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Improving Clarity

Improving Clarity. Katherine King. Why should we?. We write to communicate Sentence clarity improves overall writing style, which implies more effective communication. Especially relevant in academic writing Students sometimes put a greater emphasis on sounding intelligent

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Improving Clarity

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  1. Improving Clarity Katherine King

  2. Why should we? • We write to communicate • Sentence clarity improves overall writing style, which implies more effective communication. • Especially relevant in academic writing • Students sometimes put a greater emphasis on sounding intelligent • Instead, students should focus on effectively conveying intelligent points • Sentence clarity forces the writer to have a better understanding of the argument

  3. Check List • Avoid nominalizations • Watch out for prepositional phrases • Active voice > passive voice • Use active verbs instead of “to be” verbs • Beware of sentences that begin with expletives (It is/there are…etc.) • Be careful with pronoun references

  4. Structural Concerns • Choose clear subjects • Abstractions and process often create unclear subjects • Old information  New information • Placement of subordinate clauses • Don’t interrupt the main clause • Parallel constructions

  5. Practice • The cause of our schools’ failure at teaching basic skills is not understanding the influence of cultural background on learning. • Use the checklist: What do you notice? • Strings of prepositional phrases • Unclear subject • nominalizations

  6. Revised • Our schools have failed to teach basic skills because educators do not understand how cultural backgrounds influence learning. • Subjects: • The cause of our school’s failure at teach basic skills Our schools…educators…cultural backgrounds • No more prepositional phrases! • Nominalizations: • Failure  failed; the influence of  influence

  7. Writing Studio Resources • http://twp.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/clarity-conciseness.original.pdf • https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/600/01/ • http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/style/

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