The 5 elements of writing

Claims require evidence

• It is easy for anyone to make a statement, however whether or not that which is being stated is reputable information depends on what evidence for their claim that the individual presents.
  
  
  

What kinds of things count as evidence

• A wide variety of information may be presented as evidence. It comes on a spectrum with peer reviewed scientific journals being the most reliable form of evidence and examples like anecdotes not always being so reliable. That is not to discredit, however, ones own experience as evidence. It takes a fair use of scientific journals, news articles, and individual counts in order to build a strong case for ones statement. Let's not forget that anecdotes do count as evidence, but in order to be considered reliable they must be given in conjunction with with other sources of evidence.

Multimodal texts are increasingly the way

• These presentations of information can be shown in the form of writing, video, audio, or any sort of scientific study. It is not difficult to see that video and podcast formats have taken over the mainstream flow of information. An entire book can now be listened to passively whilst one folds clothes or on their morning commute. While we are increasingly able to take advantage of these new technologies and multitask we also do so with a lack of focus for the information being given. Some readings require very little attention where as a scientific journal could demand hours of intense focus in order to absorb its contents. Either way we take the good with the bad and these multimodal forms of information are here to stay.
  
  
  

Meaning has context

• More and more I find that we present information with a black and white perspective. Sure there are objective scenarios where objectively something is good and another thing is bad. For example it is agreed by everyone I've ever met that child abuse is a bad thing and being kind to children is a good thing. So while there are limited instances that this black and white thinking makes sense more often than not there is a layer of grey. One of my favorite words is nuance; meaning as defined by Webster sensibility to, awareness of, or ability to express delicate shadings (as of meaning, feeling, or value). By only allowing parts of information to be presented from a single perspective that nuance is lacking. It is critical that when giving our audience information we present it in a way that allows the reader, viewer, or listener to take said information and come to their own conclusion.

Writing is revision

• Writing is never finished until it is submitted, published, or final printed. Even after an article is written or book is published it may still be edited or revised. If we as writers focused on perfecting our writing in real time as we type or write away then we would never finish anything. There's nothing wrong with starting out our text as a bare skeleton of scrambled information. We can put down a main idea then let the ideas leave our minds and hit the page. Whether that means we write the intro or ending first it really doesn't matter because we will have to return to revise the entire text multiple times anyway before it will look like anything that resembles something of a structured body of information.