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What is focus in writing?
Writing that lacks a clear focus is easy to recognize. It circles around
and around, zigzags, or hops vigorously from topic to topic, leaving
the reader confused and asking, "What is this really about?"
Donald Murray, in Write to Learn says,
The most obvious difference between the amateur
and professional writer is a matter of focus. The amateur rides off
in all directions at once, including this fact, developing that point,
tossing in a fascinating but irrelevant anecdote, luring the reader
off the track of meaning with unnecessary facts or quotations, repeating
what had been said, or making the reader circle back again and again
to try to figure out what it all means. (92)
He goes on to define focus as "the feeling of riding a clear flowing
river toward a certain destination" (92). Focus centers around
the main point, the heart of the message, what academics refer to as
a thesis. Focus is the paper's raison d'etré (reason for being)
and answers the reader's question: "So what?" Focus is finding
the center of what one wants to say. When a writer has a clear focus,
all parts of the paper revolve around and support that focus. Unfortunately,
many students are not even aware that their papers lack focus and it
is often the role of learning center coaches to point out that there
is no coherent focus and to help guide students to find one.
The keys to finding focus:
- Plenty of examples. The first key is for students to be aware that
good writing requires a clear focus and for students to have an idea
of what clear focus actually looks like in writing. Both faculty and
learning support coaches can help by raising this issue regularly
and by providing examples of focused writing for discussion.
- Plenty of time. The second key is for students to make sure they
have ample time to play with their ideas. Writing is thinking on paper;
thus, we rarely know what we want to say until we say it and see what
comes out. Good writing usually requires more than one draft because
each time we rewrite we are sharpening our focus. Sometimes we find
our focus right away, and sometimes it eludes us for several drafts
until we may even need the feedback of an objective reader to help
us spot it. The problem is that students often don't leave themselves
enough time to play around with their ideas through multiple drafts
and may even view multiple drafts as a sign of failure. The result
of this can be writing where the focus has not yet been defined.
Helping students find their focus.
- Encourage students to leave enough time before a deadline to play
with their ideas.
- Reinforce the perception that multiple drafts are necessary for
finding focus and not a failure.
- Ask guiding questions such as, "Why did you want to write this
paper?" or "What was the most important thing that you learned?"
or "What excites you about this topic?" or "What is
the connection that you see between all of these ideas?" Sometimes
simply processing one's ideas out loud with an objective listener
helps a writer to discover focus.
- Encourage students to identify goals for the piece of writing. Have
them write down a list of goals for the paper with this lead: "In
this paper I want to…"
- Help students look for the hidden focus within the draft. Often
the focus ends up hidden somewhere in the text well after the introduction.
Ask students if there is a point where the paper really seems to come
together. Help them to see where the writing comes to life on the
page. Ask them to show where they find themselves getting interested.
Or, share your feelings as a reader. Where do you find yourself getting
interested? Usually, the focus will be lurking at the point where
the paper comes to life.
- Ask students to try brainstorming a list of words and short phrases
that summarize the main point they want to share. Then have them highlight
the most electrically charged words or phrases.
- Have students draw a picture. If they could capture the focus in
a snapshot, what would it look like?
- Newspaper headlines are meant to capture the focus of a news story
in a small amount of words. Look at some newspaper headlines and talk
about what the article might be about. Have students brainstorm a
list of "newspaper headlines" and show how these point to
possible areas for focus.
References
Murray, Donald (1990). Write to Learn. Philadelphia: Holt, Rinehart
and
Winston.
Questions or comments? Contact the author at kyle.cushman@tui.edu.
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