Got Purpose?

Like the rest of life it seems, the art of writing seems to have the need for a purpose. Murray urges his readers to take a step or two back and ask themselves, "Why am I writing this?", in order to give purpose to what they are writing. Discussing this topic interests me, because I so often will be half way through a paper, with the entire thing jumbled up into a big mess before I ask myself that question.

Especially in a context where we as students are required to create papers for the sake of being marked, it is easy to loose interest in the paper being written, and as a result forget the purpose of the paper completely. The focus changes to trying to fill the required word count and getting the paper done, instead of trying to really convey a point. At least thats the way it can happen for me. Murray talks about asking ourselves what the message is, who the reader is, what will persuade the reader, and what will keep them interested (p 299-301). This kind of approach, especially when considered before writing the paper, can change the way a paper is written.

Instead of writing a paper that is intent on putting all of the information on the page, a writer following Murray's approach is able to use everything for a purpose, making the whole paper much more organized and effective. For me this changes everything. Not only are my papers more organized and better written, but I am more interested in it as I am writing it. When I have a purpose for my writing, something that I am really working towards, I get so much more involved in my paper. Even if I'm talking about topics such as how to have write a paper, I have purpose, and that just seems to be something intriguing in itself.

So taking some time before starting a paper, can change the whole process. Having purpose seems to work for most parts of life, and it's no different with writing papers. If I know why I am writing what I am, everything just seems to work out better.