Clarity, Part 2

A week ago, I read about and reflected on four aspects of clarity. In this post, I will read and reflect upon four more.

Gandy, Dave "Edit font awesome" (n.d.) via Wikipedia. Public domain.

1. Active Verbs

This is a subject that I never think about. I write what I think get the point across. This usually happens by using a passive voice. I learned that using an active voice can emphasize the importance of the actor if the receiver is not important and a passive voice emphasizes the importance of the receiver if the actor is not important. This is useful for wording a sentence exactly how I want it to be worded.

2. Shifts

For most of my high school essays, I wrote in the second person whenever I could. This is frowned upon in my senior English class. I try to avoid writing in second person but old habits die hard, or in my case, don't die at all and frequently returns when trying to avoid it. Because of this, I shift point of view quite often. I usually catch myself mid sentence but I still need to read through my writings at least once just to look for shifts.

3. Appropriate Language

I use a few styles of speech that this book deems "inappropriate language". I frequently use jargon and euphemisms. I understand why jargon is not appropriate in this genre but I think euphemism could be justified in cases. The book says that euphemistic "doublespeak" is "deliberately evasive or deceptive language". Most of the terms they use sound like words a politician would use to avoid conflict. Similarly, a writer can use doublespeak to avoid showing bias.

4. Exact Words

I think I'm relatively careful about picking the exact word that I want in a sentence. I need to be aware of using standard idioms and avoiding clichés. I use unidiomatic phrases and clichés in my regular speech so I occasionally write using those too.