Definitions

I think that, within the field of writing, my pettest of peeves would have to be people who say that you can't teach good writing. Why not? Because good writing has a certain inexplicable quality? What makes it inexplicable? If it can't be explained, then how can you know what is or what isn't good? You seem to know enough about it to wield "good", so why can't you define it?

As far as I'm concerned, anything that can be identified can be defined. If I can identify bad writing, then good writing certainly exists. And if bad writing and good writing both exist, then there must be certain, tangible criteria that separate them. Finally, if I have an exhaustive list of criteria that classify writing as good, then any piece of writing that follows these criteria will be good.

Although I have never taken the time to analyze writing so thoroughly and have never put together such a list, I have just laid down the framework to teach good writing. Tomorrow, I will teach creativity.