I begin a new school year today with some fresh, sometimes anxious, faces in our first New Testament class. Their writing will matter to us at Northern as it will not only lead to better papers but it will also foster better speaking because good writing requires good thinking. But, we will be opening doors for our students to walk into the room, open a book by scholars who, well, don’t always pay attention to audience. They write for themselves and for their scholar friends, and, well, only they can understand one another.
Thank you for this post - very helpful! Here’s a question and a rule to add. The question: “What do I want my writing to accomplish?” The rule: “Consider the reader.”
My first rule governing my writing style is to ask "Who is my audience?" I'm "capable" of going multisyllabic (for fun), but my first publisher chose to turn my classroom efforts to communicate God's truth to simple people in a live audience into several books. More than thirty years ago that set the pattern I've since followed. With several books out there translated in languages I can hardly pronounce, I know that "keeping it simple" is essential if I care about making any life-changing sense to my reader..
A couple of months ago I helped Jennie do some research for her masters degree in school counseling. I felt like an ignoramus. It was an enlightening and humbling experience. I mean, I earned a doctorate under Scot McKnight, right!! … but I was like a calf staring at a new gate trying to decipher a lot of that stuff. I had forgotten how lost I was as a college student reading a commentary for the first time. The point — I underestimate our in-group language, and this is really something that as a pastor and teacher of students brand new to theological studies I cannot afford to ignore. Thanks for the reminder.
Scott, exactly my frustration with trying to read and comprehend (most) philosophy. I’m currently reading the second epilogue of War and Peace, and I’ll be switched if I can understand, let alone paraphrase, what Tolstoy is attempting to prove. I finally resorted to Cliff Notes.
Scot, I wouldn't say your rules are random; rather, sage. So much I could add as a fellow prof of fresh faces in first year classes (FT-UEBE Madrid), but let me just put in a word about passive prose. Though the language in my case is Spanish, I see how the passive construction so prevalent in academic English infects my students´writing, as many of the texts they read are in English. So I tell them to resist this unnatural linguistic invader! I show them examples and give them these rules: Choose active verbs. Eschew passive tense (as in: "Chew it up and spit it out in active form!").
Thank you for this post - very helpful! Here’s a question and a rule to add. The question: “What do I want my writing to accomplish?” The rule: “Consider the reader.”
My first rule governing my writing style is to ask "Who is my audience?" I'm "capable" of going multisyllabic (for fun), but my first publisher chose to turn my classroom efforts to communicate God's truth to simple people in a live audience into several books. More than thirty years ago that set the pattern I've since followed. With several books out there translated in languages I can hardly pronounce, I know that "keeping it simple" is essential if I care about making any life-changing sense to my reader..
1-Read what you wrote out loud (even better is to have someone else do it).
2-Have someone you trust read drafts early on and often. It can be a humbling experience but often improves the end results immeasurably!
A couple of months ago I helped Jennie do some research for her masters degree in school counseling. I felt like an ignoramus. It was an enlightening and humbling experience. I mean, I earned a doctorate under Scot McKnight, right!! … but I was like a calf staring at a new gate trying to decipher a lot of that stuff. I had forgotten how lost I was as a college student reading a commentary for the first time. The point — I underestimate our in-group language, and this is really something that as a pastor and teacher of students brand new to theological studies I cannot afford to ignore. Thanks for the reminder.
Scott, exactly my frustration with trying to read and comprehend (most) philosophy. I’m currently reading the second epilogue of War and Peace, and I’ll be switched if I can understand, let alone paraphrase, what Tolstoy is attempting to prove. I finally resorted to Cliff Notes.
Scot, I wouldn't say your rules are random; rather, sage. So much I could add as a fellow prof of fresh faces in first year classes (FT-UEBE Madrid), but let me just put in a word about passive prose. Though the language in my case is Spanish, I see how the passive construction so prevalent in academic English infects my students´writing, as many of the texts they read are in English. So I tell them to resist this unnatural linguistic invader! I show them examples and give them these rules: Choose active verbs. Eschew passive tense (as in: "Chew it up and spit it out in active form!").
This is extremely helpful. Thank you!