Clear writers are concise.

Readers are likely to judge our prose as less than graceful if we are overly wordy. For example, we may often be able to shorten what we’ve written in a 10-page paper to just seven or eight pages without losing any of the content. And when we shorten a text in this way, we will often discover that our prose magically become clearer. In this workshop, we explore ways to be concise without being terse.

Writing with Clarity

Writing clearly in English is a challenge for native and non-native writers alike. What is it in a sentence that makes readers judge it as complex and unclear or as direct and easily understood? What general principles can we follow that will enable us to revise a sentence so that readers will judge it as clear and concise? These are the questions we will explore throughout these workshops.