Clarity, Part 1

A Look Into Learning - Improving My Writing

In this blog post, I described what I learned in reading Rules for Writers in sections that I thought I could improve my writing in. Below, are the four topics I sought to learn more about and what information I gleaned from the sections.

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I decided to read the chapters in Rules for Writers on Parallel Ideas, Needed Words, Variety, and Exact Words.

1. Parallel Ideas - In reading this section, I learned about how to construct parallel sentences more effectively, which I think is important because I use parallelism often to convey relationships or like natures in informing readers on a topic. The main item that I learned from this section is that in order to create a successful sentence that uses parallelism, one must be sure to concise in their language so as not to obfuscate the parallelism, but also not omit too much from their sentence as that may compromise its structure and lose the intended effect of the parallelism. For instance, verbs in parallel structure should match tenses and connect strongly, and in a like fashion, to the subject of the sentence.

2. Needed Words - While I don't believe I learned much new information from this section, as I try hard to make clear sentences with needed words, I did learn the important message that clarity should always supersede flow in sentences where the two are conflicted. By this statement I mean that, if a sentence would have better flow with omitting words or phrases that would potentially compromise the meaning of the sentence, one should not omit those items as doing so would create a potential for misreading which should be avoided at all costs, especially in an explanatory genre such as QRG. 

3. Variety - I think that this section offered very useful, general advice for writing sentences in the context of a larger body. While I was aware of the ways in which you can vary sentence structure, I think that I learned from this chapter that it is dangerous to only use one or two types of sentences in your whole piece as that alone can lose the reader. This chapter offered advice to, as the writer, actively consider variation to carry the reader through your reading. While this may be difficult or not entirely apply to the QRG genre, which may have more simple sentences for informative purposes, I still think it will be important to have variety in my QRG to prevent it from being too difficult to focus on and read.

4. Exact Words - The main lessons I learned from reading this chapter were to be aware of connotation, and to use specific, concrete nouns whenever possible. As the book emphasized, a writer should always strive to use concrete nouns that are not abstractions so that the reader can immediately gain an idea of what is being discussed. Additionally, this idea is often easily altered by the connotations of the words the writer chooses to use, so the writer must be sure to be aware of such connotative influence in their works to ensure the right idea is being conveyed to the reader. In writing my QRG, I think I need to be aware of noun confusion and connotation as those two can betray the meaning I intend to have in my writing, especially with connotation as improper word choice my imply I as the writer hold a certain belief when I do not.

Reflection

In reading my classmates' drafts of their Quick Reference Guides, I learned that the one of the most problematic element of the writing process is word choice and placement. In reading the drafts of others I noticed that wording demands a large amount of attention and consideration from the writer, especially needed wording, which was one of the sections I focused on most in my reading.

Below is an example sentence from Brandon's QRG on genome sequencing and ethical debates over the matter.

"The source, Prenatal Whole Genome Sequencing: Just Because We Can, Should We?, itself focuses more on the issue of whether to inform the parents of unborn children of possible "undesired" qualities of the child."

The above sentence exhibits an instance in which needed wording was a conflict. As I read the sentence, I stumbled following the "whether" component; I tried to look for a "or not" to complete the sentence's format, but there was none. Typically, the word "whether" is accompanied by a necessary "or not" to indicate a decision or two different approaches to the subject, and this sentence lacked that secondary component and thus became confusing.


Additionally, below is a sentence extracted from Dylan's QRG on racial debates over the Oscars and the Academy's nominations of primarily white individuals despite spectacular and critically-acclaimed performances and directing from the movie Selma.

"This is obviously not as severe as any of those incidents however most view this as yet another instance of racial repression in the United States. "

In this sentence, I mostly found issue with the overuse of the pronoun "this," in the place of a specific, concrete noun. This example speaks to the need for exact wording, as out of context, the subject of this sentence is not discernible and thus it can be unclear, even in context.

I am proud to say that since, Dylan has made the edit of adding "Oscar controversy" following the second "this," which completely clarifies the subject of the sentence and allows it to function fully.


In summary, I learned from others' drafts that special attention needs to be paid to wording, especially in the QRG genre in which the writer is almost an expert on the topic describing it to those who are not, which may lead to omission of necessary words in sentences that will confuse the reader rather than inform them.