How to Write Better Essays

of equal importance, will it lead my readers gently down a familiar path

which I didn’t really want them to go down? Like everything else in

your writing, if you use a cliché, mean to do it: have a clear reason, a

purpose, for doing so.

214 Writing

Assignment 10

Style

In the last assignment you wrote the introduction, the conclusion and

the first two paragraphs that followed the introduction to the essay

you’ve chosen to work on. In this assignment write the next three para-

graphs, that follow on from the two you wrote for the last assignment.

Make sure that the structures of your sentences are clear and your

words convey your meaning accurately.

After it’s written, read it over to yourself aloud or get someone else to

read it to you. As you listen to it search for two things: first, any passage

where the rhythm is clumsy and it’s not possible to read it fluently;

and secondly, where logical indicators go missing, making it difficult to

decipher your meaning.

In the next chapter

Once you’ve completed this assignment you will be more aware of just

how effective these techniques can be in making your writing lighter,

more like talk in print. Writing lightly often means catching the rhythms

of speech and, at times, this can be done just by shortening a sentence,

or moving a logical indicator, or using your punctuation to make more

white space.

In the next chapter we will consider the other element of style,

economy. We will examine the various ways we can improve our style,

giving our writing greater clarity through a more economical use of

language.

Note

1 Matthew Arnold, quoted in G. W. E. Russell, Collections and Recollections

(London, 1903), ch. 13.

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