Chapter Sixteen

The reading in chapter sixteen went over how to write with style.  For starters, good style begins with an understanding of your writing situation.  When writing, it is wise to keep your words to a minimum for the sake of saving readers time and energy.  I learned that removing unnecessary modifiers as well as introductory phrases and eliminating stock phrases will help better my paper.  As said at the beginning of the reading, readers don't want to work any harder than necessary.  You will just end up losing their attention if you do.  Stock phrases consist of phrases such as, as a matter of fact, at all times, in order to, etc.  In your document search for phrases that you can replace with one or two words.  Use active and passive voice effectively.  Active and passive refer to two distinct types of sentences.  Jargon, known as specialized language can allow writers and readers to communicate both effectively and efficiently.  Variety is very important towards your paper.  In fact it is the key in an effective document.  You can improve the overall quality of your document by varying your sentence patterns to produce an appealing rhythm, creating effective transitions, varying your source attributions, avoiding sexist language, consulting a handbook, and reading widely.  There are four types of sentences.  Statements, questions, commands, and exclamations.  In addition, there are four sentence structures distinguished by the types and numbers of clauses they contain.  A clause is a sequence of words containing a subject and a verb that can be either independent or dependent.  Creating effective transitions helps the reader understand the relationships between sentences and paragraphs in your paper.  I intend on using all these helpful tools towards my paper.