Elizabeth Blomstedt
Assignments & Activities Archive
Activity Description
Students often rely on writing strategies that make their writing wordy and bloated—sometimes subconsciously, sometimes to make their writing sound more sophisticated, and sometimes to meet word count. Presenting students with concrete strategies for making their writing more direct, clear, and concise increases student awareness of their own wordy writing habits and makes a case for the benefits of writing concisely. This activity presents students with five sentence-level habits that make writing wordy and shows them how to revise these to make their writing more concise. I’ve arranged this information in a “Concise Writing Strategies” handout (see Appendix) that includes sample revisions and sentences that students can practice revising themselves. The handout ends with a section that asks students to apply these strategies to a draft of their own writing or writing from one of their peers. This activity is most effective when taught shortly before final drafts of a writing project are due (after content has been solidified) because it focuses on writing style.