New Year's resolutions. Humbug!
How about a New Year's revolution? We pledge to overthrow all bad-writing habits, and to keep our writing simple, precise, concise — and therefore clear. Why revolution? Because resolutions are routinely abandoned.
When I meet a new class in my journalism course at Colorado College, here's the first thing I say to them: "In this course you are not permitted to use the word dichotomy or the term paradigm shift."
Right away I can see some of them shifting — squirming! — in their seats.
"That doesn't mean there's no place in our language for those two things, but in your work here, keep your writing simple; write the way most people talk."
It works. Never in my 22 years at the college has a student violated that rule. Because they keep that rule in mind, their writing keeps getting clearer.
At the end of the course I say this: "I invite you to write me a note about your experience in this course. That will help me shape future courses. Feel free and safe to write whatever you want; I have already turned your grades in to the registrar's office, so nothing you write can either help or harm your grade."
This note from one student produced one of the greatest payoffs a teacher can get. He wrote: "On the first day we met you said, 'No dichotomy; no paradigm shift.' I went back to all the papers I had written in my previous courses, and those two things appear in almost every paper. I now recognize it as a cheap trick to try to impress a professor."
