1. Use short, simple words.Easy to say, isn't it? But harder to do. It comes with practice, and we'll be working on it the rest of the semester.
2. Use them in short, simple sentences.
3. Use your short, simple words and short, simple sentences to tell a story.
When I was a kid, first-graders learned to read from a book called "Fun with Dick and Jane." It was sappy. Here's an example from the 1950s. You could have a field day with the historical implications of Jane's dolls, the middle-class family gathered around, the middle-class values. In fact, social historians like to study the Dick and Jane books for the attitudes they reflect. It was sort of an upper middle class never-never land. But look how short those sentences are. "One, two, three," said Jane. "Three new dolls for my birthday! ..." Here's another story that reflects attitudes toward TV in the early days.
But that's not where I'm going with this. I want you to write like Dick and Jane in COMM 209.
At least for a while.
Your first stories were pretty good (or would have been, some of you, if you'd bothered to edit them). In general, they were good college writing. But there are some differences between the kind of writing you do for most of your college courses and the kind of writing professionals do for a living. Some are matters of style. Short sentences, very informal word choices that sound like spoken English. When I first left the newspaper business, I noticed my freshman English students made a lot of errors because their sentences were too complicated. So I wrote up a tip sheet on workplace writing. Key points: 1. Read your writing out loud. 2. Write like you talk. If you write great big long complicated sentences in your first draft, break them up. That's what I have to do. That's what a lot of professionals do.
Try it. You'll like it.
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