(Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes, American English: Dialects and Variation. indirectness, gender differences may play a more important role than factors such as ethnicity, social class, or region, although all these factors tend to intersect, often in quite complex ways, in the determination of the 'appropriate' degree of directness or indirectness for any given speech act.' The sentences also differ in terms of relative politeness and situational appropriateness. However, the sentences show varying degrees of directness, ranging from the direct command at the top of the list to the indirect statement regarding the reason the activity needs to be undertaken at the bottom of the list. 'Each of these sentences may be used to accomplish the goal of getting the person to take out the garbage. For example, consider the range of sentences that might be used to direct a person to take out the garbage: 'Statements may be strong and direct or they may be softer and less direct. Draw more attention to it.' (John Mauk and John Metz, The Composition of Everyday Life: A Guide to Writing, 5th ed.

What is the most uncommon or fresh idea? Even if it's a description of the problem or a slightly different take on solving it, develop it further. Intensify the least obvious: Think about your essay as a declaration of new ideas. Delete the obvious: Consider statements or passages that argue for or detail what you and your peers already assume.Ģ. Focus specifically on the following issues:ġ.

They do not want to struggle through overly wordy phrases and jumbled sentences. Examine your draft. 'Academic audiences value directness and intensity. (Jacques Barzun, Simple & Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers, 4th ed. 'Modify these guidelines in the light of the occasion, the full situation, which includes the likely audience for your words.' 'Prefer the short word to the long the concrete to the abstract and the familiar to the unfamiliar. I say 'tend to be' and 'likely' because there are exceptions. 'Now, the simple words in the language tend to be the short ones that we assume all speakers know and if familiar, they are likely to be direct. This means that good writing should not sound stuffy, pompous, highfalutin, totally unlike ourselves, but rather, well-'simple & direct.' What is meant by the advice to write as we speak is to write as we might speak if we spoke extremely well. That is absurd. Most speaking is not plain or direct, but vague, clumsy, confused, and wordy. It has even been said that we should write as we speak.

Everybody likes the other fellow's prose plain.

'The whole world will tell you, if you care to ask, that your words should be simple & direct.

Simple and Direct by Jacques Barzun