Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style is a classic style guide, and it’s useful in many ways.  Arguably one of its biggest contributions is that it gets us to think about the way we put words together.  William Strunk demanded mindfulness, and that’s a good thing.

But it’s also a lot to live up to.  For many would-be writers, Strunk and White can be downright intimidating.  And that’s not a good thing.

Strunk doesn’t help things by using his signature voice, which even I find forbidding.  Have you ever checked out his rant against the word “hopefully,” for example?  Nine times out of ten, idiomatic American English speakers use “hopefully” to mean roughly “I hope,” as in “Hopefully, I’ll finish this report today.”

Strunk sneers at this usage.  “Hopefully” is an adverb that means “in a hopeful manner,” as in “The dog looked hopefully at the table scraps.”

Of course, Strunk’s own castigation of misusers of hopefully is a little, ah, less charitable, and it exemplifies the voice problem that I describe above:

This once-useful adverb meaning “with hope” has been distorted and is now widely used to mean “I hope” or “it is to be hoped.”  Such use is not merely wrong, it is silly.  To say, “Hopefully, I’ll leave on the noon plane” is to talk nonsense.  Do you mean you’ll leave on the noon plane in a hopeful frame of mind?  Or do you mean you hope you’ll leave on the noon plane?  Whichever you mean, you haven’t said it clearly.  Although the word in its new, free-floating capacity may be pleasurable and even useful to many, it offends the ear of many others, who do not like to see words dulled or eroded, particularly when the erosion leads to ambiguity, softness, or nonsense.  (William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style.  Fourth ed.  New York: Longman, 2000.  48)

Ouch.  Just listen to that accusatory “you” in the passage.  Let me clarify that it’s not a matter of whether Strunk is right.  He is.  My objection is to the tone.  The message implicit in The Elements of Style is that writing well is a hopelessly complex endeavor, fraught with pitfalls and rife with opportunities to make yourself look like a fool. 

We all know that writing is hard work.  But you’re looking to a style guide for help, not contempt.  This holier-than-thou attitude is why I see so many creative, bright people who say they can’t write because they don’t know what a comma splice is.

If only there were a more friendly style guide that also focuses on making thoughtful choices as a writer.  Turns out there is.  It’s my pleasure to introduce you to John R Trimble and his book Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing.

Trimble provides sound advice, and his book is a pleasure to read.  His opening section, “Fundamentals,” focuses on large-scale issues like structure and readability.  He attacks the purveyors of the “religion of Formal English” in a thought-provoking chapter entitled “Superstitions.”  And of course, he includes a lot of specific guidance on matters of style, usage, and punctuation.

What do you think are the most important qualities to have in a writing style guide?  Let us know in the comments!

Technorati Tags: blog writing, Revision, style, usage, writing tips

 Hi, Everyone -

I’m pleased to announce that I wrote a guest post for The Positivity Blog.  It’s called How You Can Use Proposals to Achieve Your Goals.  The post considers the logic underlying proposals and extracts personal development ideas from it.   I hope you’ll check it out!

If you’re new to Writing Power, welcome!  I’m glad you’re here.  If you’d like to get an overview of the site and some of the most popular articles, check out a little site summary post I did recently: Welcome To Writing Power.

If you like what you read, I hope you’ll subscribe to Writing Power’s RSS feed. 

Cheers!

Loren

Technorati Tags: blog writing, proposals, writing tips

 Today I proctored my literature class’s midterm exam.  I watched my students frown in concentration; one or two looked patently anxious and overwhelmed.  I wanted to pull those students aside and say to them, “It’s okay.  Don’t worry.  There’s nothing to be anxious about - I have carefully placed clues in all the questions to help you answer them successfully.  Don’t think of this as a test; instead, think of it as a communication.  Once you understand what the questions are asking, you will be able to answer them.”

Of course, it’s easy for me to say that: I’m the professor.  I know the subject inside and out.  What seems clear to me may be a mystery to my students.  And I’m not taking into account that factors outside the exam may be causing their anxiety: they may not have studied, they may not have kept up with the reading, they may have had a hellish week of exams, they may be exhausted or sick, or they may be dealing with personal challenges.  My students have a lot at stake in their exams; it’s natural that some of them would respond with anxiety.

The more I thought about it, the more the exam seemed to be an analogy for the myriad difficulties of the communicative process.  I, as the writer, wanted my students to understand the exam questions as I had intended them to be understood.  I expected my students to have certain background knowledge (a solid grasp of the course readings, lectures, and discussions) in order to be able to understand the exam and respond appropriately to it.   

My students, as the readers, come to the exam with a variety of perspectives, none of which correspond exactly to the ideal student-reader I have in my mind.  This accounts for the diverse responses to and performance on the exam, which I had intended to be an opportunity for them to demonstrate their success in learning course concepts.

