As a writer, it is important not just to consider what you say, but how it is said by you. To communicate effectively, it is not adequate to have well organized ideas expressed in complete and sentences that are coherent paragraphs. You have to also think about the style, tone and clarity of his/her writing, and adapt these elements to the reading audience. Again, analyzing a person’s audience and purpose is key to writing effectiveness. So that you can pick the most reliable language, the writer must consider the objective of the document, the context in which it is being written, and who will be reading it.

Characteristics of Effective Language

Concrete language includes descriptions which create tangible images with details your reader can visualize. Abstract language is vague and obscure, and will not bring to mind specific visual images. Consider the two sets of statements below. The statement towards the top is abstract, but the statements become increasingly concrete and specific toward the base.

He is a bad roommate
He is lazy and discourteous
He could be untidy and unclean
He doesn’t tidy up his own messes
He leaves his dirty dishes on the kitchen counter

Your relationship with John is unacceptable
you don’t get along well with John
both you and John have a lot of arguments
You and John insult each other too much
You and John call one another derogatory names

Notice just how much more beneficial the statements become while the language gets to be more concrete and specific. The statements towards the top, which tend to be more abstract, can be interpreted in many ways that are possible and leave many questions answered.Læs mere→