Thoughts from Famous Authors William Faulkner, a Nobel-Prize- winning American author, was once asked: “Some people say they can’t understand your writing, even after they have read it two or three times. What approach would you suggest for them?” He responded: “Read it four times.”

Thoughts from Famous Authors When Ernest Hemingway, an author known for his simple, accessible style, also won the Nobel Prize, Faulkner responded by saying Hemingway didn’t deserve it because: “he has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”

Thoughts from Famous Authors Hemingway responded: “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think that big emotions come from big words?”

My Philosophy of Writing Some of your teachers are going to encourage you to use complex, high-brow language as much as possible. I disagree with that philosophy. I believe that humans invented and use language to make understanding one another easier. When using language, your primary objective should be to make your message as easy to understand as possible. Sometimes, a big, complex word or a long, complex sentence is the clearest way of communicating your idea. Often simpler, more direct sentences are more effective. As is usually the case, this depends on your audience!

WtL Write a 6-word memoir. You only have 6 words, and you need to tell your life story! One way to start would be writing a longer memoir and thin it down to just 6 words. DO NOT put your name on it. I’m going to collect them and read them out loud! If you are really not comfortably with me reading yours aloud, please specify on your 6-word memoir. I will still collect it for participation points, but I won’t read it in front of the class. Examples: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” “Found on Craigslist: table, apartment, fiancé” “After Harvard, had baby with crackhead”

Purposeful and Concise Writing

Concise v. Complex Source: http://i.imgur.com/whGPAlN.jpg Read this aloud to class. This reference is aging fast, so some students may not be able to catch onto what the original phrasing was Source: http://i.imgur.com/whGPAlN.jpg

Purposeful Writing Readers generally appreciate clear writing that gets straight to the point. The words you put in a sentence should be there for a purpose. That means purposeful writing is often concise writing. Concise writing eliminates potential for readers to get “lost” in your sentence making them more likely to truly understand your meaning. When selecting a tone, it is important to consider what is the most effective choice for your audience. “Academic” or “professional” is not always the most effective choice! It might be more effective to say “on fleek” instead of “well-executed”! (depending on your audience)

How to Write Concisely: Eliminate wordy phrases Practice word economy: use one word rather than many Wordy Phrases Concise Alternatives At this point in time… At the present time… In the not-too-distant future In close proximity to… …is necessary that… …is able to… …has the ability to… Due to the fact that… For the reason that… In spite of the fact that… In the event that… In the final analysis… In order to… For the purpose(s) of… Now Soon Near Must Can Because Although If Finally To

More Wordy Phrases Wordy Phrase Concise Alternative As a matter of fact At all times At that point in time At this point in time At the present time Because of the fact that By means of Due to the fact that In order to In spite of the fact that In the event that Nowadays, in today’s society… In fact Always Then Now, currently Because By To Although, though If Now

Eliminate Redundancies Redundancies are meaningless repetitions that result in wordiness. Eliminate common redundancies such as: First and foremost -very Full and complete -rather Final result -really Past histories -absolutely Round in shape -definitely Refer back -incredibly

Redundant Examples Students living in close proximity in the dorms need to cooperate together if they want to live in harmony. That film was really hard to watch, but absolutely worth seeing. The ending definitely shocked us very much.

“Rivet Theory” Exercise In ecology, “rivet theory” is the idea that there are certain organisms an ecosystem needs for it to survive – those organisms are the “rivets” holding the ecosystem together. By contrast, an ecosystem can often lose several organisms that are not “rivets” and still survive. In the spirit of ecocriticism, let’s apply this theory to your writing. Take a particularly wordy sentence or short paragraph. Looking at that sentence/paragraph: Cut out every word you can without losing your meaning entirely. For the sake of practice, take this to the extreme and keep chopping out words until your sentence falls apart. When you’ve gone “a word too far,” that can help you figure out what the most concise form of your sentence might look like. Then you can go back and add in a few, carefully chosen words to spice it up or better capture your meaning (if necessary). Take about 5 minutes to practice this a few times.

Practice Time! Take a few minutes to look over your draft and consider the following. For now, just make notes to come back and revise these details; you don’t need to make all the revisions now. Are you being purposeful in your word choice? Do you need all of the words you included? Do you have any complex or “academic” words that could be replaced with simpler alternatives? Can you eliminate and redundancies? None of these are absolute rules, but when you find them, ask yourself: do you really need this word instead of a simpler alternative? Would your meaning and/or ability to appeal to your audience be diminished by using different words? If so, you probably need to keep your phrasing as it is.

Compound Nouns, Compound Adjectives, Prefixes, and Compound Numbers Hyphen Use Compound Nouns, Compound Adjectives, Prefixes, and Compound Numbers

“Sci-fi” is usually hyphenated, but “science fiction” usually isn’t “Sci-fi” is usually hyphenated, but “science fiction” usually isn’t. Why do you think that might be?

Three Uses of Hyphens There are three situations where you use hyphens: Compound adjectives – adjectives which are made up of more than one word, but those words combine to make one adjective, which cannot be separated by an “and” without losing their intended meaning. “‘The MAV’s for a seven-degree tilt. It’ll tip at 12.3’” (Weir 137). “Degree and seven” Compound nouns – multiple words which join together to make a single noun. Some compound nouns can become a single word without a hyphen (e.g. paperclip), but others need a hyphen to make them a single noun and to avoid misunderstanding Light-year, light-minute X-ray

Three Uses of Hyphens (Continued) There are three situations where you use hyphens: Prefixes – prefixes come before words to make them negative, indicate repetition, and/or indicate something is done by oneself or to oneself. “Martinez ran a self-check on the nose cone OMS thrusters” (Weir 141). Compound numbers – numbers 21 and above are hyphenated when written out. This rule repeats for numbers in the hundreds and beyond when the last two digits exceed twenty (e.g. “one hundred and twenty-seven”). “‘He’s seventy-six kilometers from the Hab,’ Mindy said, ‘For an overnight test, wouldn’t he stat within walking distance?’” (Weir 88).

Other Examples Light-second Faster-than-light travel Nineteen Eighty-Four Self-sustaining Pre-flight checklist Zero-g Life-like appearance World-ending collision

Partner Activity With a partner, look through the provided sample text and identify both places within the next that do need hyphens and places that currently have hyphens but do not need them (there is at least one unnecessary hyphen).

Individual Practice Now, let’s get a little creative with hyphens. Take a minute or two to come up with adjectives that use a total of 5 hyphens. That could be one compound adjective made of 6 words or some combination of other compound adjectives

Practice Time! Take a few minutes to look through the draft your brought today and consider: Are you using hyphens everywhere they are needed? (compound adjectives, compound nouns, prefixes, and numbers over twenty-one) Are you misusing any hyphens that need to be removed? Can you judiciously add a few hyphens to spice up your writing (particularly in creative writing)? Look through your draft and makes some notes on where you might want to come back to revise.

“Sci-fi” is usually hyphenated, but “science fiction” usually isn’t “Sci-fi” is usually hyphenated, but “science fiction” usually isn’t. Why do you think that might be? SKIP this slide if this question was successfully answered previously, though there could be a few different interpretations for a right answer