What Is Good Writing?
Ideas from English 830 Class
7/9/26
Good writing is…
- Writing that evokes some sort of feeling
- Intertextuality
- The Outsiders
- The bittersweet ending
- The weight you feel
- The humanizing elements
- Artfulness
- Creation
- Ruminate/think about create it in your head
- Reflect on deeper topics with no answers
- News article with info. I’m informed and move on
- Lord of the Rings—transporting me out of my world
- Reflect on the world I’m in
- Opens you up to different perspectives
- Pedantic vs openness
- Voiceyness
- Telling a story
- Creates a narrative that builds connections
- Biographies (Catherine the Great)
- Getting understanding
- Feelings evoked
- Human understanding
- Give an audience something it needs
- Or create an audience that needs it
- Hadn’t learned shame
- Serves the artist
- Stands the test of time
- Sense of community
- Good art and writing makes you realize you can break rules
- Try new things
- Opening perspective and possibilities
- The travel of books/art
- The characters come alive
- Live vicariously
- Mourning the life we didn’t get to live
- Belonging to a certain group but can’t always express it
- Feel that through writing/reading
- Root for something/someone
- Takes risks
- Filter for anger/emotion
- Regret
- Powerful
- Achieves a purpose
- Wins an argumentative
- No using the word “good”
- Allows us to see what we actually think
- Writing as thinking
- Writing as learning
- Janet Emig Writing as Tool for Learning
- Writing as acquiring
- Introversion—writing as a means for expression