What Writing Is Stephen King Analysis

Stephen King, in his piece “What Writing Is”, claims that “it’s writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business”. Not only is writing an intellectual and reflective activity, it is a vital skill in all fields of work and academia, and can be learned through abundant reading and practice. Effective and engaging writing can bring about change. Claim: Good writing is focused, purposeful, and clear. To produce it, it is necessary to have a good backbone of prior knowledge and a reflective approach. In order to create a piece that is compelling, writing needs to be focused and flow well. Good writing has a point, a goal that it is intended to achieve. The purpose should direct every …show more content…
Style is not what is said, it is how it is said, and it should be in such a way that presents the main points of the piece with grace. It is important for writers not to use pompous jargon, as doing so only takes away from the precision of the piece and the clarity of the overall message. In a book titled On Writing Well by William Zinsser, a lifelong journalist and nonfiction writer, Zinsser addresses the use of jargon by saying that “the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that 's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what—these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur, ironically, in proportion to education and rank”. When a writer uses words that are obscure and superfluous it ends up cutting out a very large portion of the audience who either do not know what they mean or do not want to put in the effort to piece together a confusing