What is good writing?

4 Conclusion

Finally, a few key messages to take from this course. One is that there is no great mystery about what good writing is. We can recognize it just by reading it. The difficulty is how to produce it. However, since there are different aspects of writing well, you will find it useful to return to the ‘Criteria of good essay writing’ from time to time to consider how your writing is developing. When you are about to submit an essay to a tutor, or after you get it back with comments on it, you can check through the list to see what progress you are making on each front.

Another point you might think about is that, in the processs of reading Philip's and Hansa's essays, you have had a glimpse into the role your tutor plays. As you saw, it isn't easy to read other people's writing and make sense of it. Nor is it easy to pinpoint what their strengths and weaknesses are. There are two lessons here.

  1. Be sympathetic to your tutor and present your work as well as you can.

  2. Don't be too upset or too irritated if your tutor misses your point, or if he or she offers advice you don't think is appropriate or makes comments you don't think are fair. It is almost impossible to get things right all the time.

Last, take away the knowledge that you don't have to get your writing perfect before submitting it. The essays we have looked at are nowhere near perfect, but they are fine as early attempts. In fact, there isn't such a thing as ‘perfect’ anyway. There are many different ways of writing a good essay. These students did exactly the right thing by simply ‘having a go’. You have to assume that your first attempts will not be wonderful and just get on with it. A good learner in any field is prepared to make mistakes.

This OpenLearn course provides a sample of level 1 study in English Literature and Creative Writing.