1. Concise Writing NO MATTER WHAT YOUR DISCIPLINE
Presented by Barbara Hill at WIDAC Symposium 2017
Community College of Baltimore County
WID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hil l Professor

2. What is concise writing? “Less is More”
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
— William Strunk Jr. in Elements of Style
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

3. Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

4. Dictionary says “Concise”…..
Expressing or covering much in few words
Brief in form but comprehensive in scope
Succinct
Terse
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

5. Steps to getting in concise writing. (or) to happen development
Steps to getting in concise writing. (or) to happen development. Developing concise writing skills
Prune the redundant
Create a ‘lean version’ by trimming extra words.
Reduce clauses to phrases and phrases to words
Only use words if necessary.
IT IS ABOUT DECISION MAKING….
Remove redundancy
EXAMPLE: ‘ Summarize briefly’ replace with ‘summarize’
Reduce phrases to words
EXAMPLE: ‘Citizens who knew what was going on voted him out of office.’
Replace with ‘knowledgeable citizens voted him out of office.’
Omit gratuitous intensifiers and qualifiers. (very, quite, extremely)
Expunge expletives
Negate nominalizations: i.e. to convert (another part of speech) into a noun, as in changing the adjective lowly into the lowly or the verb legalize into legalization.
Delete superfluous phrases (repetitive phrases)
Avoid clichés
Interrogate every word in a sentence
Change phrases into single words or adjectives
The employee with ambition…..The ambitious employee
Change passive verbs into active verbs
‘An account was opened by Mrs. Simms’. Change to ‘Mrs. Simms opened an account’
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

6. Where do I find concise writing resources?
Search on concise writing or go to Purdue Owl and search concise writing
Owl at Purdue resources
University of Wisconsin "The Writer's Handbook“
University of North Carolina Handout
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

7. What is the goal???
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

8. Show and Tell
There is nothing like you experiencing what you are asking your students to accomplish.
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

9. How do I teach students to write concisely?
Poster Presentations (any discipline)
Have them submit the edits done in development
Resources
Clear Expectations
This resource has a quiz they can take and describes the concise writing process
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

10. EDIT: Clarity vs. Concise How to make it happen? ?? Poster
How does the written segment appear?
Objective?
Word Count
Have you missed some important perspectives? (editors help here)
Word Count
Appearance
Attempt 1
Crowded, Cluttered
Attempt 2
Attempt 3
1. Clarity of content vs. concise. You will need to decide on a small number of key points that you want your viewers to take away from your presentation, and you will need to articulate those ideas clearly and concisely. 2. Visual interest and accessibility. You want viewers to notice and take interest in your poster so that they will pause to learn more about your project, and you will need the poster’s design to present your research in a way that is easy for those viewers to make easy sense of it.
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

11. Version 1
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

12. What improved?
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

13. Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

14. Improving the quality of student’s work
Idea 1 Give students credible resources
Idea 2 Practice the skill
Idea 3 And more practice
Idea 4 .com sites are talking about it!
Idea 5 Owl at Purdue site map
Idea 6 Paramedic Method
Idea 7 Conciseness information
Idea: Submit edits to each other/ teacher to get suggestions using paramedic process.
Limit pages and outline contents of assignment
Have the students do exercises and practice revising sentences.(google “concise writing exercises”)
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

15. YES: Concise writing and the humanities
It is an academic exercise that is NOT easy
One has to reframe a project
Take home message is…
Concise writing is different skill set from a narrative style research paper
This project sought to establish the ideal specifications for clinically useful wheelchair pressure mapping systems, and to use these specifications to influence the design of an innovative wheelchair pressure mapping system.
Aims of study: • Define the ideal wheelchair pressure mapping system • Design a new system to meet these specifications
Narrative
Concise
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

16. How about faculty? HERE WE GO BACK TO BASICS 101…………………Slide 3
Faculty can be an audience and learn concise writing
HERE WE GO BACK TO BASICS 101…………………Slide 3
This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
Expressing or covering much in few words
Brief in form but comprehensive in scope
Succinct
Terse
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

17. Syllabus idea 1
CCBC recognizes clear, correct and concise use of language is a characteristic of an educated person. Well-rounded, educated people are able to effectively communicate both verbally and in writing. Writing is an essential step to learning. You will be presented with an enormous amount of material in this course. If you are able to organize the material and explain it (like you would to a classmate), you will have a better comprehension of the concepts. As a nurse, it is critical that you can effectively communicate in writing.
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

18. Syllabus idea 2
A task of education, is to prepare you to function effectively in the world where readers generally expect you to control Edited Standard Written English (ESWE). Thus in this class you must use ESWE for finished, final, formal writing and written course communication. Students are responsible for knowing ESWE rules and catching their own departures in all written communication and course work.
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill

19. References https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/683/05/
Strunk, William. Elements of Style. Pearson Publisher, 2016.
Community College of Baltimore CountyWID/AC conference 2017 presentation by Barbara Hill