Here is another piece for students on writing the essay. It is a continuation of the last article.
6. Play with words. As you write and as you edit—we will look at editing later—try always to make your language sparkle. Use a thesaurus. If you notice that you are overusing a word in your essay or story, see whether you can slip in a synonym or make another word or phrase do the work. While tinkering with your words, avoid gaudy language. Words like “plethora” stick out in an essay written in otherwise ordinary prose, calling attention to themselves and distracting readers. Winston Churchill once said, “Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.” Good advice from a man who earned the bulk of his living putting words on paper.
7. Use lively verbs. Nouns serve as the skeleton to a piece of writing; verbs work as the muscles. In particular, avoid the overuse of such verbs as is, was, has, and have by themselves. I have graded student essays where the writer used “is” in nearly every sentence. Example: “Bill is my best friend. He is a weekend fisherman. We are happiest together when we are on the river.” Instead, try “Bill, my best friend, loves fishing on the weekends. We have spent many happy hours side by side on the river.” One warning: don’t go overboard on sparking up your writing with gaudy verbs. Example: “Bill, my best friend, fancies fishing. We have consumed many happy hours side by side on the river.”
8. Don’t be sloppy with nouns. Be as precise as possible when choosing nouns. Instead of writing “My grandfather fought as a soldier in Vietnam,” write “My grandfather fought as an infantryman in Vietnam.” Change “Mary’s mother works as a doctor” to “Mary’s mother works as a pediatrician.” Revise “Sometimes we stroll under the trees behind the house” to “Sometimes we stroll beneath the oaks behind the house.”
9. End your sentences strong. End each sentence strong. Ending sentences with “it,” with weak verbs like is or was, or with prepositions can weaken the sentence. End with solid nouns or in some cases, verbs. There are exceptions. A famous newscaster used to end his broadcasts with “And that’s the way it was.” Some of the strength in that sentence comes as much, however, from his delivery as from the words themselves.
10. Avoid blather. Many teachers assign a word count to papers. Both teachers and other readers will know when you fill the pages with rubbish, trying to pad the essay. Keep your sentences lean and clean, write to the prompt or question, and give lots of evidence. Do those things, and you will easily meet the word count.
11. Be miserly with modifiers. Adjectives and adverbs are often unnecessary. They can junk up sentences. Take the sentence, “An interesting article in the New Yorker reports that Robert Duvall has made more than a hundred movies.” Delete interesting. If you’re quoting parts of the article, let the reader decide if the piece is interesting. Adverbs can be dull. Instead of writing “‘I don’t want your stupid cake,’ she said, angrily,” cut the adverb and write, “‘I don’t want your stupid cake,’ she said.” We see that she is angry. By adding angrily, we weaken rather than strengthen both the sentence and her anger.
12. Avoid the use of “very”. Students tend to overuse this word. Hemingway used it extensively and could make it work, but for most of us the word is a waste of space on the page. Listen to this part of Genesis 1: “God saw that the light was good.” Change that to “God saw that the light was very good,” and you hear the destruction of a powerful sentence. Unless it is very essential, then strike out this adverb. (And if you didn’t catch the very in my sentence, it not only junks up the sentence, but is useless. Something is either essential or non-essential. “Very essential” is nonsense.)
13. Sentence fragments. Many beginning writers, in part because of their weak grammar skills, write sentences such as this one: “On the weekends we enjoy hiking. Especially on a sunny day.” This reads better as: “On the weekends we enjoy hiking, especially on a sunny day.” Now, you will encounter teachers who declare war on sentence fragments of all kinds, but fragments can be effective tools. Suppose, for example, you were writing about political riots in the streets between Marxists and Nazis. You work your way through your paper, criticizing both groups. Your last sentence, set in a paragraph by itself, could effectively bring Shakespeare into play: “A plague on both your houses.”
