Is Writing an Art or a Work - Essay Example

Writing: Art or Work? I have always wondered what it takes to be a really good I must admit I had some kind of illusory attitude to writing: for me it was connected to a person`s talent, natural gift and inspiration. I imagined how talented and significant writers created their works: sitting in front of the typing machine for long hours and drinking coffee and writing, writing, writing because they had an insight. In reality it did not work that way exactly: it turned out that writing accurately, finding right words, and arranging text logically requires some other things as well. Writing is almost totally based on practice and research. Writing good texts is impossible without concentration, analysis and some basic sense of self-critique. But it is better to stop on each of my discoveries. With my first paper I faced the fact that having a topic and sitting with a laptop and a cup of coffee does not mean writing. It is then I understood that writing requires efforts and concentration. A good writer must create his work word by word stringing the beads. Distraction can cause loss of thought and that is why a person must make efforts to write. Only later much later writing becomes natural and the words start flowing. But I have to say that this principle is applicable to any sphere of human life: on the first stages you only try, fail, develop some skills and only then the process becomes easier and brings pleasure. Analytical thinking is another thing that is a must in writing. The pleasant bonus is that it is extremely useful in real life and writing helps to improve it. When creating my first texts I had to choose and assess arguments, ideas, and concepts from different sides and decide if they are relevant to my work or not. It was very difficult often to consider some theories and concepts that are both right but still are opposite. So it is challenging sometimes to have one stable opinion regarding something. So it is a writer who decides which facts are more important and more persuasive and which are irrelevant with the help of critical analysis. Analytical thinking is the ability to analyze information critically, to define relevant from irrelevant, to structure information in your own words. Several discoveries were not as pleasant as I wanted them to be. Speaking about structure it turned out that it can be another serious ordeal to clear perception of the text. I did not realize it for a long time and paid little attention to making text coherent and logical. Sometimes it was much easier to write everything that was popping into my head but then later when rereading it I realized that for a third person a text is hardly comprehensible. So eventually I came to conclusion that structure must be created before writing not in the process. Sources became another problematic issue. When looking for the materials in the Internet a person has to filter all this amount of information that is stored in this free but very poorly organized library. The most horrible thing about the Internet is that the information there cannot be verified completely. So it is also important to know how to find useful information, not some occasional facts from unreliable sources to be persuasive and to create something worthy. The sources are the fundament of each paper and the papers helped me to find some reliable resources with books and articles that I can use in my further work. Another discovery in my writing practice was the difficulty with which a writer can face creating a thesis. For a long period of time I could hardy formulate a good, catchy and interesting thesis but I guess this is the problem of most writers. I understood that thinking and analysis must precede writing. I have learnt that without a thesis writing soon turns into a flow of consciousness and instead of building arguments a person spares words on not so important descriptions. As a result a reader who sees the text does not get what was meant in the beginning. So thesis is a skeleton of the work and it helps to keep writer`s attention as well as reader`s attention. After all, when you read something that has a structure and order only then it is possible to grasp the message of the writing. So writing can help to organize thoughts in the right and logical order which will be useful in mundane life as well. And if you learn how to do it then it is easier to apply this knowledge to any sphere of life. When talking we rarely try to choose words carefully because everything happens in a second but writing gives us something very valuable- time. We have time to reread, asses, and choose what is good for the text and what is not. Writing teaches you how to talk less but say necessary words. In writing it becomes clear that every single word is valuable and every single word has its place and meaning. I did not know most of that before the course but then I started practicing and it turned out that it is very useful and very interesting- to look for the right words that are really simple. I also figured out that the right understanding of the task, the purpose of writing can be the guarantee of good and efficient text. Inability to catch the meaning and the purpose of the task exactly and to find appropriate sources sometimes made me worried about the final result. I doubted if I can find really good arguments to impress the reader and if the words I choose are appropriate. So writing was problematic and stressful for me until I found my personal arguments and my own position. Writing is a hard work and a pure art at the same time and to achieve in a person must be determined, attentive and very critical to himself. However, some inspiration is also necessary and here I understood that genuine interest can be the best inspiration. It is impossible to avoid small stylistic and grammar mistakes without reading the text several times. But the most important thing that is that writing became very exciting. Read More