Creating Memorable Prose Style Creating Memorable Prose

Be concise. Eliminate redundant words Eliminate empty words The horse was large in size and brown in color. The horse was large and brown. The large, brown horse… Eliminate empty words The housing situation can have a really significant impact on the social aspect of a student’s life. Housing can strongly influence a student’s social life.

Be concise (cont.) Replace wordy phrases Wordy At all times At the present time At that point in time Due to the fact that In order to In spite of the fact that In the event that For the purpose of Concise Always Now/today Then Because To Although If For

Be concise (cont.) Use simple grammatical structures When she was questioned about her previous job, she seemed nervous. She also tried to change the subject When questioned about her previous job, she seemed nervous and tried to change the subject.

Maintain Parallelism Use parallel structures in lists The children ran down the hill, skipped over the lawn, and into the swimming pool. ^jumped

Vary Sentence Structure Vary sentence length Of paragraphs, too. Vary openings Use transitions (Ex. However, furthermore, etc.), introductory clauses (Ex. Although video games are marketed as fun, they can also aid in learning.), verbal phrases (Ex. Angered by gender binaries, Butler argues that gender is performance.), & prepositional phrases (Ex. In addition to beginning sentences with a subject, you can also use intro phrases.)

Choose Strong Verbs Use precise verbs Avoid passive verbs (as a rule) Decide if you rely too heavily on the verbs, be, do, and have Avoid passive verbs (as a rule) The pumps were destroyed by a surge of power. (Passive) A surge of power destroyed the pumps. (Active)

Avoid Nominalizations Change nouns to verbs The agency conducted an investigation into the matter. The agency investigated the matter.

Some Practice Underline all verbs, and look to see whether you rely too much on be, do, and have. If so, try to substitute for more specific verbs. Note nouns whose meaning could be expressed by a verb. Try revising using the verb instead of the noun. Look for passive verbs, and decide whether they obscure the performer of the action or dull the sentence. If so, recast the sentence in the active voice.

More practice 4. Look to see if sentence length is varied. If not, try combining choppy sentences and/or eliminating wordy sentences. 5. Examine the beginnings of your sentences for variability. Try using prepositional and verbal phrases, as well as transitions. 6. Eliminate empty and redundant words.