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Clear and Concise Writing

Clear and Concise Writing. MIS 495 Winter 2014. What the heck are you saying?. It helps to know what you want to say! Simplify your thoughts and intentions. Write. Use topic sentences to summarize what you are saying. Add helpful details in subsequent sentences.

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Clear and Concise Writing

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  1. Clear and Concise Writing MIS 495 Winter 2014

  2. What the heck are you saying? • It helps to know what you want to say! • Simplify your thoughts and intentions. • Write. • Use topic sentences to summarize what you are saying. • Add helpful details in subsequent sentences. • Do the details support the main points?

  3. Drafting and Re-drafting Tips • If you feel constrained by conciseness, dump your verbose, unclear, inexact ideas on the page. • Simplify thoughts, expressing them in short, complete sentences. Use the active voice. • Make each sentence understandable on its own. • Connect related sentences with suitable phrases or transitions. • Re-order sentences to achieve an easy flow of ideas. • On the other hand, do not be too concise. Explain arcane jargon and professional argot. Expand acronyms and other abbreviations that might not be understood.1 1. Sometimes a footnote is helpful.

  4. Conciseness Strategies • State your idea directly: get to the point. • Eliminate (or use very carefully) redundant or unnecessary words and ideas. Question: Is the word “very” helpful? Answer: “Not very”. • My opinion is that.... • The point I wish to make is that ... • The fact of the matter…

  5. Flash! Revision Example • Eliminate (or use only after careful consideration) unnecessary words and ideas. • When is it good to be redundant? • There are dozens of examples on the web. Search for “concise writing”. • Words that have dubious meaning: Extremely, really, very, truly, so, awefully, awesomely, barely… “he was like…”

  6. Is it clear? • Read your own text aloud. Listen. • Is it clear, except for the parts you want to remain ambiguous? • Does it reflect what you want to say? • Revise for clarity and conciseness.

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