Conciseness will you by my Valentine?

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet;

And so are you.

On Valentines day, I cannot think of a better example of writing that gets to the point. I, myself, am one of he biggest culprits when it comes to using long verbose sentences that are often flowery and excessive (like that one). Despite this being true through, I am actually a huge advocate of concise language and writing. However, the truth is that while I may not always be able to achieve such a writing style, it is one that I admire and personally believe it is the most affective. A few weeks ago, I wrote a creative writing piece for one of my classes and was determined to use this type of language. I sat down and cut out everything that was unnecessary or that restated anything that had already been made clear the actions of my characters. What was I left with? The best piece of creative writing that I have ever written (in my opinion). What I believe worked so well about this piece was that by just putting on the page what was the essence of what needed to be said, it not only displayed a certain amount of honesty, but it also showed that I had complete confidence in my work and my ability to prove something and therefore didn’t need to repeat myself. I think that same strategy can completely be applied to writing analytical papers.

            Today I was shadowing and a first-year student brought his paper in to be looked at. First of all, I will say that I believe that this situation was an anomaly because otherwise us writing tutors would be out of a job. But, with that said, this student’s paper was incredibly successful and one of the best papers I have ever read. Thinking back on it now, I realize that the reason it was so effective and successful was because it was very focused and efficient in the sense that each paragraph had a clear point it wanted to achieve and did so. In The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors, one of the suggestions they have for helping a writer when they are starting off is to continually ask them “What do you mean by this” and “How,” therefore getting at the age old concept of So What? I completely agree that this is a useful tool because the results of which can be seen in a paper like this student’s. As I was reading, every quote he used, paragraph he had and into/conclusion sentence he put in continually answered the “What/How/Why” questions. As a result, I never felt like he was just saying something to take up space or because he was repeating himself, but because each sentence propelled the reader to the next working through his argument.

            However, I think that it is not only important that a paper is concise overall, but also, that it is more effective when the sentence structure is not overdone.  The Writer’s Web guide for doing so really pulls out some of what I see as something I constantly do in my work that actually takes away from my paper rather than adding to it like I mean to. It’s interesting how something as simple as changing a sentence from passive to active, immediately strengthens an argument. I think that if it is possible to strengthen individual sentences, using only what is necessary by cutting out extra prepositions, adverbs and adjectives, then a piece of writing becomes not only more enjoyable for a reader. Therefore, the audience is able to soak up the main points, but makes the word choice seem very thought out.