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Better writing through intent

So you want to be a good writer?

You want to express yourself in words?

You want to grab the reader by the short hairs and connect with them at a deep level?

You want to take that expensive education and do something useful with it?

Well then, listen up. The first thing you want to do if you want to write well is set your intent. Ask yourself  the question, why am I writing and then turn your answer to that into a formal statement of intent. It is not that hard and it can be very effective in directing the development of your wordsmithing ability. For example, when I ask myself the question “why am I writing,” my answer is to communicate, teach, and educate. When I write I write to communicate. I write to grab the reader, to get their attention, and to turn their attention to something that I think they might be interested in. I also write to educate (I’m a teacher after all) and inform.

Once I have an idea of why I write then, whenever I sit down to write, I remind myself of why I’m sitting down to write. This is important. I find that when I do that the intent forms a sort of envelope over what I’m doing and influences what it is I’m saying. When I remember my goal is to communicate and educate I am far less likely, for example, to complicate my writing with excessive EPMO. Similarly when I remember I am here to teach and educate I’ll keep things simpler and more interesting. Now, this might seem like a whole lot of common sense and in a way it is.  Language teachers will tell thee to “know they audience” and this is close to what I am saying here. Nevertheless, extending the standard language stipulation in this way is, I believe, necessary and the reason is simply that if you are training to become an academic, if you are a undergraduate or a graduate student, then you are not being trained to educate and communicate.

You might think you are.

You might believe that all that essay writing and term paper composition is training you to communicate with others but if you think that you would be quite wrong.  Outside of the English department, the only thing you are learning to do as a student of the academy is confuse people and be proud of it. If you publish in a journal article it is not the quality of writing that counts, it is how few people can understand what you’re saying. And the fewer the better it seems. The more obscure, complicated, and convoluted your writing, the better, smarter, more worthy of consideration you must be.

It’s true.

Pick up your average academic journal and the information contained in it is useful and meaningful to only a handful of people worldwide, and those people all have to have expensive post-secondary degrees in order to understand it.

Call that writing to obfuscate, or writing to impress, or writing to pump your left brain ego, or writing to prove your worth as a professor, or whatever, but don’t call it writing to communicate. It is everything but that.

But then, this should not come as a surprise because it is exactly what you are trained to do.

Consider this.

Whenever you write a term paper in school you are not writing to communicate, you are writing to impress the person with the power to mark.

Isn’t that true?

The goal isn’t to write well, or to be creative, or to think critically, or to communicate effectively is it? The goal is to impress your professor or (after you graduate) your journal editor, peer review committee, and so on. Whether you realize it or not, that’s what you learn and in that process expression, communication, and connection with your reader go straight into the academic toilet  to be flushed away with the three-ply sheets of rampant EPMO.

But you can change this and the first step is to identify why you write and write with that intent in mind.

Are you writing to impress the reader of your prose?

Are you writing for a good grade?

Are you writing to pass muster or to slide past the journal gatekeepers?

Then that’s going to reflect itself in the way you write.

However, if that is not why are you are writing, if your goal is to reach out and connect with somebody, then remind yourself that is what you want to do and start your communique from there. It may take a while to shed the prosaic detritus of our academic indoctrination, but you can do if you try.

 

About Dr. Michael S. (Dr. S)

Michael S. (Dr. S.) is a scientist, sociologist, author, mystic, and mystical poet whose interests are human psychology, human society, spirituality, consciousness, global pedagogy, and global transformation. He's busy writing about a dozen books all of which are aimed at enlightening the people and transforming the planet in line with the purpose, and for the benefit of, All.

9 comments

  1. Ross Urquhart

    Dr. Sosteric,
    Amazing to read your expose of academic writing. It’s true, of course, but for a practicing academic to put it down officially and in some detail is unexpected. I’ve heard friends of mine in academia complain that it takes thirty years for concepts turned up in research projects to be absorbed into the “outside” world, yet, they never twigged on to the notion they may be squeezing the bottleneck. Good on you – we need more of this. Ross Urquhart

  2. It is true Dr. Sosteric, that revealing intentions in a given research paper is extremely hard. I am at this point in my life undergoing this transition of what my research is all about. It is extremely difficult, but in the end, will be very rewarding. I have learned alot in the last number of months. I still use concepts, words, phrases that no one on the planet would understand. I would say that revealing your true intent in your research project, helps people understand what you are trying to contribute. It is stressful, hard, but it is extremely worth it. Robert

  3. Prof.A.Prabaharan

    Dr.Sosteric, Congratulations for a brave comments about the sad state of academic ventures. It is true that the academia maintained a distinct identity which is cut off from the common world. This is turning upside down after the arrival of ICT. I dont know how far it will go. Hopefully the reversal shouldnt be for worse.

    • The main thing I’m seeing right now is the movement of mass media into the internet in a big way. I think this is being facilitated by Google, which doesn’t seem to have any problem with manipulating the flow of search results, while not telling anybody how they do it. This coupled with some remarkably regressive new age spirituality (“law of attraction”) doesn’t bode well for any significant change. It really comes down to the academics and their willingness to penetrate the collective consciousness. That won’t happen for a while because before it does us academics got some things to learn about writing, educashion, how to get people’s attention, and hold it, and so on.

  4. Dr. Sosteric,

    Thank you for pointing out something so obvious and giving me a reason to write the way I would like to write, rather than feeling as if I am not as good as others because of my difficulty in reiterating some academic material. Although I have been blessed to have some amazing professors here at Athabasca, who in their own right have a very practical way of teaching and making the courses “student friendly”, what you write about in this article gives me direction. I know that I still have to write papers according to academic standards in order to pass my courses; however, keeping my “intent” in mind will afford me the opportunity to complete my degree with a purpose.

  5. “The more obscure, complicated, and convoluted your writing, the better, smarter, more worthy of consideration you must be.”

    That’s certainly the case with Michel Foucault, haha

  6. Shilpashri Karbhari

    Hi Dr Sosteric:
    I agree with you one hundred percent. As I come close to completion of one year at my institution as an Assistant Professor,I felt relieved when I read your post/message. I needed this mentoring. The underlying message of your post challenges me to think seriously about my research interests and how to get his information across to my audience in an easy to digest manner. Yet remain solidly grounded in sociology and strive for change. I feel energized about my writing or my recent dissertation and envision writing for Socjourn. Often times we are made to feel left out when we are unable to publish or take our research further.
    Sincerely,
    Shilpashri Karbhari

    • Justin Stauffer

      Well said, I keep thinking of genius theories for why things happen to people and this simplifies my train of thought. To put into words and change the world.

  7. I’ am a student who love to know more about reading and writing. This is one of the best words i’ve read with regards to explaining the best’s thoughts of writing. I’am not a master of such skill,thus, I’am helping myself to do better and use it to have good grades with my subjects. Since, college have a lot to learn, writing what you have experienced are best written when you have good organized thouhts. I’am still doing my best to learn more and try to apply the tips you’ve shared. Thanks.

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