A good writer is one you can read without breaking a
sweat. If you want a workout, you don’t lift a book—you lift
weights. Yet we’re brainwashed to believe that the more brilliant
the writer, the tougher the going.
The truth is that the reader is always right. Chances are, if
something you’re reading doesn’t make sense, it’s not your
fault—it’s the writer’s. And if something you write doesn’t get
your point across, it’s probably not the reader’s fault—it’s yours.
Too many readers are intimidated and humbled by what they can’t
understand, and in some cases that’s precisely the effect the
writer is after. But confusion is not complexity; it’s just
confusion. A venerable tradition, dating back to the ancient Greek
orators, teaches that if you don’t know what you’re talking about,
just ratchet up the level of difficulty and no one will ever know.
Don’t confuse simplicity, though, with simplemindedness. A
good writer can express an extremely complicated idea clearly and
make the job look effortless. But such simplicity is a difficult
thing to achieve because to be clear in your writing you have to be
clear in your thinking. This is why the simplest and clearest
writing has the greatest power to delight, surprise, inform, and
move the reader. You can’t have this kind of shared understanding
if writer and reader are in an adversary relationship. (pp.
195–196) Source: O’Conner, P. (2003). Woe is I: The
grammarphobe’s guide to better English in plain English. New
York: Riverhead Books. Paraphrase this passage from O’Conner using
no more than 75–100 words. Remember that paraphrasing means
summarizing the essence of the original text. It does not mean
creating a thesaurus-based revision of the author’s original words
or copying the piece, or any part of it, word for word. For this
activity, do not use any direct quotes. Turn your paraphrase into
Grammarly and SafeAssign. Review your reports. Review the other
tools, resources, and services available to you through the Walden
Writing Center that support your growth as a scholarly writer.
Consider which of these resources you find to be most useful.
Review learning resources on APA formatting rules and information
within the Walden Writing Center on APA
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