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Seven Sins of Writing

hamilton.edu

31–40 of 119 posts

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#31

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

These rules are for students writing essays, not Nabokov.

That makes sense. I clearly didn't read the paratext closely enough :)

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#32
> Passive voice produces a sentence in which the subject receives an action. In contrast, active voice produces a sentence in which the subject performs an action.

Setting aside whether the passive or active voice is better, I'm delighted by this description of what each is.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#33
post #32

> Passive voice produces a sentence in which the subject receives an action. In contrast, active voice produces a sentence in which the subject performs an action. Setting aside whether the passive or active voice is better, I'm delighted by this description of what each is.

Woulda been awesome if the first sentence were written in passive voice.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#34

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

One way to see wordiness:

When you’re speaking, whatever your thoughts are have to come in the order that you think them, because people are used to being interrupted and therefore don’t want to stop talking to pick the right wording. So they say things in a very long way, just as they thought of them, in a disorganized jumble not dissimilar to this paragraph.

Writing, however, can be edited to make points clearly, without irrelevant detail, and logically ordered.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#35
post #32

> Passive voice produces a sentence in which the subject receives an action. In contrast, active voice produces a sentence in which the subject performs an action. Setting aside whether the passive or active voice is better, I'm delighted by this description of what each is.

Woulda been awesome if the first sentence were written in passive voice.

Weak writing though. The sentences form a deliberate parallel structure, making it clear how the two voices differ.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#36

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

Hmmm, let's demonstrate wordiness :) > I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. Does wordiness mean restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences? > People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I…

This is hilarious

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#37

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/writing/seven-sin... provides a bit more context and example.

remove the words that don't add to the meaning of the sentence. that aside, this is in an academic setting and not prose where the rules are not hard and fast.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#38

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

Hmmm, let's demonstrate wordiness :) > I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. Does wordiness mean restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences? > People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I…

touche :)

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#39

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

> This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

I'd say that wordiness is when you can remove words from a story without taking away something of value from it, like clarity, pacing or flavor.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#40

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

I went to a small show the other day, and was thinking about how tough it is to package up that feeling. An audio recording or a video or photograph can capture some, kinda. Sort of a sad shadow of the real thing.

Writing is the only thing I could think of that could come close to evoking the feeling. Clearly, you wouldn't hear the songs, but the feeling is so hard to convey any other way.

Hemingway's voice is good for telling the kinds of stories Hemingway liked to tell. I've started Lolita, but never quite got around to finishing it.

I think, for some ideas, the only hope of communicating them is through writing, and trying to connect them to shared ideas. Some writers have a very lush style because they write lush stories.

I'm not an English major, I don't have a lot of tools for critical analysis of books. But I read Snowcrash about a dozen times. It gets a lot of criticism, I think, because it's a weird disjointed set of short stories, each featuring a neat idea, that are all kind of related. I love that book. It's like each section is a facet of an intricate gemstone. Slowly, over many reads, I finally put together the connections and the relationships.

We're pretty good at gathering up and packaging drama and comedy to sell soap. Deeper stories, more complex relationships, more complex environments are so hard to capture, much less convey to a message reciever. some messages require a lot of work to understand. They're not so good for selling soap.

in general, sure, be tight with writing. But sometimes you need those apparently superfluous words to really draw the reader into the world, or the experience. I think, at least in part, the work of the reader helps drive that emotional link.

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