Fluff

You know the dreaded moment when it dawns on you that your paper isn’t long enough? You know what I’m talking about:  when you realize that the 800 words you’ve painfully forced out won’t make your 900-word-demanding-teacher happy. You may think “Oh, 100 words don’t matter.” But they do! – and try telling your professor that. You’ll then probably start to whine. Maybe even shed a tear or two as you wallow in self-pity. “Why does this always happen to me!? Life is so unfair!”

It’s at this point you decide to add in some filler words, better known by the scientific name “fluffy terminology.” So you grab a thesaurus and decide to go all William Faulkner. You realize that what can easily be said with one word can be stretched to five. Perhaps even eight, if you’re really good.

“Jane was happy” suddenly becomes “Jane’s heart leapt and her spirit soared to the height of the clouds.” Whew. A three word sentence is now thirteen words long. Not bad, huh?

But this mindless jargon isn’t what your teacher expects. What you really need is a paper filled with solid facts and necessary sentences. The last thing you want is to write something no one wants to read, and unnecessary academia filler won’t score you any brownie points. To avoid that, make an outline first. Plan for more than you need. That way, you can always cut out the weaker points and keep the really strong ones. Before you know it, you’ll have that 900 word count – maybe even a little extra.

 Alyssa--West writing tutor

Language and Henry Rollins

http://www.writersmugs.com/quote/Toni-Morrison/140/We-die--That-may-be-the-meaning-of-life--But-we-do-language

Language truly is the measure of our lives; what use are your ideas if you cannot express them effectively?

Over the weekend, while enjoying my time away from the daily grind and monotonous obligations we all must fulfill, I watched a man perform on a stage. His name was Henry Rollins, former front man of Black Flag, political activist, proponent of social change, raving lunatic, etc. He had a lot to say, about a lot of different things, and I knew I would be entertained by his solipsistic tendencies and rude remarks. However, it was his eloquence that struck me. Henry Rollins is known for being rough around the edges; he overcame his surroundings and emerged as a product of his environment in a truly amazing way: with a do-it-yourself work ethic and without a formal education. Mr. Rollins had us engaged, on stage uttering a poetic, political tirade. He spoke, without pause, for two hours and forty-five minutes – I went into this night half-expected the man to tear the stage apart, jump into the crowd, and rage on his fans because he's still mad Reagan was re-elected. Instead he used words to convey the same amount of intense energy and passion that he's known for by passing it on verbally, penetrating his audience's intellect rather than breaking their jaws. He conveyed ideas about social constructs, shared humor through anecdotes, and most importantly created a contagion of infectious energy through words. His ability to articulate came as a pleasant surprise to me, especially being a fan of his music which is all about energy and completely ignores the elements involved in creating an aesthetically pleasing sound or appearance. So I leave us with a quote that inspires me to be conscious of my words and how I use them. If language is the measure of our lives, I want to get the most out of it every day and being a tutor puts me one step closer to that.
Nicole, West writing tutor

Why Procrastination Doesn't Work

While we understand students' desire or tendency to procrastinate, it doesn't always work out in your best interest.

Start that paper early, and come see a tutor at one of ASU's writing centers to get constructive feedback.

Grammar/Punctuation Workshops - Reasons to Save the Date

Have a hard time understanding the terminology of grammar and punctuation? Read the jokes below to find out.

If you had a hard time understanding the jokes above, maybe it's time to consider attending a workshop that breaks down grammar and punctuation into manageable chunks. Come visit the Polytechnic Writing Center for such a workshop.

Hope to see you there!

Musings on Writing Papers

We Read Good One Day

Image taken from Amazon.com

First, my apologies to David Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day."

Today’s reading list addresses these parallel aspirations. And since the number of books written about reading and writing likely far exceeds the reading capacity of a single human lifetime, this omnibus couldn’t be—shouldn’t be an exhaustive list. It is, instead, a collection of timeless texts bound to radically improve your relationship with the written word, from whichever side of the equation you approach it.   

The Elements of Style Illustrated—Strunk, White &Kalmam 
Bird By Bird—Anne Lamott 
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft—Stephen King 
Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You—Ray Bradbury
 The War of Art—Steven Pressfield  
Advice to Writers—Jon Winokur 
How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One—Stanley Fish 
Ernest Hemingway on Writing—Ernest Hemingway edited by Larry W. Phillips 
How to Read A Book—Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

Image compiled from Amazon.com

10 Tips on Writing

1.  The better you write, the higher you go.
2. People who think well, write well.
3.   Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well.
4. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
5. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of pretentiousness.
6. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
7. Check your quotations.
8.  Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning and then edit it.
9.  If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
10.   Before you send your letter on your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

Image taken from: http://cfhuntonlinehtmlwriting.blogspot.com/