This week’s most prominent reading was “The Ten Rules of Effective Writing.” In class, our group was assigned rules 7 and 8.

Rule 7, Speak Aspirationally, describes how you need “personalize and humanize” your writing in order to instill a certain feeling in your reader. Odds are that they will not remember the words that you write, but the feeling that your words created within them. The reading offers suggestions for creating these feelings. The best way to create a feeling is to relate your writing to something the reader has previously experienced. The best example of this is when Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I have a dream.” Despite the fact that this article is mostly geared towards advertising, this point can hold true for writing papers as well. The article then goes on to describe a few of the best slogans used in advertising. These include “Look ma’, no cavities” and “A diamond is forever.”

Rule 8, Visualize, explains how creating a vivid image can greatly enhance your writing. It needs to be something that the reader can see and almost feel. A writing that has strong visual elements is much more likely to be successful that a writing without. Out of all the words that can be used to create an image, the best could possible be the word “imagine.” The word “imagine” causes each person to come up with there own individual manifestation of what the words are describing. “Imagine” can replace paragraphs of text but still create a much more effective image. Instead of describing their own dream home, the author can ask the reader to imagine their own. This image will work a lot better for the reader and not require paragraphs of text for a home that does not have nearly the impact.