Style, word choice and conciseness

Did you see comments such as “awkward” or “wordy” on your graded essay? This 5-point assignment might help. Check your syllabus for the due date.

1. Examine the draft of your essay. Do you see wordiness? Passive verbs? “Ostentatious erudition” (big words)? The Style page from the writing website for University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains how to identify and fix these. Do you see awkward/unclear expressions, clichés, redundancy, or wordiness? The Word Choice page from UNC can help.
2. Read either Style or Word Choice.
3. Watch Writing Concisely, also from UNC Chapel Hill.
4. Study your draft and identify three examples of the topics addressed in Style or Word Choice in your draft.
   • Copy and paste the “before” examples from your draft onto a document for this assignment.
   • Revise the sentences to create “after” versions that fix the problems. The video offers a good example of this.