'Writing is not a basic skill' - Larry Mcenerney
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School curriculum writing barely prepares a pupil for anything more than writing a memo and when tasked with engaging a knowledgeable reader it is entirely insufficient. Furthermore, let's not overlook that teachers read student texts because they are paid to care about them.
At the other end of the scale, in complex thinking, an expert uses writing to help collect, organise and clarify; yet this is also next to useless when communicating with target readers.
Value is what our reader is primarily looking for above all else and writing must become the device to convey that in a persuasive manner. In addition, a degree of instability through the strategies of conflict and challenge must be set up to encourage the reader into the text but without unnecessary arrogance.
which of the following will be read?
Hey readers, community, I've read your stuff, I know what great work you've done AND I have something to say
Hey readers, community, I've read your stuff, I know what great work you've done BUT you're wrong
Readers of different topics will have their own codes and instabilities that must be leveraged by the wily writer; those previously successful texts that are found must be dissected by reading and then using the skills of simulation applied to our lacklustre text. This process will yield a veritable library of transition words that can be used to entice our reader into the text.
Whilst this may seem underhand to many, the function of a successful writer is to move the conversation forward; it is not to preserve their beloved thoughts indefinitely.
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Earlier this week, Philip Hammond declared that leaving the EU by Oct 31 without a Withdrawal Agreement would be a disaster and that his purpose was to stop that happening. He went further, claiming that to leave without a deal was a betrayal of the referendum result. No one, he maintained, voted to leave without a deal.
Other Remainers have intoned similarly (and endlessly) that no one voted to lose their jobs or to be poorer, as though they had some incredible insight into not just what motivated those who voted Leave, but also into the consequences of our departure. This is, of course, utter nonsense.
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Iain Duncan Smith - Telegraph 16 August 2019