The six traits of writing are: idea, organization, voice, word choice, sentence structure, and writing conventions. Every good article shows strong characteristics of the above-referenced six traits. If an article is missing one of these traits, it could appear confusing and ill-organized. Although all these traits are essential in an article, they are not always equally important. I would rank them in the following order: idea, voice, organization, word choice, sentence structure and writing conventions.
Idea is the creativity of an article, and the points that an article is trying to discuss. This is the backbone of an article. Without an interesting idea, an article is boring to read, even if it expresses all the other traits of writing. If the idea is not clear, the whole article is muddled, and the writer is not in very good control of his/her article. When the idea is good, the article will be interesting, clear, and logical.
Voice is the personality of an article. It is the “way” that a writer tries to express his/her ideas in an article. When an article has a good voice, the reader can feel the writer's feelings that he or she tried to express in an article. If the voice in an article is weak, the reader may not be impressed by the article. The voice of the article is the voice of the writer. Every article has its voice, because each writer has his or her own personality. However, the effectiveness of a voice can make a great difference for an article.
Organization is how the ideas in an article are organized. Good organization helps the article flow smoothly along. It ties ideas together and helps the reader form a link between paragraphs. Without proper organization, the article flies everywhere and the reader can't catch the idea.
A good writer makes word choices to select more descriptive words over bland and common words. Many words express the same meaning, but some are more descriptive than others. Word choice sometimes reflects a writer's imagination and focus on details. When an article has good word choice, it appears more accurate and more vivid to the reader. Good word choice gives energy and liveliness to an article. It shows that the writer completely controls the words and harnesses the power of words.
Sentence structure is the way a writer organizes his/her sentences in an article. Bad sentence structure can make an article look confusing and awkward, which makes the article difficult to read. Good sentence structure makes an article flow smoothly, and a combination of different types of sentence structures make an article more interesting to read.
Writing conventions include grammar, punctuation, spelling, paragraphing, and readability of an article. Basically, they are the rules that a writer has to follow during writing. If a writer does not follow these rules, there will be many errors in his/her article. As a result, the idea of the writer can not be effectively expressed. These mistakes can also make an article difficult to follow and sometimes can make the reader misunderstand what the writer tries to say.
To conclude, the six traits of writing discussed in the previous paragraphs are essential to a good article. All good articles show an excellent control of these six traits. However, in my opinion, they are not always equally important. I would rank idea the most important trait in an article, because it is the backbone of the article. Voice comes second, because it expresses the writer's personality. The third one is organization; it shows the way the ideas are organized. Word choice comes fourth; it reflects the writer's imagination and the focus on details. Sentence structure is ranked fifth, and the last one is writing conventions. Although writing conventions is ranked last, it is still very important. Nobody would enjoy reading an article full of misspelled words and wrong grammar.
