Writing is like Flying

Writing is like Flying

Anna Maria CarboneJune 2008

Anna Maria Carbone - June 2008

The Flying Stages

Planning

Taking off

Flying

Landing

Key Questions

Who are the readers?

What is the subject?

What are my goals?

Anna Maria Carbone – June 2008

Plot a Course


Planning the Flight

Collecting information

Having all the data

Checking the issues

Verifying the facts

Creating a logical outline

1. Identify the text’s features

Goal

Reader

Topic

Length

Type


Planning – Checking the Aircraft

2. Gather ideas: What are information and ideas

of the topic which I am going to write about?

3. List ideas in an outline: Which clusters of ideas and concepts

can I create and what is their logical sequence?


Planning – Checking the Aircraft


Taxying to the runway

Sort topics

Create the sequence

Confirm concept’s course

Summary: You can start with a summary that presents the topic and why it is important.

Anecdote: You can introduce your text with a fact, a story, curiosity.

Short phrases: Use journalistic language, few words having effect.

Answers: You can introduce your topic with a direct answer about it.

Analogy: You can compare your topic to another similar one.

Quotations: They are very effective to catch the reader’s attention. It can be a proverb, a verse ora famous quotation.


The perfect take-off?


Taking off

Clearance, full throttle, accelerate, take-off.

The start

This is the first approach for readers. You have to phrase it carefully.

It introduces the topic.It has to capture the reader’s attention.

Anna Maria Carbone - Giugno 2008

Taking off - airborne


A comfortable flight

Develop and separate individual topics Use clear language

Use short sentences and phrasesAvoid jargon

From the ship’s log of “Kansas City Star” written by Captain Ernest Hemingway

1. Use short sentences.

2. Use short first paragraphs.

3. Use vigorous English.

4. Be positive, not negative.


A comfortable flight: In-Flight Service

From the essay “Politics and the English Language” written in 1946 by George Orwell

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or another figure of speech which you often see in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to remove a word, then do it.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.


A comfortable flight: In-Flight Service


Preparing for Landing – The Approach

The conclusionYou have to conclude your text in a clear way.

Do not leave anything unanswered.


Preparing For Landing – Final Checks

Copy edit:

Review of topics

Clarity

Effectiveness

Grammar

Spelling

Punctuation

The final paragraph is a farewell from writer to readers .

It has to summarize the topics and confirm the thesis


Touching down

Now our written work is completed.If it is good

our readers will have had a good flight!


Anna Maria Carbonewww.scriverebene.it

[email protected]

Thank-you for flying with us

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Writing is like Flying