2.2  What are Focus and Meaning?

In the Introduction you saw definitions for the qualities of effective writing. The first qualities are focus and meaning. If you think about yourself as a reader for a moment, you'll understand how these terms are used to describe writing.

You've probably had the experience of letting your mind wander while you are reading. After awhile, you realize that you've read the same page five or six times, but you still haven't paid attention to what you're reading --you lost focus. You looked at the words, but you didn't get the meaning of the ideas.

Focus and meaning work in a similar way when you are writing. If you lose focus, you wander off the task and don't do what you are supposed to do. An essay with poor focus does not zero in on the purpose of the task and then accomplish all of it.

An essay can be poor in meaning if you don't understand the task, or if you don't understand the text or texts you are supposed to be writing about, or if you don't connect the task to the texts with a clear controlling or central idea.

Effective Writing: shows a clear understanding of the purpose of the task (or prompt) for the audience; establishes a clear controlling or central idea and remains completely focused on that idea; completes all parts of the task. If there is a text (or texts) to read as part of the task, the writing also shows an understanding of key elements of the text(s), and makes clear connections between the task and the text(s).

In the rest of this part of the Guide, we'll see how to read, analyze, and understand the task and texts, as well as how to connect them. We'll start with the task.

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