Clarity, Part 1

Every writer can constantly improve their writing, and how do we do that? By reading about writing! In the post below, I will analyze four chapters found in the book Rules for Writers which address topics in writing that I feel that I could know more about and reflect on just how formative they were for my writing.

Skoic, Mladen "Out of Focus Dictionary with Hand Holding
Glasseswhich Correct Vision" via 123RF Public Domain Dedication

Mixed Constructions

As a poet, I have a tendency to often use devices such as parallelism and juxtaposition in my writing by nature. I was curious as to the actual grammatical application of of parallel ideas in standard writing. The reading was insightful in regards to:

• the need to coordinate parallel ideas with conjunctions
• the importance of tenses and expansion of phrases for detail
• remain clear throughout a parallel idea, rather than relying on the reader to make connections

Shifts

I strive to have fluid writing, and that relies heavily on accurate shifts. This section was more insightful to the ideas of avoiding bad shifts. It's focus was primarily on verb tenses and subjects; two topics which I didn't realize were important until reflecting on them. The importance of remaining clear in the subject of a sentence and the necessity of avoiding shifting between either subjects (such as from "we" to "you") or tenses ("just as I was tripping, my friend jumps to catch me" for example).

Emphasis

What surprised me about the emphasis chapter was the fact that it made me much more aware that there is a deliberate structure to the things I write that I have been conscious of. The progression of coordinating conjunctions and subordinations was one idea in particular that I always use, but am never aware of when using it. Perhaps now that I'm more aware of it, it will better my writing.

Wordy Sentences

I, like many other young writers, have the terribly habit of writing with too much of, what I call, fluff. We cushion our writing with words in hopes of looking impressive and strengthening our point. However, as the book points out, this is a terrible weakness for writing.

Reflection 

After reading through the QRGs of Casey and Evan, I noticed how frequently all four of these topics came up in all writing.

"The news outlets that have discussed this include: Business Insider, Huffington Post, and various other companies and bloggers." is a sentence taken from Evan's QRG which is demonstrative of the importance of maintaining subject in the shifts category. Evan makes an unnecessary shift from a body, "companies", to an individual, "bloggers". The sentence would have a more logical progression if he said blogs rather than bloggers to avoid the shift.

A sentence in Casey's QRG, "Meanwhile, Dr. ‘t Hooft is just a little miffed that Hawking presented this idea, because he had a really similar one a long while ago that never panned out, and so about a week after the conference he decided to publish a different idea that sort of works in a similar way to Hawking’s." is particularly demonstrative of the empty phrases pitfall in wordy sentences. Phrases like "a long while ago" and "about a week after the conference" can be shorted down for the sake of the sentence reaching its point.