The Essence of Writing - Assignment Example

The Essence of WritingIn his essay “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words,” Paul Roberts has provided the writing tips to help students make their assignments meaningful and unique. He has given nine powerful tips with the help which the strength of the writing can be increased. The nine tips are as follows:1. The first tip of Roberts is that the writer should discard all the obvious ideas and content that comes to his mind in the initial stages of brainstorming. The obvious ideas are common to everyone and will not make any unique statement.

Hence, to get fresh and revolutionary ideas that are different from others, the writer should build the paper based on those ideas that are hidden under the obvious ideas.2. The second way to impress the reader is by taking the unusual side in the argument. By taking the side which will be avoided by most people, the content will have the touch of ‘unexpected’ element. The uniqueness will grab the attention of the reader and will keep him hooked. 3. The third tip advices to make the writing clear, illustrative and concrete, in order to make the reader actually feel the scenario which is being discussed in the paper.

The abstraction does not create the magic and impact which the concrete and descriptive writing creates. Hence, giving examples, real or imaginary, while making your point, gives a life to the argument and makes it convincing. 4. The author says that even if the writer has only few points to discuss, he should not fill the paper with useless words. Instead, he should get into the details of those few points and fill the required word limit with the help of illustration and details of the points.

This might make the content short, but it will have power. 5. The fifth tip is to be courageous and bold enough to express whatever one wants to express without wasting the words in beating around the bush. The writer should avoid using unnecessary words to hide his critical language or bluntness.6. The writer should avoid ‘pat expressions’ as they are common, boring and immature way of expressing ideas. They make writing dead and utterly boring. 7. To make the content interesting, gripping and lively, the writer should use the words which makes the reader to ‘feel’ the content.

However, these words, known as ‘colorful words,’ should be used according to the trend of the time.8. Writer should be prudent while using the words which have mental associations. These words, known as colored words, have great power to recreate the feelings that are associated with these words. 9. The writer should avoid the colorless words, i.e. slang and the words that describe ‘generalized’ ideas. These words are short lived, and weaken the meaning and power of the content. Work CitedRoberts, Paul.

How to say nothing in five hundred words, n.d. Web. 4 Sep.2012. < http://www.mpsaz.org/rmhs/staff/sawilson/de101/whatwedid/files/how_to_say_nothing_with_intro.pdf>