How to Write Better Essays

tations and statistics that do real work, and write them out as suc-

cinctly as possible.

Working with Evidence 231

In a nutshell

• Show rather than tell.


• Make your work more readable by varying the type of evidence
  you use.


• Make sure your evidence does real work.


• Try not to bury your reader under an avalanche of information.


• Create a clear structure for your evidence so your reader knows how
  to process it.

Using the seven practical rules

All of this is a great deal to remember, particularly while you’re writing.

So don’t, if it interrupts your creative flow. Just start by reminding your-

self of two or three of the rules as you write. Eventually, with these well

under your control, you can move on to the rest. And you’ve always

got the revision stage after this to clean up your work. Indeed, you’ll

find as you revise one essay after another, all seven rules will grad-

ually filter through into your writing. This is not to say you shouldn’t

bother to remind yourself that the active voice is better than the

passive, or that nouns should be specific and definite, not general. If

you can do this without interrupting your flow, then do it.

Assignment 11

Style

In this assignment finish writing the remaining paragraphs of the essay

you’ve chosen to work on. Before you start, remind yourself of the seven

practical rules we’ve outlined in this section. However, write as freely as

possible: don’t let your editor in to disrupt the flow of your ideas.

Once you’ve finished, put them aside for a day or so, then read them

through to check how well you’ve done with the seven practical rules.

For this exercise you’re not actually revising them, but you should go

through each rule to see if you could have done better.

HTW29 7/27/01 8:42 AM Page 231