Tanmayee Yenumula; Class Notes (9.28-10.1)

Writing Techniques

Clarity: Being clear in your thoughts and your words—saying what you actually intend to say, and doing it in such a way that your reader understands you—is your highest duty as a writer, more important that beauty or elegance or even originality


Be careful! If you do not make sure your writing is clear, you could end up being as unclear as the signs above!
For more funny signs like the ones shown above, visit this site: http://www.coolpicturegallery.net/2010/07/hilarious-examples-of-signs-lost-in.html
To use clarity:

• Short active verbs (to convey action)
• Subjects that match up with their actors ( to bring the main action into the central subject-verb structure of their sentences)
• Concision (to keep the readers focused on what REALLY matters)
• Sustained flow of sentences from a single POV (to keep the story unfolding in a way the reader can follow easily)
• AVOID PASSIVE VOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• AVOID NOMINALIZATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a website that briefly goes over clarity: http://www.wheaton.edu/learnres/writectr/Resources/clarity.htm
The Plain Style: Strive to be sensibly simple and develop a baseline style of short words, active verbs, and relatively simple sentences conveying clear actions or identities
- Faster
- Easier
- Increase reader interest
To use plain style:

• Find one voice and stick with it!
• Do not be afraid to be plain
• Use short words, active verbs, and simple sentences

Concision: Is a constant battle. The keys are to build around strong verbs, prefer active voice to the passive voice, be suspicious of adverbs, and toss out empty words and phrases.
To use concision: 

• Make the cut—get rid of the wordy "claptrap"
• Throw out those empty words!
• Avoid adverbs.
• Focus on using ACTIVE VOICE NOT PASSIVE VOICE

Here is a neat checklist to use when checking for concision: http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/%7Euwc/Writing%20Resources/Handouts/concision_check.htm
Rhetoric: An art or science of persuasion by means of stylistic and structural techniques
To use rhetoric:

• Focus on diction
• Try to use more parallelism—gives structure but is still sophisticated
• Use repetition to hammer home an idea, image, or relationship
• Choose a tense (past, present, or future) and STICK TO IT
• Make sure to keep in mind the historical present—with books, always PRESENT TENSE
• Give a whirl at alliteration
• Follow the rule of three (in terms of parallelism)
• Use humor sparingly
• Consider whether or not it is appropriate to use first or second person
• Don't use exclamations in academic writing
• Place emphasis by taking advantage of the natural rhythm of English sentences

Syntax As Style

FANBOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So
Simple Sentence
Compound Sentence
Complex Sentence
Using Syntax:

• Short sentences convey action and ideas more forcefully than longer sentences
• Present tense conveys action and ideas more forcefully than past tense
• Constructions that generally have lower "energy" can be intensified with the use of verbals
• Imperatives are more forceful than declaratives
• The -ing form of verbs contribute to particularly active and forceful constructions
• The passive voice can be used to obscure responsibility or create an impersonal tone
• The passive voice can be used to create emphasis or delay a piece of information in order to create a brief moment of suspense
• Conjunctions can be used as sentence openers to make relationships among ideas clear
• The deliberate omission of conjunctions, asyndeton, creates a casual, hurried, and sometimes poetic tone
• Elements of a sentence can be shifted out of their usual order to provide emphasis
• Inverted syntax can also create a poetic or "literary" tone

Here is a great website that helps with syntax: http://richgibson.com/writingmanual/chap3.htm

Connections

I am able to use these writing techniques to write my college essays because they require me to write an efficient essay clearly and concisely. Because we have specific word limits (250 words...really?!?!?), we have to focus on being clear without being too lengthy. It also turns out that the stuff that literature teachers don't like to see (ex: passive voice), college admissions counselors don't like the see either (go figure!). So, using the techniques for writing with clarity and well as concision can actually decide whether or not I get accepted (that's okay because I have these awesome notes ;0 ).