14. Punctuation, spelling, etc. Keep a standard grammar on hand for reference. Look up online grammar sites. The spelling and grammar check on your computer is helpful, but keep in mind that the suggested changes are often either wrong or damaging to your writing. In this essay, for example, the spelling and grammar check several times calls for the insertion of semicolons. In each case, that usage is optional, and because I am not a fan of semicolons, you won’t find them here.
Next time: Editing: The Crucial Job
7. Use lively verbs. Nouns serve as the skeleton to a piece of writing; verbs work as the muscles. In particular, avoid the overuse of such verbs as is, was, has, and have by themselves. I have graded student essays where the writer used “is” in nearly every sentence. Example: “Bill is my best friend. He is a weekend fisherman. We are happiest together when we are on the river.” Instead, try “Bill, my best friend, loves fishing on the weekends. We have spent many happy hours side by side on the river.” One warning: don’t go overboard on sparking up your writing with gaudy verbs. Example: “Bill, my best friend, fancies fishing. We have consumed many happy hours side by side on the river.”
8. Don’t be sloppy with nouns. Be as precise as possible when choosing nouns. Instead of writing “My grandfather fought as a soldier in Vietnam,” write “My grandfather fought as an infantryman in Vietnam.” Change “Mary’s mother works as a doctor” to “Mary’s mother works as a pediatrician.” Revise “Sometimes we stroll under the trees behind the house” to “Sometimes we stroll beneath the oaks behind the house.”
9. End your sentences strong. End each sentence strong. Ending sentences with “it,” with weak verbs like is or was, or with prepositions can weaken the sentence. End with solid nouns or in some cases, verbs. There are exceptions. A famous newscaster used to end his broadcasts with “And that’s the way it was.” Some of the strength in that sentence comes as much, however, from his delivery as from the words themselves.
10. Avoid blather. Many teachers assign a word count to papers. Both teachers and other readers will know when you fill the pages with rubbish, trying to pad the essay. Keep your sentences lean and clean, write to the prompt or question, and give lots of evidence. Do those things, and you will easily meet the word count.
11. Be miserly with modifiers. Adjectives and adverbs are often unnecessary. They can junk up sentences. Take the sentence, “An interesting article in the New Yorker reports that Robert Duvall has made more than a hundred movies.” Delete interesting. If you’re quoting parts of the article, let the reader decide if the piece is interesting. Adverbs can be dull. Instead of writing “‘I don’t want your stupid cake,’ she said, angrily,” cut the adverb and write, “‘I don’t want your stupid cake,’ she said.” We see that she is angry. By adding angrily, we weaken rather than strengthen both the sentence and her anger.
12. Avoid the use of “very”. Students tend to overuse this word. Hemingway used it extensively and could make it work, but for most of us the word is a waste of space on the page. Listen to this part of Genesis 1: “God saw that the light was good.” Change that to “God saw that the light was very good,” and you hear the destruction of a powerful sentence. Unless it is very essential, then strike out this adverb. (And if you didn’t catch the very in my sentence, it not only junks up the sentence, but is useless. Something is either essential or non-essential. “Very essential” is nonsense.)
13. Sentence fragments. Many beginning writers, in part because of their weak grammar skills, write sentences such as this one: “On the weekends we enjoy hiking. Especially on a sunny day.” This reads better as: “On the weekends we enjoy hiking, especially on a sunny day.” Now, you will encounter teachers who declare war on sentence fragments of all kinds, but fragments can be effective tools. Suppose, for example, you were writing about political riots in the streets between Marxists and Nazis. You work your way through your paper, criticizing both groups. Your last sentence, set in a paragraph by itself, could effectively bring Shakespeare into play: “A plague on both your houses.”
14. Punctuation, spelling, etc. Keep a standard grammar on hand for reference. Look up online grammar sites. The spelling and grammar check on your computer is helpful, but keep in mind that the suggested changes are often either wrong or damaging to your writing. In this essay, for example, the spelling and grammar check several times calls for the insertion of semicolons. In each case, that usage is optional, and because I am not a fan of semicolons, you won’t find them here.
Next time: Editing: The Crucial Job