10 Questions for the Writer

I am a hoarder: A hoarder of ideas. Recently, while I was looking for something in my filing cabinet, I came across at least a dozen pieces of paper of all sizes and shapes from torn scraps, old receipts, and legal-sized sheets to standard letter-sized pages and even cute stationary. All had something pithy written on them. I hear ideas, I write them down; I read ideas, I write them down; I even have ideas of my own, and I write them down. Then I keep those scraps. Or at least I did before I could just open my notes application on my iPad and record such musings for time immemorial. Again, welcome to the digital age.

Well, writers and editors, in the digital age, you still need to follow some basic tenets of the craft. I found this list on a piece of paper with a neatly scalloped edge cut along the bottom, as if it were going into a scrapbook. Instead, I’m posting it here because no one will ever see it in my nonexistent scrapbook, and it is the best summary of how to write that I have ever seen.

Ask yourself these ten questions, borrowed from Sylvan Barnet, when you’ve finished your missive. Sylvan Barnet, by the way, “is an American literary critic and Shakespearean scholar. He is a Fletcher Professor of English Emeritus at Tufts University” as quoted by Wikipedia and confirmed in several other sources.

1. Is the title of your essay appropriate and at least moderately interesting?
2. What is your point (thesis)? Do you state it soon enough and keep it in view?
3. Is your organization reasonable? Does each point lead into the next, without irrelevancies and without anticlimaxes?
4. Is each of your paragraphs unified by a topic sentence or topic idea? Are there adequate transitions from one paragraph to the next?
5. Are your generalizations supported by appropriate concrete details, especially by quotations from any text you might be using?
6. Is your opening paragraph interesting and, by its end, have you focused on the topic? Is your concluding paragraph conclusive without being repetitive?
7. Is your tone appropriate? No sarcasm, no apologizing, no bullying, no condescending?
8. Are your sentences concise, clear, emphatic? Needless words and inflated language eliminated?
9. Are your quotations accurate? Documentation provided where necessary?
10. Are your spelling and punctuation correct?

If you don’t have the time or the inclination to ask and answer these questions, please contact CW Editing. We can help make your communication clear, concise, and consistent.