Clarity, Part 1

In the following post, I will relate my experiences and writing history, focusing on topics which will help me to improve my writing process and style.

Johnson, Nigel. "floating lightbulb" 4/3/2010 via flickr. All Rights Reserved.

Sections I Read:

Active Verbs

Eliminate Distracting Shifts

Tighten Wordy Sentences

Find The Exact Words

Reading these sections, I experienced many "lightbulb" moments. Some of the issues addressed registered with me immediately. I realized that, though the book was listing very specific/grammatical examples, most of what I consider my writing flaws are in a bigger more general category.

For example, the Eliminate Distracting Shifts section described me to a tee. I don't know any technical terms for it, but I am a 'lengthy' writer. Essays are my forte and I actually enjoy writing them (gasp!). Though I know where I'm going in my mind, I'm sure readers hardly do when I segue on one of these distracting shifts (which happens more often than I would like). It is a writing technique I am definitely hoping to improve in the future.

The other sections are ones that apply to the more technical side of my writing style. Though I definitely struggle with all three during my writing process, it's nothing that can't be fixed with a little bit of peer-editing and a lot of staring

Reflection
One thing I learned from reading and editing my peer's QRGs is that I may have done exactly what I described above in my QRG. My QRG is a bit longer than the two that I read, which leads me to think maybe I need to "eliminate distracting shifts" somewhere along the way. I also saw that writers (like me) often need a helping hand when it comes to finding the write way/word to say something. I attempted to help both Ayra and Morgan with this category: Finding the Exact Words. 

In Ayra's QRG, though her QRG was very well-written, there were a few instances in which I felt she hadn't found the word she was looking for. One such sentence was: "The reason for so much outrage can be due to many reasons, but looking at some contextual information can help explain see why there is so much outrage about this specific topic." I commented that she should consider another word in place of one or both of the "reasons."

In Morgan's QRG, I similarly saw a few instances in which a few words could be proposed. For example, "On the flip side, it’s an opinion that rape survivors need to be protected from the subject of rape." In this sentence, I suggested the phase "flip side" was maybe somewhat informal, and could be replaced with "contrarily" or "conversely."