One of the best English classes I took was technical writing: first assignment was to write a 5 page paper; second assignment was to turn that paper into 2 pages; then 1 page; then a single paragraph. We cut out ALL the fluff.
When I wrote essays in school I pretty much did the opposite process to get to the length I needed. I think I’m generally just a very terse person. That is all.
Most classes require you to do the opposite to hit some arbitrary word or page count. I only ever had one prof who called that out as stupid. “Your coworkers will HATE you if you take the habits learned in most English courses into the workplace. Less is more.”
It’s really hard to unlearn after spending years being as verbose as possible to inflate an essay.
One of the best English classes I took was technical writing: first assignment was to write a 5 page paper; second assignment was to turn that paper into 2 pages; then 1 page; then a single paragraph. We cut out ALL the fluff.
“and that’s how you write a work email.”
Fucking fantastic.
When I wrote essays in school I pretty much did the opposite process to get to the length I needed. I think I’m generally just a very terse person. That is all.
Most classes require you to do the opposite to hit some arbitrary word or page count. I only ever had one prof who called that out as stupid. “Your coworkers will HATE you if you take the habits learned in most English courses into the workplace. Less is more.”
It’s really hard to unlearn after spending years being as verbose as possible to inflate an essay.