Curt's Style Response 1
From Mizzou Wiki
Well done! This completes the assignment perfectly.
The first chapter is about writing clearly and the importance of readers understanding what you write. Writing clearly is an obvious problem writers come across. The author starts the chapter by stating that anyone can write clearly, but goes on to show that many writers do not. Many writers follow grammatical guidelines, but do not write clear sentences. This causes readers to become confused or not get the meaning of a sentence. People try to make themselves seem smarter or make what they are writing seem more important by lengthening sentences and avoiding simple verbs. Examples of this type of writing are found in fields such as: medicine, law, and science. The author then talks about how students try to emulate this style of writing, continuing a tradition of confusing writing. The chapter ends with some tips on how to write more clearly; put the readers ahead of you and rewrite each draft until it’s as clear as possible.
Overall the author supported his argument very well. I thought the quotes describing the fields of medicine, law and science were the most supportive of the authors argument because they made sense and summarized his argument. The quote by George Orwell was the weakest example because the author did not make the quote much clearer, just shorter. The example is still reasonable because it was from the “best-known critic of turgid style”, so any improvement on the quote may be significant. The chapter is clear, understandable, and supports all arguments with good quotes and examples.
I have read dense writing before in many text books. I have sometimes felt ignorant because I did not understand what I just read and would have to reread a sentence slowly to understand it. Reading this chapter makes me think that those text books may have just been written unclearly. It is surprising that so many people continue to write that way. I have never personally tried to write the way the author describes, but I can understand why others would. I have always tried to write clearly, mostly because I find it easier than writing long elaborate sentences. Now I will consciously try to write clearly all the time.