Writers work to make the gulf between themselves and their readers as narrow as possible.  But there are also things a reader - that is, an essay exam taker - can do to succeed in interpreting the exam.  If you can recognize common essay exam clues, you can answer the questions more effectively.

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Technorati Tags: essay exams, test taking tips, writing tips

 Writing and reading are two sides of the same very large and complex coin. 

When you write, you think of your eventual readers (even if the only reader will be you).  When you read, you place yourself in the writer’s hands.  That’s why you often feel delighted if you like a piece of writing: it is as if the writer has given you a gift.  Conversely, when you’re confused by something you read, you feel that the writer hasn’t taken care of you.

You can learn a lot about writing by reading with a writer’s eyes.  Here are some ways you can use reading to improve your writing:

1.  Read with a pen or pencil in your hand.  As you begin to read with a writer’s eyes, you will probably notice all sorts of things about what you’re reading.  You might notice, for example, a novel’s opening strategy.  Some novels have great beginnings, while others might leave you cold.  Exploring a novel as a reader-writer - an active reader - rather than a passive reader will likely spur all sorts of responses to the piece.

You may be familiar with the practice of highlighting books from your student days.  When you’re reading with writer’s eyes, however, you will want to put the highlighter down.  Why?  Highlighting a section doesn’t tell you why that section is important.  The only way to discern what was important is to read the highlighted section again.  And when you do, you’re often left scratching your read:  it’s easy to highlight any section that seems remotely important without much rhyme or reason.

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Technorati Tags: blog writing, note taking, reading, writing, writing tips

 Paraphrasing is a powerful tool that allows you to do two important things simultaneously. 

First, it provides a mechanism by through which you can include the ideas of other people.  No writer writes in a vacuum.  You’re always writing for others to read, and often, you’re writing in response to ideas you have read.  Paraphrase is an elegant way to incorporate those ideas and thus enrich your writing. 

Second, paraphrase maintains your unique writerly voice.  When you include another writer’s words directly, as in quotation, you are letting their voice take over your work for a short time.  This practice’s drawbacks may not seem obvious when thinking about a single quotation.  But often, writers do not stop at one quotation: they need many quotations from several different sources.  One thing leads to another, and before you know it your paper is an open mic night, and you’re the emcee.  Shouldn’t you be the main act instead?

A beginning writer does not know how to quote and paraphrase effectively.  An intermediate writer often knows how to quote.  But an advanced writer will prefer paraphrase because of its flexibility.  Experienced writers want to be able to craft their own sentences, even if the ideas behind them come from a source. 

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Technorati Tags: blog writing, how to paraphrase, paraphrase, quotation, writing, writing tips

 So, you have a writing task to complete.  You have diligently applied your favorite idea-generating strategies: brainstorming, freewriting, looping, and idea mapping.  If your writing task is in a professional context, you may also have notes from meetings with your boss, clients, or colleagues.  If you’re writing in an academic context, you will likely have an assignment from your teacher or professor. 

A lot of writers tend to skip from the idea-gathering phase to an outlining process.  Other writers tend to follow idea gathering with a rough plan - a quick list, perhaps - and then proceed directly to drafting (If this describes you, you may enjoy my planning ideas for the anti-outliners: Don’t Outline — Strategize!) But dashing from the invention phase to the planning phase without a period of reflection may not be the best course of action.  You have an important set of decisions to make between the invention and planning phases.

Of course, I am not advocating a sustained period of naval gazing.  I stand by my earlier assertion that writers write.  But in order to write well, and in order to establish habits that will help you to write better, it’s useful to remember the value of reflection.  Reflection makes it easier to write mindfully, and writing mindfully is writing productively. 

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Technorati Tags: invention, planning, topic, writing, writing process, writing situation

 Holly was staring at the page frowning, her brows knitted together in thought.  That wasn’t a good sign.  Then she smiled, which was an even worse sign.  “You have some good analysis and interesting claims in this article, but there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to the way you present your points.  I’m sorry, but it looks like you’re going to have to rewrite the whole thing.”

I had asked for an honest opinion, all right.  I mean, what are grad school friends for?  But rewrite thirty-five pages before the journal’s deadline?  That was crazy talk.

With the submission deadline looming, I asked her to read my article again a few days later.  After about twenty minutes, she tossed the draft on the desk.  In a tone of mock irritation, she said, “So, you definitely took my advice.  The argument is completely different, and much more focused.  The question I have is, how did you manage to rewrite the whole thing in a week and still teach, work, sleep…?”

This time, I was the one smiling.  “Actually, it only took about three hours.  I hardly rewrote any of the paragraphs at all.” 

She raised her eyebrows.  “You must be delirious from sleep deprivation.”

