By Ruth Oji

EVERY writer approaches writing differently. You may begin a writing assignment by sitting outside under a tree and daydreaming, while your best friend may find it impossible to concentrate on writing unless she is sitting at her desk with her computer in front of her. No matter how differently writers work, however, they all need to consider the following writing variables: topic, purpose, personal goals, audience, form, and voice.

There is no right time to consider each writing variable. You may make decisions about some variables before you begin writing, and other decisions you may put off until later in the writing process. Additionally, you can change your mind about any variable at any point in the process.

How do you find a topic? One piece of proverbial wisdom about writing is that people should write about what they know. However, knowing a lot about your topic beforehand is not essential. Sometimes, it’s more fun to explore a topic you don’t know anything about but would like to learn more about. If you have a choice, it’s usually best to start with a topic that you really enjoy and think is important. If you are interested in a topic and have something important to say about it, chances are that your readers will also be interested. Please note that the amount of freedom you have to choose your topic varies greatly among writing assignments. Sometimes the topic may be provided by your teacher.

In such a situation, however, you can usually make the topic your own by finding some angle or aspect of it that particularly interests you. For example, suppose you were asked to write a report on television news for a journalism class. If technology interests you, you might want to write about how special effects are created for news programmes. If you are more interested in the human side of the news, you might prefer to write about the dangers faced by journalists reporting live from the sites of natural disasters.

How do you establish a purpose for your writing? One sure way to focus your ideas for a piece of writing is to think about your purpose, or reason for writing. Common purposes for writing include to express yourself, to entertain, to inform, to describe, to analyse, and to persuade. Sometimes a piece of writing has only one main purpose. To illustrate, the purpose of an article discussing  the development of sailing ships would be to inform. Other pieces of writing have more than one purpose. For example, a student who writes about her first experiences in a saillboat might want to express her feelings about the experiences and also to persuade other students to try the sport.

As you think about the purpose of your writing, ask yourself the following questions: ‘What do I want to accomplish in this piece of writing?’ ‘What effect do I want my writing to have on readers?’ Keeping these questions in mind can give you a clear direction as you write.  Check out this student’s purpose for writing. He had this in mind as he wrote a personal narrative about learning to swim: ‘I want to entertain people with some of the humorous mistakes I made when I was learning to swim. I also want to inform them that anyone can learn this skill.’ 

What this student did was to have a statement of controlling purpose. You can write out a statement of controlling purpose which explains what you want to accomplish in your piece ofwriting. With this, your writing has focus. You do not, however, include your statement of controlling purpose in your finished piece of writing – this makes it different from your thesis statement, which you have to state clearly in your work. Let’s consider some statements of controlling purpose for different types of writing:

Writing that defines. The purpose of this essay is to define the word ‘democracy’ and to give examples of democracy in action in our country.

Writing that shows cause and effect. The purpose of this report is to explain the major causes of poor photographs, including overexposure, underexposure, and poor composition.

Writing that describes. The purpose of this travel article is to describe the city of Lagos, its atmosphere, points of interest, beaches, and restaurants.

Writing that persuades. The purpose of this letter to the editor is to persuade my classmates to respect cultural differences in our school.

Writing that analyses. The purpose of this flowchart is to analyse, or examine part by part, the process of four-colour printing.

Now, determine what your statement of controlling purpose is and be sure of it. Keep that in mind as you write and always make a reference to it. In addition to determining your general purpose for writing, you must also consider your personal goals – what you would like to accomplish in this specific piece of writing. For example, a student whose controlling purpose is to explain how he learned to swim might have a personal goal of reminiscing about his older brother who taught him swimming. A personal goal for writing about your hobby might be to make friends with people who share your interest. Being clear about your personal goals can give you – and your readers – a greater sense of involvement in your writing.

How do you consider your audience?

Recall that writing, as I’ve always noted, is an intentional activity. It is a form of communication, and most pieces of writing are written to someone. That person can be real or imaginary, living or dead, or even just yourself. The audience for your writing can influence all the other writing variables, including what you write about, the form your writing takes, the information you include, and the language you use. You can analyse your audience by asking yourself the following questions: ‘

What information do my readers need? What facts do they already know? What is their attitude toward this subject? What parts of my subject will my readers find most interesting? Should I expand these parts? What part of my subject might be uninteresting to my readers? Can I present this information in a more interesting way, or should I delete it? How should I ‘talk’ to this audience to really reach them?’