Clarity, Part 1

After reading the "Clarity" section of Rules for Writers I have developed a better understanding (or clarity) about four different topics: balancing parallel ideas, shifts, variety, and exact words.

Files, Adam. "File:Clarity" 31 Oct. 2014. Public Domain.

Balancing Parallel Ideas

I learned the importance of using coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, and yet) to link ideas of equal importance. Balancing parallel ideas correctly in an article such as a QRG can help readers understand more easily.

Shifts

It is more important to focus on eliminating distracting shifts in writing. By eliminating unnecessary shifts in my writing, my readers wont be distracted or confused by the ideas I present. I can eliminate unwanted shifts in my writing by making sure the point of view is consistent in person and number, and making verbs consistent in tense and mood.

Variety

When writing it is important to provide variety in sentence openings and sentence structures. I have learned that creating variety in my writing can be really easy as I just need move around adjectives and sentence types to create a more interesting sounding final product.

Exact Words

The most important aspect of word choice in writing is that a thesaurus should not be used to find more impressive or "flowery" words. Words should be chosen to exactly express the meaning I am trying to convey.

Reflection

After revising some of my classmates drafts, I learned that the topics I chose to review in this clarity post can be hard to find/correct in writing as they are small changes that make a big difference.  When revising Jayni's QRG, I found that using more specific word choice could help clarify what happened to the Monarch Butterflies in her post. She wrote, "This contamination resulted in the decrease of about half of the entire monarch population.". By changing "decrease" to something like "elimination" the whole meaning of the sentence changes and becomes more clear.

When revising Isabel's QRG,  I advised her to try to use coordinating conjunctions to clarify a parallel comparison between people that need to eat a gluten free diet and people that choose to eat a gluten free diet. this is her sentence that could be altered, "For the most part, it has been said that avoiding gluten is mostly unnecessary for people that do not need to but engaging in a gluten free diet while consuming the right foods and nutritional values could be beneficial."