. So, before you start off, at your planning stage, do your research properly and get familiar with the people and place of your primary target. Such background work will determine and direct your approach and words.

2.2.          Purpose statement, etc.

The following questions might help you be better focused:

.           What do I want my write up to make my readers do-act differently, consider an idea, agree to, etc?

.           Who are my primary readers?

.           Should I plan/write my work to be as easy to read?

.                   Beyond my primary readers, what other channels will my work circulate?

.                   Who are all the people in the future, who may read my write up?

.                   What is the educational, cultural background of my primary readers?

.                   What assumptions and beliefs might they already hold?

.                   What kind of evidence will I need to convince them of my views?

.           What expectation will my writing have to meet to succeed? Etc.

3.     Structure

3.1.          Follow a path consistent with your genre

When writing some works such as poems, fictions, non fictions, seminars, term papers, conferences, dissertations, there are sometimes very clear demands or guidelines on the structure and format to go about such works. Some of such writings may require that particular guidelines may have to be followed very carefully and nonconformity could attract sanctions, rejection or failure.  

So, it is absolutely essential to follow such defined path, without detour or diversion from the style or main line of reasoning. Where it becomes absolutely necessary to distract in the course of your writing on such instances such that you wish to add or borrow others point of views to buttress your thoughts, trend of reasoning, explanations or arguments, such deviation maybe be put into a footnotes at the bottom, annotation or references at the end.

You should be familiar with academic paper that follows the following course:

.                   Abstract and acknowledgement sometime start some documents and books, followed by

.                   Introduction, then

.                   Main body – that could be sub-divided into several sections, and

.                   Conclusions,

.              Annotations and references sometimes come at the end of the book, at the bottom or attached to the papers