Notice that when you come across a written piece, - a story, an essay, a letter, or perhaps even a poem, - your reaction could be "I like it!" or "I don't like it"! You respond one way or another. You might even say, "I didn't get it!"... or perhaps say, "I want to read that again"! A lot to say about these responses but let me streamline my thoughts for now and share with you a couple; one being that responding to what you read is somehow a movement towards appreciating not only writing you like, but also writing you might not like. After all, to be a competent writer, you first have to be an attentive reader.
Thus when you are an engaged reader, you get to have an insight into the elements of successful writing.... you get to recognize the writer's skill, the effort he made.... you get to admire the emotions he or she is able to make you feel. And from a sea of written language where in you swim, you usually respond in writing to what you read. Usually. Because sometimes, you just write whenever you feel like.... and then wait for others to respond to it. If at all!
Now from your readings, you normally catch a purpose, wouldn't you? You would identify three broad categories of writing as classified and explained as such by academicians like Judith Ferster, namely: the expository, which is informative; the argumentative, which attempts to persuade you to think or do something; and the expressive, which conveys thoughts and feelings. If you were to think of the audience to which written texts are addressed, however, you'd distinguish between two kinds: civic writing, which speaks to communities of any membership and academic writing, which speaks to students or experts on subjects of study in academic disciplines.
This invites your attention now to what they call the communications triangle in which the corners representing the message, its sender, and its receiver, all center on a common subject matter. What's interesting here is the fact that these above points are interdependent. If, for instance, you'd like to describe your instructor to your best friend; imagine how you'd describe the same instructor on a formal report or evaluation to be submitted to his dean. Or, on another situation, take for granted you were to write two versions of a letter to support a friend applying for job. One of these would be sent to the prospective employer asking you for the friend's strengths and weaknesses while the other would be for the friend himself to read. In both cases, the differences between the two sets of writing will likely be different in terms of format, word choices, and tone, among other things.
But it is said there is one other kind of writing often called imaginative which doesn't quite fit comfortably into any of the above-mentioned categories. Sometimes it is informative, sometimes argumentative and sometimes expressive... sometimes it is addressed to the world, sometimes it is meant only for a particular group or even just for the writer himself - like you or I might be. I'm sure examples of what we are calling imaginative literature or writing fill your mind right now. But one significant thing is that published or not, this type of writing - the imaginative kind of writing - can violate the normal rules of genre and still find its place among creative arts. It is interesting to note that it isn't governed by the formal rules that do letters to the editor, for example, or to laboratory or business reports. And imaginative writing offers versions of reality with insights into human life.
So active reading would help you determine not only what a work says but also how it says it. It helps you shape your responses to what you read....makes you delve deeper than surface meanings, for one. But these thoughts, of course, just begin to scratch the surface of the process of writing. For now, it is just to understand and to be aware of the expansive nature of a reading background necessary for you to be a competent writer. Perhaps not just a breeze but doable when you set your heart to it. And therefore, to understand why you 'd respond to a written text with "I like it!" or "I don't like it"; with "I didn't get it!" or "I want to read that again!" -should help you become an effective and persuasive writer.
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