by Bubba Sugarman<\/p>\n
When you start writing a paper, you choose a subject, you do some research, you find some evidence, and develop an idea of what you are going to say. You get all your thoughts in order, and then you try to find the right words to express your thoughts. The ideas may be crystal clear in your mind, but finding the words is sometimes half the battle. As you read what you\u2019ve written, you may ask yourself, \u201cIs this really what I mean?\u201d or \u201cDoes this sound right?\u201d or even, \u201cWhat am I trying to say?\u201d If your final draft seems wordy, clumsy, or convoluted, don\u2019t fret! It can all be fixed with some simple word choices.<\/p>\n
When you write, consider your audience. Remember, because they haven\u2019t done the research and might not be as familiar with the content, you will have to carefully help them understand your ideas. When choosing which words to use, don\u2019t \u201ctry to sound smart\u201d by using big confusing words. Rather, remember that your goal is to clearly communicate your ideas. As you continue to write and learn, your writing will become more complex while maintaining its clarity. Simple words are in no way limited to simple thoughts.<\/p>\n
Another way to improve your word choice is to avoid clich\u00e9s. They tend to make your writing sound informal and corny. If you find that you use clich\u00e9s in your writing, don\u2019t panic! Just replace the clich\u00e9 with what you really mean. For example, instead of using the phrase, \u201cdead as a doornail\u201d just replace it with \u201cdead.\u201d Or, rather than saying the court verdict was \u201cup in the air,\u201d you could say the court verdict was \u201cundecided.\u201d By saying exactly what you mean, your writing becomes more clear and understandable.<\/p>\n
Finally, if you find that that you\u2019ve got the ideas in your head but can\u2019t put them into words, here are some tricks I like to use:<\/p>\n
If your friend, classmate, roommate, or mom still seems confused you can try to clarify your ideas by using different words. Once you figure out a way to explain your ideas, write them down.<\/p>\n
One final note, keep in mind that writing a new sentence is often faster, and produces a better result, than trying to fix a sentence. Instead of trying to save a sentence by piecing it back together, delete it and write it again. Your ideas will be more concrete and the words will come more easily.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bubba Sugarman is a sophomore business major who has trouble saying no to new things. He enjoys playing rugby, beekeeping, blacksmithing, bull riding, surfing, flying helicopters, playing cello, working as a writing tutor, woodworking, welding, flying planes, baking, shearing sheep, and procrastinating. As a tutor, Bubba wants to make the tutor caf\u00e9 as inviting as possible for all students. Even if you don\u2019t have questions, come hang out with us, we get lonely sometimes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bubba Sugarman When you start writing a paper, you choose a subject, you do some research, you find some evidence, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writeherewritenowwriteon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5DI6r-DW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2477,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions\/2477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}