Clarity pt. 2

In the following blog post I revisit the earlier blog post however I chose to write on four different topics this time.

Screenshot taken by Dylan Cotter 9/24/2015 "Editing"Public Domain usage

Active Verbs:

This section in the book explains how to use how to effectively use action verbs. It also explains what a "passive voice" is. This section does a very good job at differentiating between when to use these active or action verbs and when to use a more passive or more impartial voice. However, the book uses the word "weak" when describing the passive voice which I didn't agree with.

Example: You could almost count the entire twitter universe, all of the media coverage and every article written from January to today as credible sources against the Academy

Revision: The entire Twitter universe, all of the world's media coverage and every magazine article that came out after the Oscar nominations absolutely tore the academy apart.

Shifts:

The book also addresses shift in writing and how to avoid them. Shifts are when your writing seems to verge off in a strange direction that the reader didn't really need or see coming. However, sometimes these can be a good thing. The book says that it is a good idea to maintain constant emotional tone and verb tense and perspective.

Parallel ideas:

The book stresses the importance of staying with your train of thought throughout the writing piece. But it is also important to balance ideas. Using function words like then and also can string together two ideas and make them feel like one. I feel that this is something I already include in my writing style.

Example: Recent racial issues spiked in the United States in the last five years, including but not limited to the killing of Trayvon Martin and the acquitting of multiple white cops for shooting of unarmed black men.

Revision: Recent racial issues spiked in the United States with the killing of Trayvon Martin 3 years ago, then with the acquitting of multiple white police officers on brutality claims and also the presidents remarks on the Trayvon Martin killing.

Add Needed words:

This section of the book says that when you finish your writing, you should go back and add needed words like 'and' or 'also' in order to make your essay make sense. But also, adding in phrases like in addition to is better than saying just plain old 'and'.