The Four Keys to Good Writing

This course will be based on the four keys to good writing. Read this section to get an overview of these key features of effective writing we will look at in greater depth throughout the course.

  1. Unity
    Unity in the context of writing means staying on topic in order to avoid confusing readers. You will later learn about how to use topic sentences and thesis statements to guide this consideration.

  2. Support
    Support in the context of writing means using evidence, explanation, and elaboration to show how what you are saying is true. When you write, it is vital that all points you are making are supported.

  3. Coherence
    Coherence in the context of writing means organization of (that is, what order you put ideas into) and connection between ideas.

  4. Sentence Skills
    Sentence skills are the polish we apply to a completed piece of writing and include things like word choice (also called diction), sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, and consistency. It is important to note that sentence skills are the final step of writing and should not be a major consideration until the first three keys (above) have been addressed and you have a completed draft.

Source: Erin Severs
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License.

Last modified: Sunday, September 3, 2023, 12:07 AM