We have been reviewing ways of editing our writing for clarity, brevity, and eloquence.
Initially, we have looked at ways to reduce our word count and be clearer in our expression.
Sentence reduction:
- Use active voice over Passive voice in most academic writing: video tutorial
- Unneeded words ex. "Words or phrases that have little or no meaning fill space when we talk but have limited use in writing. Words such as kind of, actually, in particular, really, certain, various, virtually, individual, basically, generally, given, and practically give our brains a chance to collect our thoughts when speaking. When writing, we should have our thoughts already collected because this helps convey ideas more efficiently."
- Redundancy: "The football team made future plans to completely concentrate on the basic fundamentals of each individual position. Plans are always for the future; concentrating implies complete focus; fundamental means basic; and positions are individual. Therefore, the itali- cized words are unnecessary modifiers. "Negatives: "Changing negatives to affirmatives also eliminates extra words. Look for sentences that use not and see if you can rewrite the sentence to make it affirmative. . . Double negatives make your writing sound more confusing. Some words are negative by defi- nition, such as the verbs preclude, exclude, fail, reject, avoid, deny, prohibit, and refuse and such preposi- tions (Lesson 4) as against or without. Using a com- bination of these negative words will make your point very difficult to understand."
- Qualifiers "The best writing requires confidence. Starting sen-
tences with phrase such as I feel, I think, I believe, in
my opinion, or I am of the opinion that can dilute
what you have to say. Instead of using qualifying
phrases like those, say exactly what you mean. "
(Olson, Judith F. Writing Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day (New York: Learning Express, 1998).
We also looked at ways of combining or expanding sentences that may read as too 'choppy' or immature. See below for a review.
Sentence expansion:
Happy editing!
Ms. S
