Article Analysis: The Importance of Writing Badly Bruce Ballenger’s article titled “The Importance of Writing Badly” takes a rather peculiar approach to addressing the issue of effective writing. The author eccentrically argues for the importance of ‘bad writing’ by describing different reasons to support his arguments. He argues that it is normal to apportion blames without understanding the root causes of poor writing skills. The author quotes different people who have expressed concerns about poor writing among students including his doctor. He proceeds by explaining why he would encourage his students not to concentrate on their poor writing experiences. He explains this by using a personal anecdote. The author gives an example of his eighth-grade teacher, Mrs. O’Neil. He explains that his English teacher was very keen on grammar. Her error-free culture would see the Ballenger receive ‘awkward’ comments each time he submitted his assignment for marking. The author further observes that everyone went …show more content…
The author elicits the emotions of his readers through his personal narrations, careful choice of words and phrases among others. Right from the start, the author describes his traumatic experience in English writing class and ways he felt misunderstood in order to emotionally appeal to the audience. He intends to persuade the audience to acquire his position by triggering their emotions of sympathy. In addition, his soft tone has equally earned him pity. Concisely, Bruce Ballenger’s article on the importance of poor writing helps unravel several issues in effective English teaching practice. His approach to the issue as well as the presentation is quite skillful. He has created a great flow of ideas through his adept use of different rhetorical devices. The inclusion of a personal story, presentation of evidence and other features in the article has helped create a convincing