Thursday, October 2, 2008

Creative and Functional Writing

Creative and Functional writing both have a goal to convey a message or an idea. Creative is a much more liberal, free-spirited approach whereas Fuctional is meant to remain objective and follow a step by step process. Both writing styles are meant to hold some form of creativity to grasp the audience's attention but in do so in different ways. Creative Writing emphasizes the author's imagination and opinion. It is a way to jot down opinions, emotions, and ideas. There is not always a goal in creative writing.
Functional writing follows a specific format to accomplish a specific mission. From the beginning, the author has a mission for their audience, whether it is to motivate, inform, or influence. Functional writing has a purpose and in many instances will coincide with creative writing.
Creative writing is a more colorful, entertaining way to push ideas, feelings, or imagination. In order to grasp attention, authors will use their creativity in functional writing to make it more appleaing to the reader and put a different spin on things.
The two forms of writing have similarties and differences, but ultimately, one cannot exist without the other. If an author intends to motivate or educate his audience, he needs to have the creativitiy to pull the audience in. Bottom line, the author's voice only exists if an audience is present.

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