I’m
sure you’ve never encountered a rambling faculty member among your Master’s
Programs instructors. But you may know
that such people do exist (from acquaintances in other graduate schools, or
even from your own undergrad experience).
And you’ve probably heard that students usually find this type of
professor tedious or even “boring.”
Guess
what. Students aren’t the only ones who
dread long-windedness. Professors have
equal aversion to garrulous students!
When you’ve rambled on for 18 pages (front and back!), your instructor’s
eyes glaze over, and it becomes difficult for her to concentrate on the content
of your essay. Eliminating (or at least
minimizing) wordiness from your papers will increase their cogency and ensure
that your observations and ideas can shine without being eclipsed by turgid
prose.
Below
are some tips to help emancipate your writing from the shackles of wordiness.
1. Read William Zinsser’s “Clutter.” This is a great introduction to the paradigm
of clean, simple writing. Though the
first edition of Zinsser’s classic was published in the 1970s, the truths he
espouses—particularly about clutter—are more applicable in academia than ever
before.
2. Break free
of the “more is better” impulse.
Don’t assume that the grade your paper will receive is correlated with
the number of words you type. (Any good instructor will assure you that this is
a complete fallacy.) If you find
yourself on the wrong side of a minimum page limit, expand your paper by adding content, not just adding more
words. One good way to do this is with
the Topoi
invention exercise.
3. Read your
paper aloud. If you can’t finish a sentence in a single
breath (and no cheating—read at a normal speed!) that can be an indication that
your sentence is too long. Take extra
care with those sentences to find places to cut a word or two.
4. Learn from
your mistakes. We all have
pet phrases or syntactical patterns that add words without conveying any
additional meaning. Take the time to
diagnose one of your papers, and note what specific three or four wordy habits
you have. Then scrutinize future
assignments for these same problems.
(Type freely in the writing stage, but eliminate wordiness in the editing stage.)
5. Find a
friend. Most of us are better at identifying other
people’s poor life choices than we are at spotting our own. The same is true of wordiness. Partner up with a classmate, and agree to
check each other’s papers for clutter.
You’ll catch things your colleagues missed in his own assignment, and
vice versa. And after you’re aware of
these new wordiness problems, apply tip #4.
Next
week we’ll look at specific types of clutter, and ways to eliminate them from
your writing.
Happy
(clutter-free) writing,
James
James
