Let's do a quick review…
Our first topic, to frame the course.
Basic assumptions:
A lot of unclear writing is produced, for various reasons.
Some people are following rules (of their profession, that they heard one time, that they think make them sound smart) that aren't really rules. Some people don't really don't really know or think about their options.
My summary of the textbook's goal: make you into somebody who thinks a little about how to write well, and knows how to do it.
There are many “rules” of writing (in English).
Some of them are real. Some of them are completely made up.
Some of the “rules” are options that can make you sound more formal or smarter or pretentious.
There's probably a balance there. You should give the impression that you're generally smart and educated, but stop short of pretentious.
Details depend on ur audience.
You should really know who you're writing for.
What do they need to know? What are they interested in? What do they already know? What do they need to learn or be convinced of?
You should have these things in mind while writing.
Decide what the main “action” in your sentence is. Make it the main verb.
Easy to say. Easy to do in the simple cases.
A problem we have frequently encountered: nominalizations. The verb that became a noun like decided
vs made a decision
.
Find the main “character” in your sentence. Make them (or it) the subject. [Remember: English is subject-verb-object.]
Again: easy to say and do if the sentence/topic is simple.
The passive voice moves the character to the object of the sentence.
In the absence of any other context, that's usually a bad idea. There is often other context.
The first words in a sentence are familiar to the reader. Don't introduce new stuff until later.
Based on the previous points, the first words
probably refers to the character and action. The passive voice can work around that restriction, so can the occasional nominalization, or other grammatical trickery.
The main topic of each sentence in a paragraph should be the same or related.
Again, the main topic
is probably going to include the character and/or action. Again, different arrangements of the sentences' grammar can help.
The end of your sentence is the last things the reader sees. It's what is emphasized/stressed.
Based on the previous points, it's probably also the new information. That's likely good. If new information isn't the important part of a sentence, why write it?
The implication: move important stuff toward the end of the sentence as much as you reasonably can.
I suspect most of you have been paying attention to these things, but many of you don't actually do them in a lot of your writing. (The observation is based on the in-class exercises, blog posts, etc.)
Practice these things now. They will become natural. Get some value for your tuition dollars.
This is an important thing.
I reserve the right to ask you something about it on the final exam.
A relatively mechanical concern, but one we can't avoid. You must do this right.
Since the midterm is closed-book, the only conceivable thing you could cite is the question paper.