Wednesday, December 9, 2009

When You NEED to Make College-Level Writing Mistakes

Remember the key sins of college-level writing? Let's quickly review:

1) Flowery writing.
2) Pretentious vocabulary.
3) Unnecessarily complex sentence structure.
4) Reliance on jargon.

There is one important exemption to these four sins. Once in a while you will find yourself writing for a reader who wants to see these things. Perhaps it's a substandard professor who can't distinguish between complicated writing and intelligent writing.

When you find yourself in this situation, just follow the writing rule that supersedes all others: know your audience. If your professor showers you with good grades when you use jargon or convoluted sentences, then by all means use them.

But after you complete that class (and get your A+), please go back to your old writing habits.