Writing: Work? Fun? Both!
By CHARLES J. WHALEN

I was recently asked to prepare a lecture offering writing advice to undergraduates. I structured my presentation around three maxims: find the joy; remember that organization is the key; and keep it simple. This essay summarizes that lecture for a broader audience. The insights are based in part on lessons reinforced by more than a half-dozen years of service to Perspectives on Work.

Find the Joy
As a longtime educator, I realize people often dislike writing because they consider it tedious and difficult. The antidote? Find the joy.

I applied for a writing post at BusinessWeek some years ago. As part of the screening process, I flew to New York City and met the magazine's editorial staff. During a discussion with one senior editor, I mentioned that I had always enjoyed writing. In fact, somehow I even used the “F-word” – fun.

“Writing is not fun,” the editor shot back. “Writing is hard work – very hard work.”

I recalled that exchange recently when a colleague at a public event read part of an essay on “The Master in the Art of Living.” The gist of the passage is as follows: ‘The Master makes little distinction between work and play, or between labor and leisure; he (or she) hardly knows which is which.' 1

This underscores the possibility that the aforementioned editor and I were both right. Writing is hard work, but it can also be fun. The secret is to find the joy within the work.

There's actually a lot to choose from when looking for the joy in writing. For someone with a competitive streak, for example, writing can be fun because it offers a way to structure persuasive and winning positions on contentious issues.

For someone who tends to be more timid, the joy of writing can come from exploring ideas, considering an issue's many different sides, and working through your own thoughts on a topic.

What appeals to me about writing is that it offers an opportunity for creative expression. Most of us like to create in some way, such as painting, making music, fixing cars, or gardening. When I want to be creative, I often turn to writing.

I enjoy the process of writing. I like the moments of discovery when I come up with unexpected insights. I enjoy experimenting with alternatives and then finding just the right way to express an idea. Still, this is just what works for me; when it comes to writing, authors must find their own source of satisfaction and enjoyment.

To be sure, writing is most gratifying when you have a strong interest in the subject matter. In fact, sometimes a solid first draft can be produced in no time when writing about a subject that strikes an emotional chord. This suggests that part of “finding the joy” involves selecting the right writing topic.

Students, scholars and journalists often have considerable flexibility to bring writing assignments into alignment with their personal interests. And even when that doesn't immediately appear to be the case, there's no harm in asking whether it would be acceptable to deviate slightly from a given assignment. (Even when you do not have a clear idea of how to deviate from an assignment, making such an inquiry often leads to a dialogue that opens new possibilities.) More often than not, the request will be well received, since most professors, publishers and editors recognize that letting authors pursue their own interests generally produces the best results.

Organization Is the Key
I had a college classmate who would often say, “Organization is the key.” His overuse of the phrase was annoying, but he was right, particularly about writing. When it comes to writing, “Organization is the key.”

All forms of writing have a structure. You never really start with a blank screen or an empty sheet of paper. There's always an appropriate format or template; the writer's job is to follow the template that's right for a given assignment.

There are also some common elements to most written work – elements to keep in mind regardless of whether you are writing a research paper, a business letter or an academic article. These include an introduction, a body of text that develops your main points, and a conclusion.

The introduction is of vital importance for the reader and the writer. It frames the issues and presents the author's thesis. It also provides a roadmap – a glimpse of the main arguments to be developed. “With a solid introduction,” says Mike Mandel, chief economist at BusinessWeek , “the rest of the piece practically writes itself.”

After writing an introduction that provides a clear roadmap, give special attention to the paragraphs that constitute the body of your paper. Here are six tips on how to compose effective paragraphs.

Start with a strong topic sentence. A paragraph is a miniature essay. It has an introduction, body and conclusion. Just like a good written document begins with a solid introduction, a good paragraph begins with a solid introductory sentence. That sentence, which provides a focus for the entire the paragraph, is the topic sentence.

An untrained writer sometimes places a paragraph's topic sentence at the end of the paragraph. That's because the author has spent the entire paragraph trying to figure out what he/she wants say. Fortunately, there's a simple fix: reorganize the paragraph so the most important idea comes first.

When paragraphs are organized around solid topic sentences, it's easy for a reader to follow an author's argument. In fact, a succession of good topic sentences allows a reader who skims through a paper to still walk away with an understanding of its points. Of course, reading just the topic sentences won't convey the “meat” of an argument (just like reading a paper's introduction won't substitute for reading the body of the paper), but good topic sentences provide the reader with the essence of the message.

Always put the most important things first. This is good advice to follow at every stage in the writing process, not just when organizing sentences in a paragraph. When preparing the outline of a paper, for example, organize the points to be addressed according to their order of importance. Even try to arrange the words within a sentence so that the most important words and phrases come first.

Consider the length . The ideal paragraph is three to five sentences long. When a paragraph reaches a length of six or more sentences, readers begin to have difficultly following the author's argument. Also, a paragraph of six or more sentences can usually be divided into two paragraphs (just be sure each paragraph has an appropriate topic sentence).

Support your topic sentence. If sentences within a paragraph don't support the topic sentence, they probably don't belong in the paragraph. After writing a paragraph, check for extraneous sentences and remove them.

Sentences within a paragraph should alternate between the general and the specific. A good paragraph starts with a general statement. It then provides something specific to support that initial statement. Finally, the paragraph ends with a general remark that adds color or context. This explains why paragraphs in a news story often end with a quote.

