| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Concision

Page history last edited by Georgie Ziff 1 year, 7 months ago

The Elements of Style page on concision - William Strunk: 

Writing Concisely - UNC Writing Center 

Concise Writing - from Capital Community College Foundation

Tightening up your writing

 

Video: Writing Clearly and Concisely 8:27

 

Handout: Concision 

 

Exercisesuizzes:

Answers to Concision Exercise - Purdue OWL 

Revise for Concision - Handout exercise

 

Clear Writing Samples of Revisions

 

From Stephen King interview: 

Lahey: In the introduction to Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, E.B. White recounts William Strunk’s instruction to “omit needless words.” 

While your books are voluminous, your writing remains concise. How do you decide which words are unnecessary and which words are required for the telling?

King: It’s what you hear in your head, but it’s never right the first time. So you have to rewrite it and revise it.

My rule of thumb is that a short story of 3,000 words should be rewritten down to 2,500. It’s not always true, but mostly it is.

You need to take out the stuff that’s just sitting there and doing nothing. No slackers allowed! All meat, no filler!

Lahey: By extension, how can writing teachers help students recognize which words are required in their own writing?

King: Always ask the student writer, “What do you want to say?” Every sentence that answers that question is part of the essay or story.

Every sentence that does not needs to go. I don’t think it’s the words per se, it’s the sentences. I used to give them a choice, sometimes:

either write 400 words on “My Mother is Horrible” or “My Mother is Wonderful.”

Make every sentence about your choice. That means leaving your dad and your snotty little brother out of it.

 

Lahey, Jessica. "How Stephen King Teaches Writing".The Atlantic. 9 Sept. Web. 29 Sept. 2014 014.

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.