5 Cognate Strategies in Writing
In Chapter 4 we were able to discuss the Rhetorical elements and Cognate strategies that help us as writers be more effective and efficient. The Cognate strategies were developed by Charles Kostelnick and David Roberts. The word “cognate” refers to knowledge, and these strategies are techniques to impart knowledge to your audience which are effective both in oral and written communication.
The first cognate strategy is Clarity. Many times when we are going to write we have the ideas in our mind of what we want to share and express to our reader, however the problem is that many times we do not write it clear enough for the reader to understand what we wanted to say. The words we use, the structure and the presentation all form how clear we are writing to our readers. Whatever we include in our writing, quotations, anecdotes, stories or any other form of literature device needs to connect clearly to our main topic for our readers to get the intended meaning of our writing or else it will only
…show more content…
As a good writer we will naturally develop a relationship with our reader, and the need to make trust an element is key to that development. The word “credibility” comes from the word “credence,” or belief. Credibility involves your qualities, capabilities, or power to elicit from the audience belief in your character. Developing a sense of our character and credibility may involve displaying our real us and our sense of humor, our ability to make our reader laugh or cry, the ability to share our experiences and get the reader’s trust or all the ability to share personal insight into the topic we are discussing. All of these helps developing character and trust. In my school we develop credibility by doing what we promise, for example if a parent asks for a letter, we make sure that the letter is completed for when we said it will be ready. This helps the parents trust us as a school