Here's an example. The following general remark can be used as a topic sentence: “The U.S. housing market is in a deep slump.” That can be followed by a sentence providing some detail: “Home prices fell by an average of 25 percent in the last 12 months, according to a survey by the Home Mortgage Association of America.” Finally, the author can come back to the general idea and use a quote to drive home the main point: “‘I've never seen the industry in such bad shape,' says George Banks, chief economist at the First National Bank of New York .” While the details in this paragraph are fictitious, the sentences clearly illustrate the notion of alternating between general and specific elements.

 When it comes to data, “less is more.” Readers can't digest a paragraph crammed full of numbers. When data and statistics are be cited, it's best to look over your research and select only one or two of the most important numbers that support the paragraph's topic sentence.

Keep It Simple
Authors who want to write to impress, and who wish to write to communicate well, should focus on simplicity, not on trying to sound impressive. In short, keep it simple. How? Here are some suggestions.

Don't use rarely used words when a more common word will do . Authors should write in plain English and choose the simplest word that fits the bill (without resorting to slang, of course).

Keep sentences as short and straightforward as possible . Avoid sentences with multiple phrases. Aim for a sentence with just a subject, an action verb and an object affected by the action. If you write a sentence that has a number of phrases, try to break it up into more than one sentence.

Aim for a conversational style . Sometimes the act of writing changes our communication for the worse. I know an editor who would ask the same question whenever he found a difficult passage in a journalist's story, “What are you trying to say?” After the writer answered him, the editor would always respond with the same two words, “Write that!”

The importance of aiming for a conversational style does not diminish when the subject matter is complicated. In fact, it may be even more important in such situations. Authors struggling with ideas that seem hard to convey should keep in mind this statement from the late John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the most successful economics writers since the Great Depression: “[T]here are no important propositions that cannot be stated in plain language.” 2

Revise, Revise, Revise. Revision is an essential part of the writing process. All first drafts can benefit from revision. This was true even for Galbraith, “[T]here are days when no fewer than five revisions are required. When I am greatly inspired, only four revisions are needed before I put in that note of spontaneity which even my meanest critics concede.” 3

When you revise your own work, look to cut unnecessary words and phrases. I guarantee you'll find them.

After you've made your best effort to write and revise a document, ask other people to read and comment on what you have written. It's always useful to have another pair of eyes – or a few pairs of eyes – look at what you write and offer suggestions for improvement. At periodicals like BusinessWeek , more than a half-dozen people read every article prior to publication.

A final way to “keep it simple” is to avoid submitting your writing when you think it's done. Instead, try to step away from the work for a few days. I learned this from Robert Heilbroner, who, when he died just a few years ago, had the distinction of selling more books than any other living economist. Bob was a masterful writer, and one of his secrets was putting every “finished” manuscript aside in a drawer for a week and then taking it out for one last look. If Heilbroner put his essays in the drawer for a week, the rest of us should at least be willing to hold off a day or two before submitting our own work.

Conclusion: Overjoyed
My writing tips can be boiled down to the following: find the joy; remember that organization is the key; and keep it simple. In the process, I've tried to suggest an answer to the question of whether writing is work or fun. In my view, it can be both.

However, there's one topic that I skipped over earlier and to which I must return: the writing of a conclusion. It's nice to summarize your main points in a conclusion, but a conclusion should also offer just a little bit more.

Here's a pair of constructive suggestions on writing a conclusion. According to my high-school English teacher, a conclusion should address the question, “So what?” Journalists, meanwhile, often stress that a story should close with a bit of a “kicker” – something that ends the piece with an insightful, amusing or thought-provoking “zing.”

As for me, I suggest a good conclusion has two elements – something that refers back in some way to the beginning of the piece, and something that looks ahead to the future. At the end of my recent lecture on writing, for example, I referred back to an introductory remark I made about the importance of trying to learn from everyone. Then I mentioned looking forward to learning from the students in the course of future interactions.

Since my lecture was only a guest appearance, I expected those interactions would occur a semester or two down the road, but one student has already asked to meet with me before turning in his next term paper – and the professor who invited me to speak has asked for my input on a manuscript. At the moment, it seems I'm over joyed. 4

NOTES
1. For the exact quote, see L. P. Jacks, Education through Recreation (New York: Harper Brothers, 1932), pp. 1-2, cited in H. Levy, Technological Growth and Social Change (London: Routledge, 2000 [1961]), p. 62.

2. J. K. Galbraith, “Writing, Typing, and Economics,” The Atlantic Monthly (March 1978); available online at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/197803/galbraith-writing/2.

3. Ibid., http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/197803/galbraith-writing.

4. For further writing tips, see the concise classic, Elements of Style , by W. Strunk, available online at http://www.bartelby.org/141/.

Charles J. Whalen is professor and director of business and economics at Utica College, visiting fellow at Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and editor of LERA's Perspectives on Work . He has served as associate economics editor at BusinessWeek and recently edited a special issue of Forum for Social Economics . He wishes to thank Kim Landon, Linda Whalen and three LERA referees – Doug Drake, John DiNardo, and Paula Wells – for comments and suggestions on this essay. He also wishes to thank Kunpeng Li, David Green and the students of Management 101 (Spring 2008) at Utica College .

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