The Most Important Criteria for Any Writing Assignment
This series examines the five aspects of your finished versions that will determine your grade every time. This article is about the Queen Mother of Them All: Focus.
By Patricia Roy — December 7, 2022
Students of writing often express hesitation when it comes to revision. They come into the college classroom with a variety of beliefs and abilities. In addition, professors from different fields require different conventions or structures. While these structures may seem very different, the underlying principle that a piece of writing effectively communicates an idea to its intended audience remains consi stent across disciplines.
So, how do you do that? How do you revise a piece of writing, regardless of the conventions of the field or genre, to ensure that it communicates effectively?
This series examines the five aspects of your finished versions that will determine your grade every time. This article is about the Queen Mother of Them All: Focus.
Focus is Number One
This is the most important of the criteria because it affects everything else. If your focus is bad, the paper cannot be good.
Imagine taking a picture of something small, like a flower, with your phone. The finished image will hardly show any flower details if you take the photo from across the street. Sure, the flower is in the image, but so is the grass, the sidewalk, and a person walk ing their dog — unrelated or detracting details you don't need. If you get up close, you can capture a sprinkling of pollen, the gradual color changes of the petals, or any other unique detail that makes this particular flower special.
This is focus.
Qualities of Focus
Focus is the main idea of your writing. Clarity, scope, and insight of the subject characterize good focus. While the subject is the broad arena of your writing, the focus is the subject plus a significant point you make about it. Everyth ing in your paper exists to support that point of significance.
Discerning Focus from Fact
One important note: a statement of fact is not a focus. While our ideas should be based on facts, our intuition and logical deductions are expressions of reason, al ways an opinion or interpretation of facts. The only focus worth writing about is that reasonable people might have different ideas. For example, you can't write an essay about “The leaves on this tree are falling right now.” Opinions do not matter — I watch leaves fall from the tree as I write. If people agree on a fact, there is no discussion. If people can't agree on facts, there is chaos.
I realize that in this contentious world full of misinformation, some voices like to squawk about "alternative facts." Dear reader, there is no such thing. Without waxing philosophical, facts are agreed upon by consensus and only change if a large enough body of evidence elaborates on the original facts. "Alternative facts" are the arguments of a person with an agenda, make no mistake.
Distinguishing Focus from Thesis
Focus is not quite the same thing as a thesis, but they are similar. A thesis is an argument that is usually stated in your paper, either in the introduction or after you have developed common ground with your reader. By contrast, a focus clarifies and maintains consistent and worthwhile attention to an idea. It does not need to ever be stated directly in the paper. Focus guides your writing, no matter what kind of writing it is.
Most of my colleagues call for thesis statements in their assignments, probably because they want students to take a position on an issue or to interpret the results of a study or finding. If that is what your teacher calls it, use that terminology.
Revising for Focus
Regardless of the terms used, study each paragraph to determine whether or not it is directly connected to your main idea. The reader should be able to determine the direction of your writing without getting lost. Focus does not have to be immediately obvious — suspense can be effective — but if you wait too long to deliver it, the reader gets confused or bored. Furthermore, the focus should be consistent throughout the writing. If you change your mind about your subject halfway through your essay, your reader will a gain become confused, and you will lose credibility.
Lastly, the best focus is one that you have put considerable thought into. It's unique to you. To develop insight, give yourself enough time to think about the subject in the planning and drafting stages. Study it up close.
Revise for Focus:
1. Narrow your subject.
Most students worry too much about page limits and not enough about topic limits. They think that if they have a more general topic, they will have more to write about, hit the page limit, and be safe.
This strategy does not work; in fact, the reverse is true. To determine why this is, ask yourself why the teacher is assigning the paper in the first place. The answer: they want to know what you know about the topic. If you keep the focus broad, you will never get into the nitty-gritty, details or analysis your teacher asks for. The paper is not a laundry list of everything you can say off the top of your head. A list shows no relationship between ideas. Go deeper. Pick a subject and uncover a point you can make that fascinates you. Can you narrow it down further? If so, do it. See how far down into the subject you can go and what connections and revelations you can expose.
Playing it safe is rarely successful in writing.
2. Scrutinize your introduction.
Does the first sentence begin in focus? Be honest with yourself. Many students write very general introductions that only get around to the focus in the last sentence. Dreadful. Here is a template for writing an introduction to an argumentative essay based on the book "They Say/ I Say: the Moves that Matter in Academic Writing" by Gerald Graff. The premise of Graff's book is to make your focus (the "I Say") a response to something others are already interested in (the "They Say").
"People to day are talking about the issue of __________. Some people believe ____________. On the other hand, opponents argue __________. This issue is important because _________. To resolve this issue, we need to consider _____________. My view is ____________ (th is might be where you add a focusing question or statement)."
Change the language to make it your own, but keep the basic principle of the structure, and your focused introductions will not only write themselves, but they will also help you organize the rest of the writing.
3. Phone a friend.
Try to get someone else to read the paper and ask them what they think the focus is. Ask them to state it as a complete sentence, revealing how well you have communicated your reasoning. If what they come up with is close to your own idea, super. If not, you need to consider revision (they could be wrong, of course, so think before you scrap your work). If this is the case, take some time to consider what you have truly communicated.
In Conclusion: Also, Part of the Focus
Once you revise for focus, the rest of the criteria become easier — and faster — to revise for. Clarifying and maintaining an insightful focus can help you reduce overall time spent.
In your conclusion, affirm the importance of your main idea and indicate the aim of your writing. Do you want the reader to think differently about a subject? To take action as the result of your persuasion? State it here. Or, you can conclude by telling the reader what to expect in the future:
Coming up next: Development — the Devil in the Details.
Patricia Roy
Patricia Roy is a writer and professor who has helped students succeed for over 25 years. She started her career as a high school English teacher and then moved into higher education at Tuition Rewards member school, Lasell University in Newton, Massachusetts. Her practical guidance and enthusiasm motivate and inspire students to fearlessly explore their own passions. Professor Roy is also a freelance writer and published poet.
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