About Writing

This question has been  on my mind as I prepare to teach Public Speaking at a local college this summer. The excellent textbook selected by the college takes students through every aspect of preparing and delivering a speech. As I work my way through the book and prepare lesson plans, I’ve been struck by how often the advice also works for writing.
The book, for example, emphasizes the importance of having clearly defined goals for every speech and of tailoring talks for different audiences. Hmmm, sounds like good advice for the written word, as well.
Some of the instruction, of course, only applies to public speaking. When you’re sitting alone at your computer, dressing appropriately for the occasion is a non-issue, and you can gesture all you want without distracting your audience.

Writing is an important form of communication. Good writers use different writing techniques to fit their purpose for writing. To be a good writer, you must master each of the following writing techniques.

1. Description

   Through description, a writer helps the reader use the senses of feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting to experience what the writer experiences. Description helps the reader more clearly understand the people, places, and things about which the writer is writing. It is the most common form of writing. You will find descriptive writing in newspapers, magazines, books, and most other forms of written communication.

   
   

A useful skill in English is to be able to tell a story or an anecdote. Anecdotes are short stories about something that happened to you or to someone you know.

How to start
Traditional stories often start with the phrase "Once upon a time". However, if you are going to tell your story after someone else has already spoken, you can say something like:
That reminds me!
Funny you should say that. Did I ever tell you about…
Hearing your story reminds me of when…
Something similar happened to me….

How to tell your story
First of all, your story should be quite short. Try to keep it grammatically simple as well, so that it is easy to follow.
Make it easy for the listener to understand by using sequencing and linking words: