Improving Clarity
Katherine King
Why should we?
 We write to communicate
 Sentence clarity improves overall writing style, which
implies more effective communication.
 Especially relevant in academic writing
 Students sometimes put a greater emphasis on sounding
intelligent
 Instead, students should focus on effectively conveying
intelligent points
 Sentence clarity forces the writer to have a better
understanding of the argument
Check List
 Avoid nominalizations
 Watch out for prepositional phrases
 Active voice > passive voice
 Use active verbs instead of “to be” verbs
 Beware of sentences that begin with
expletives (It is/there are…etc.)
 Be careful with pronoun references
Structural Concerns
 Choose clear subjects
 Abstractions and process often
create unclear subjects
 Old information  New information
 Placement of subordinate clauses
 Don’t interrupt the main clause
 Parallel constructions
Practice
 The cause of our schools’ failure at teaching basic skills is
not understanding the influence of cultural background
on learning.
 Use the checklist: What do you notice?
 Strings of prepositional phrases
 Unclear subject
 nominalizations
Revised
 Our schools have failed to teach basic skills because
educators do not understand how cultural backgrounds
influence learning.
 Subjects:
 The cause of our school’s failure at teach basic skills  Our
schools…educators…cultural backgrounds
 No more prepositional phrases!
 Nominalizations:
 Failure  failed; the influence of  influence
Writing Studio Resources
 http://twp.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/clarityconciseness.original.pdf
 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/600/01/
 http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/style/