For instance, if you read all the articles in Time magazine, the style is similar even though the authors are different. Everyone has a style which develops along with their writing groups of people also have styles common to the group. Style has to do with how a piece of writing sounds. Having to develop your ideas (or, in the case of summary, someone else's) ensures that you think them through and shows the reader you've done so. This is also often described as using support, providing examples, giving evidence, backing up your opinions, including specifics, etc. College level assignments usually call for telling why and how. This is a way of making sure you've explained yourself. In high school classes, development is often taught in terms of answering Wh- questions. Audience also has to do with the vocabulary you use, whether you're writing for lay people or experts, what assumptions you share with your readers, and what tone you use. You would describe yourself differently, for instance, in a letter to a pen-pal in a foreign country, in a job application, and in a classified personal ad in the newspaper. Of course, different kinds of audiences exist, and they need and are interested in different things.
In a way, every aspect of writing has to do with audience because you're trying to communicate something to someone else, and how good your writing is has to do with how well you accomplish that. Coherence problems can sometimes stem from mechanics as well: for instance, when the writing isn't consistently in the same tense, or changes from singular to plural, it is grammatically incoherent. Other kinds of coherence problems usually have to do with focus or organization, or both. Having someone else who can be objective read your writing, or getting some distance from it yourself, may help. We sometimes describe the speech of someone who is excited or crazy as "babbling incoherently." What they're saying probably makes sense to them, but it isn't coherent for the listener because they're not being told the whole thing in a reasonable order and with all the pieces of information they need.
CoherenceĪ whole piece of writing should hang together, or, as one student put it, make sense. Problems with focus often originate in the planning stage of writing, so if you have trouble with this you might try outlining or taking notes to clarify for yourself what you should include.
You might think of this in terms of focusing a camera: you want to get a picture of something in particular, with perhaps a little background or context, and you want the details to be sharp. This has to do with not getting off the subject, not bringing in material that is irrelevant. Composition students at Colorado State University generated responses to the question, "What characterizes good writing?" The following information presents their responses and incorporates some of their language.
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