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| Proust manuscript for A l'Ombre des Jeunes Filles en Fleurs A teacher once said it was interesting to have Proust, known to suffer from asthma, write sentences that were pages long. |
reports and such. One thing that caught my attention is that, the more important a person believes he/she is, the more likely that person is to want to impress others by showing off.
This showing off usually entails, when writing, long words, technical jargon, and run-on sentences a la Proust (and I admit that I too have been guilty on many occasions of the latter).
And here's where my tip comes in:
Don't be afraid to write shorter sentences.
They don't make you sound juvenile or, horror of horrors, dumb. In fact, quite the opposite: They allow you to convey your thoughts clearly and concisely, which the reader will always appreciate more than the head scratching and "huh?" that usually accompany never-ending descriptions.
That's it. Seriously! If you do just that, your writing will already greatly improve.
Disclaimer:
This is tip is mostly for those who aren't going for poetical lyricism, of course, though one doesn't preclude the other.
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Totally agree. I teach a "W" course and one of the first things I tell the students is that short, simple sentences are best for technical writing. Faulkneresque sentences that span several pages are fine in literature (not that I think Faulkner considered himself important). I do not know much about Proust; couldn't get through.
ReplyDeleteThe comment that I have just published sounds as if I were denigrating Proust. Definitely not - I am just a product of English-centric education, so I had read Faulkner instead of Proust and Dickens (yikes) instead of Flaubert. I was lucky to read Stendhal, though.
ReplyDeleteI would never imagine you denigrating any writer! :) I haven't ever read a full book by Proust, but neither have I read any Faulkner, but I've read books from every other author mentioned here ^.^
DeleteI have found shorter sentences are generally better even in in non-technical writing, at least nowadays. It's like math, isn't it? Take a complex problem and break it down into smaller, more manageable pieces :)
THANK YOU! I've noticed I have a tendency to get wordy when simple sentences could just as easily convey the same complex idea. Nailed it.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I also find that being able to break down complex ideas into easier terms helps a lot when communicating with others, especially if one doesn't want people to give up on the reading :)
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