It was true.  My article had gone from a jumbled mess of points to a cogent argument in a few hours.  I did it using a simple technique that any writer can employ.  It’s called the “says and does” technique, and it can help you get a handle on even the most out-of-control pieces.

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Technorati Tags: blog writing, reverse outline, Revision, writing, writing tips

 Writing is a complex process with a seemingly endless array of choices.  What kind of document will you write?  What is your purpose in writing it?  What point do you want to get across?  How will the beginning, middle, and end of your writing be organized?  How will you structure each sentence?  Which words will you use?   Writers make all of these choices - and many more - although some of the choices are practically unconscious.  (If they weren’t, not many writers would have the endurance to get past page one!)

Given the overwhelming number of decisions writers have to make, it is understandable that many times they don’t pay attention to page design.  Perhaps you are one of them.  You may say, “Page design!?!  Give me a break.  I have enough to worry about with getting the words right, never mind whether the words look pretty on paper.”

Fair enough.  You’re a writer, not a designer.  But ignoring layout may be doing your writing a real disservice.  Simple design elements, when used thoughtfully, can give your readers a better experience, which will enhance your message’s effectiveness.  More importantly, twenty-first century readers are quite sophisticated interpreters of subtle visual clues.  Using layout, your piece can communicate a great deal more without adding a single word.  Conversely, flawed page design can significantly damage the impact of high-quality written content. 

What can good page design do for your writing?  Page design can strengthen a document’s structural elements, such as organization and arrangement of ideas.  It can also provide emphasis where you want it, drawing the reader’s attention to your document’s main points and minimizing the need for weakifiers.  Finally, the aesthetic component of solid design can amplify a reader’s positive reaction to your work.

Page design thus represents an opportunity for your writing either to shine or to stumble.  Consequently, it makes sense to consider page design decisions as you write rather than after you write.  Just as you do with writing, you’ll evaluate design options based on what the readers would prefer.  The following are some simple design elements to consider when you’re constructing your next proposal, economics paper, novella, or blog post.

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Technorati Tags: blog writing, font style, heading, page design, white space, writing, writing tips

 Relatively inexperienced writers tend to walk around with a mental list of writing rules, which they have painstakingly gleaned from high school and college English and writing teachers.  A snippet of such a list might read:

1.  Don’t use personal pronouns such as “I” or “you” when writing a paper.

2.  A good thesis statement lists the three items the author will discuss, and each item in the thesis corresponds to a paragraph in the body of the paper.

3.  A good paper should be organized as follows: tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, tell ‘em, and then tell ‘em what you told ‘em. 

4.  A conclusion should summarize and restate.

There is no problem with a list like this in theory.  Guidelines help make order out of chaos and help us learn which writing structures are preferable to others.  The problem with this list is its inflexibility.  The list of writing rules becomes The Writing Commandments, with all the attendant fear and trembling.

The academic writer is faced with some puzzling questions as assignments become more complex.  What happens, for example, if your thesis statement doesn’t lend itself to the three-item list format?  And what if you can’t adequately explain each point in only one paragraph?  Doesn’t this conflict with Commandment number 2? 

Given this conflict, what are the options?  The writer could jettison the more complex argument in favor of one that fits more comfortably into the five-paragraph model.  Or, the writer could defy the Writing Commandment, which would be a cardinal sin, of course.  Hmmm…

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Technorati Tags: paper conclusions, writing, writing a conclusion, writing tips

 This is it: you’ve been assigned your first paper of the spring semester.  It’s due in two weeks, and your palms are already sweaty.  It’s not that you hate writing.  You enjoy creative writing - poems, personal narratives - when you have the time.  But writing papers for school has always filled you with dread.  The ram-a-pencil-through-your-frontal-lobe kind of dread.

Or perhaps it has been years since high school, college, and graduate school.  You’ve finally gotten the hang of How to Write Well - how to write college papers well, that is.  Yet now that you’re out in the work world, the same qualities that made your English professor rave are the ones that make your boss rant.  What is going on here?

The problem is that there are many kinds of writing situations:  creative writing is distinct from academic writing, and academic writing is distinct from professional (business) writing.  Each kind of writing has its own criteria for quality, and many of them do not overlap.  (For example, I recently devoted an entire post to demystifying criteria for one specific kind of writing: the summary.) 

The student in the example above likes the freedom of creative writing but finds academic writing intimidating.  Conversely, the employee mastered academic writing but is struggling to make the transition to professional writing.

Like so many things in life, awareness is the first step toward improvement.  If you’re a student, the following tips will help make you a more successful academic writer.  If you’re not a student anymore, the following tips will help you realize which of your writing-related skills may need to be modified for workplace success.

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Technorati Tags: academic writing, citation, paper organization, paper writing, scholarly community, scholarship, writing