The Clarity of Writing

The Clarity of Writing

By: Ariane Arsenault

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. ” - Strunk & White

An issue that often arises with writing is the message that is portrayed by the reader. Writers want the readers to understand what they are specifically writing about, which can end up becoming troublesome if not taken over by the reigns. A writer is often seen as a carrier with a message, painting a certain idea to his or her audience. The message or idea can be difficult to show to the reader if it is not made clear enough for all to understand. A few tips of mine to stop this confusion are the following: waiting to edit for a certain amount of time, reading out loud, and picking out a person, any person, and thinking as if you were them.

The flow of writing can be difficult to obtain yet is possible. If you see any mistakes that you don't understand, your reader will probably not understand them either. It is important to go over every sentence of your work and determine if they belong in the text or not. Choosing whether something is relevant or not is a dilemma that all writers must go through. Editing does help, but taking time off after having written helps even more. After editing your work, take a few hours or days off the constant headache of trying to make everything sound comprehensible. This will help you think of your text in a different way. When going back to the text, some issues may appear clearer because of the small break.

Sometimes, it can be easy to miss out on some unclear parts of your work when they are only re-read. Reading out loud is a great tactic to single out any mistakes that were seemingly invisible when read over. Don't worry about anyone overhearing, simply dive into the words and look out for any problematic sentences. Reading your own work out loud will also give you an idea of how your work is displayed and may give you a different perception on what you had written before. Hearing how your sentences are structured may seem different from the usual editing process but it is definitely a strategy that should be done to embellish your work and determine whether some parts need more clarity to them.

Trying to grab a person's point of view and getting inside their head is obviously something that seems impossible, although it is relatively easy. Take, for instance, taking the bus. There are many potential people who you can try and grasp their points of view towards your work. What would that old lady with a blue shawl think of your story? Would she tell you to edit the part where you speak of a flower garden because it does not seem clear enough? It is obvious that it is absurd to know exactly what the person is actually thinking, but getting into their character does wonders to become critical of your work. Try to think what they are thinking, why are they wearing those specific clothes, what their profession is, and mostly, what would they think of your draft? The point is to try to make your work understandable and relevant to a wide audience, to everyone in the end.

These tips work for every type of writing project, they even worked for this blog article. Happy writing!