Being a teacher of human nature, I have often been asked to help people learn to read and write consciously. Every sort of person you can imagine has asked me for this, from those who claim they have serious reading and writing disabilities to those who claim they teach English for a living. The following came out of a rather stressful discussion I once had with a fellow from the later category. This fellow was an English teacher who at the time was teaching an online class on English for English teachers.
How did our discussion come about? He had asked me to write something which he could use in one of his online classes. However, when I sent him what I had written, he sheepishly told me it was bad. Terrible, in fact. Which then prompted an hour long discussion as to what made something “good writing.”
During this discussion I asked him how he would grade something which used mostly one and two syllable words and no higher concepts. At least in the literal wording. (Something that Hemingway might have written.)
His answer? Not performing up ability in class. Wording too simple; grammar at times wrong.
I then asked him how he might grade something filled with foul language and slang. Something almost completely devoid of adverbs. Nary a “very” in sight. (Something Mark Twain might have written.)
His answer? Uses foul language, slang, too few adverbs, and so on and so on.
I then told him that the two writers I had been referring to were Hemingway and Mark Twain. Writers we both know to be two of the most respected American writers. At which point, he had an aha. We then continued our talk until it fully emerged in him that good writing not only inspires pictures in the mind of the reader. It also requires good readers reading it. Moreover, this holds true regardless of how the author deviates from acceptable norms.
After we hung up, I sat there trying to find my own words for what made good writing. What makes good writing? The following is what came out of me, and when this fellow read it, he told me his eyes filled.
His classes have never been the same.
Here is what I sent to him.
On Good Writing
“Good” writing is real.
“Real″ writing is visual.
It is also complete, succinct, and descriptive. And blameless.
“Really good” writing is all these things, and can also inspire love in the reader.
You cannot feel delight and be unable to “see″ a writer’s words. Delight clears the readers eyes and fills the writer’s words with the visions of the reader.
Be delighted and I promise, you will see the writer’s words.
After seeing these living words then, know the reader must pass on what is seen to another. Retelling completes the writing. Only then is the writing done.
Few people know this.
Even fewer know that it is they, as readers, who co-create the writing by retelling the words.
This makes readers very important. More important than anyone has ever suspected.
In truth then, “really good″ writing requires a “really good″ writer and a “really good″ reader.
Be both.
Steven Paglierani is a writer, teacher, personality theorist, and therapist whose work on learning and human consciousness is read weekly by thousands all over the world. He is the author of Emergence Personality Theory, and his mission is to make the world better for children by restoring and deepening their love of learning.
He can be read or reached at his site, theEmergenceSite.com theEmergenceSite.com