Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Fall 2022 Post 12: No bad sentences

This post continues the previous post about shouting, because nothing shouts louder than poor, hard to understand sentences. Poor sentences shout, "Hey! I don't know how to write, and I don't care enough about my reader to fix my poor sentences." Poor sentences shout a profound lack of respect for the topic, the language, and, mostly, the reader. It's like showing up for a first date dressed in a tee-shirt, cut-off sweatpants, and flip-flops. You are signaling to your date that you really don't care enough about them to dress up. You probably won't get a second date.

In his post "No bad sentences," Josh Bernoff notes that even the best of writers write poor sentences from time to time, but no one gets to read them because great writers edit, edit, edit before they publish. You, too, should edit before you publish your essay to your teacher. If you have a good friend who can write well, then share your essays with them. Better yet, take your essay to the Writing Center or the Student Success Center. These centers will help you both in person and online. Use them.

There is no shame in writing poor sentences, but there is great shame in not fixing them, especially since you don't have to fix them by yourself.

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