The Importance of Clarity in Writing

Clarity As writers we are nothing if we are not clear. RULE #1: Delete all of your extra words!

Writer’s Job Making the content accessible is the WRITER’S JOB. Knowledge isn’t worth much if we can’t convey it to others.

What it is & isn’t… Good, clear writing is neither dumb nor over-simple. Unclear writing is self-indulgent if not arrogant.

Length Rule of Thumb: Most sentences become unclear when they move past 10 words.

Rewrite It’s perfectly possible to write clear but silly statements, and we must note that fact although it is not our concern at the present – even if a companion benefit of clear writing is that it’s easier to spot inconsistencies, inaccuracies and illogic if we don’t have to deal with long and dense passages and jargon laden-or difficult vocabulary. Students should be able to reduce this down to about 12-14 words. (The major benefit of clear writing is that it is easier to spot errors.) Have them remove deadwood, redundancy, and multiple ideas)

Punctuation A woman, without her man, is nothing.

And more… Dear Jack, I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy -- will you let me be yours? --Jill

Or.. Dear Jack, I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn. For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours, Jill

Apostrophes ’ Contractions: If you combine words and “take something away” (a space and letters), then you must “give something back” (an apostrophe) Do not = don’t Possession: Belonging (item, location) Singular Possession (word not ending in “s”) Verona’s mall (One parent) My parent’s house Singular Possession (word ending in “s”) Chris’ shirt Plural Possession (Two parents) My parents’ house

Commas , Around or After Extra Information (Prepositional, Parenthetical, Appositive, etc.) goes inside of commas Sometime last night, my kitten, Tolstoi, chewed through my cell phone charger’s cord. The Noisome Trio, my favorite band, plays at eight o’clock tonight! In dialogue with direct address Jenny, please help me. I don’t like your shoes, Jim.

Will you help me Jenn? I hate French fries mom! Jack why do you smell like moldy cheese?

Quotations Punctuating Dialogue (Talking & Conversation) New speaker = new line New subject (same speaker) = new line New line = indent! “Quotation marks” around everything said Most punctuation after dialogue goes INSIDE of quotation marks . , ! ?

Possessives “Am I looking at my dinner or the dog’s?”

It’s vs. Its It’s your turn. The dog has eaten its food. RULE #2: If you can replace the word “it’s” with it is or it has, then the word is it’s, if not, its!” If you are terrible at remembering this, just don’t use contractions.

Spell Check Deer Mr. Strompel, It was a grate pleasure to meat you’re staff and the undersigned look foreword too sea you soon inn the near future.

One Idea Per Sentence Roberta Harvey, who in ten years brought the city zoo from a small menagerie to a sprawling natural habitat, has resigned as director and will be succeeded by James Ashworth, currently zoo curator at Bellville. What are the main ideas here? 1.      The director of the zoo has resigned 2.      What the director has accomplished 3.      Who will be the new director.

Concrete vs. Abstract Concrete words deal with the tangible – that which can be seen, touched, heard. Abstract words deal with the intangible – ideas, concepts, qualities

Make these concrete… She led a fuzzy white dog in a colorful vest.

Pretentious Writing Your goal is to communicate, not impress your reader with convoluted language.

Change… The setting solar orb disappeared behind the arboreal horizon.

Change… If the new product doesn’t improve consumer-wise, we will experience an adverse effect on anticipated resources.

Vague Referencs Your intention may be perfectly clear to you, but it may not be to your readers.

Why Confusing? Beth wanted to go shopping with Kathy, but she was too busy.

Or… Frank got married to Joyce in August, but that was probably a mistake.

And here? The tape deck was designed by our engineer with three heads.