Great Works \’09

Writing Workshop:  Ten Style Tips
Professor Shelly Eversley
 shelly.eversley at baruch.cuny.edu

These tips come from William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style:

1.    Use the active voice.  The active voice is more vigorous and direct than the passive:  “I shall always remember my first visit to Boston.”  is much stronger than, “My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me.”
2.    Put statements in positive form.  Make definite assertions:  “He usually came late,” is clear.  “He was not very often on time,” is unclear.
3.    Use definite, specific, concrete language. Always prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract:  “It rained every day for a week,” is concrete.  “A period of unfavorable weather set it,” is vague.
4.    Omit needless words.  Vigorous writing is concise.  This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.  For instance, the phrase “the question as to whether…” more effectively should read, “whether…” Or, “he is a man who…” should read “he…”
5.    Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
6.    Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs.  The adjective has not been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.
7.    Avoid the use of qualifiers. Strunk and White are clear:  “Rather, very, little, pretty—these are leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words.”
8.    Revise and rewrite.  Revising is part of writing.  Do not be afraid to experiment with what you have written.  Save your drafts.  It is no sign of weakness that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery.  This is common among the best writers.
9.    Be clear.  When you become hopelessly mired in a sentence, it is best to start fresh; do not try to fight your way through the terrible odds of syntax.  Break apart the cumbersome sentence, and replace it with two or more shorter sentences.
10.    Use simple language.  Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute.  Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able.

And two more tips…

1.    Avoid contractions in formal writing.  Doesn’t becomes does not; can’t becomes cannot.
2.    Avoid plot summary.  If you find yourself describing events in a narrative for more than two sentences, stop what you’re doing and consider the relevance.  Make sure your prose supports your thesis rather than fills space on the page.