Cut to the chase babe...In three sentences if you can please?Make this one short and sweet kiddo!You need to evolve beyond this Victorian style of writing and learn how to leave out the unnecessary details. People have neither the time nor the patience for sentences that are a paragraph in themselves.
How many times have I heard that and fumed over the lack of appreciation of my personal style? I ramble. I provide details. I love to build a story, so yes, I love indulging in that long and winding preamble. I absolutely revel in long, winding sentences that unfold new nuances with each pause, sentences that dip and rise and linger on my tongue. And I hate being brief and concise. The only time I succeeded in actually sticking to the point and wrapping up in a minimum of words, sticking to the bare necessary bones and flesh required to cover the subject was in my exams at the B.A and M.A level. I could never write more than four pages for my assignment during my days as a Literature student.
Last week, correcting a pile of assignments written by my students of the intermediate level, i.e. level 2, I suddenly understood what my friends and critics have been grumbling about all these years! Faced with a convoluted sentence that started on the second line of the page and wound its way half way down the page, I frowned in compounded frustration as I struggled to comprehend just exactly what my student was trying to say (just like you are probably doing right now!)...and gritting my teeth, almost pulling my hair out in frustration, I brusquely wrote on the page, "Faut que tu sois bref!" (You should be brief!) ;-)
4 comments:
And ironically, the sentences structured by the diploma level students do not even cover a single line, apart from their senseless abstractedness...
LOL!!!
but its ok, we love you still the same!! :D
For someone who needs to practice brief, simple, and precise sentences in professional-life writing, I am way too fond of long winding sentences that unfolds, much like winding roads, different vistas at each new bend. This, however, shouldn't -- indeed cannot -- be attempted without a good command over the language, as is evident from my obviously laboured comment.
@ AXAYMTRZ - MDR!
PS. Much as I understand anonymity, I sure would like to know your real identity! ;)
@ Kitana - Heheh ;)
@ Pranab - Now let me see, from that long winding statement can I possibly glean a compliment? ;)
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