Class Notes : Week 3: September 27th - October 1st

Clarity

• "You don't need to outdo the competition. It's expensive and defensive. Underdo your competition. We need more simplicity and clarity" (Fried).
• Use short active verbs to convey action
• Use subjects that match up with their actors to bring the main action into the sentences
• Use concision to keep the reader focused
• Ideas should flow
• The active voice expresses actions in a straightforward fashion
• The passive voice helps the writer dodge the question of who performed the action
• Nominalizations (actions expressed as nouns) should be used with caution (i.e. the use of "an explanation was provided" instead of "he explained")
• Source: http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/clarity.html

The Plain Style

• Plain-ness in writing is usually good
• Use powerful, yet concise words to replace wordy and less powerful phrases (i.e. use "powerful" instead of "fast-paced, emotionally tense")
• Agency is avoiding the question of who did what (i.e. saying "a terrible thing has happened" instead of "I smashed my mom's china")
• Link: http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/plainstyle.htm

Concision

• "Vigorous writing is concise" (Strunk).
• Padding our writing with unnecessary wordiness is bad
• Empty words should be cut (i.e. "these are the practical contingency management implications" can become "these are the practical implications")
• One way to write better is to replace a weak adverb + verb construct with a stronger verb (i.e. "successfully obtains their support" can be replaced with "wins their support")
• Link: http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/concision.html

Rhetoric

• Rhetoric is the art or science of persuasion by means of stylistic and structural techniques
• As we learned last week, another definition of rhetoric is "the art of communication"
• The first rhetorical choice of a writer is diction
• Plain diction is usually better than fancy diction.
• For more notes on diction: http://apelit-okemos.spruz.com/pt/Wendy-Liu-Class-Notes-Journal-Week-1-September-13th-September-17th/blog.htm
• Parallelism is a useful and flexible rhetorical technique
• Repetition is a useful tool because it can really bring an idea across
• Tenses should be consistent
• Alliteration and tricolon makes writing sound better
• Humor should be avoided in formal writing
• Think before using the first and second persons in writing
• Try not to use an exclamation point when writing
• When writing, remember: the end of the sentence is what the reader remembers the most
• Link: http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/rhetoric.html
• As we learned last week, when writing, the subject, purpose, audience, and speaker need to be considered

A good image that shows the importance of rhetoric: http://argumentation.computing.dundee.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/american.rhetoric.png 

Syntax

• The rules that govern how we put together languages
• SVO (subject, verb, object) is a common way to express ourselves
• If syntax is varied through construction and length, it impacts the reader in several ways, such as pace, tone, and emphasis/attention
• Pace is how fast something seems to be moving
• When writing, think about, what’s the tone? What things should be in the foreground? Which things should be in the background?
• Coordinating conjunction: FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
• Subordinating conjunctions begin the dependent clause that precedes the independent clause. It's more subtle than a coordinating conjunction (i.e. after, because, if, lest, how, since, though, unless, whenever)
• A compound sentence is what happens when there are coordinating conjunctions (i.e. Would you like to swim, or go jogging with me?)
• A complex sentence is what happens when there are subordinating conjunctions (i.e. If I ate your cookie, what would you do?)
• A simple sentence is what happens when there aren’t any conjunctions (i.e. I run.)

A great guide to writing clearly while following the rules of the English language: http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/style.html 

I try to use the techniques that we learned this week in AP U.S. Government. In AP U.S. Government, concision, clarity, and plain-ness are key. The aim behind essay-writing for that class is simply to get the point across, and the techniques we learned in class this week are really useful for that purpose.

Homework

1. September 28th: edit of two peer papers due by 8 pm
2. September 29th: final draft of poetry analysis due by 8 pm
3. October 3rd: critical approaches wiki due by 8 am

Works Cited

Fried, Jason. SXSW. 2006. Web. Oct. 2010.  
Strunk, William. Elements of Style. N.p.: n.p., 1919. Web. 3 Oct. 2010.