Writing Center

Improving Your Prose

1. Have you chosen specific and concrete words throughout your paper, aware of their sounds, rhythm and connotations as well as their dictionary meaning?
   
   
2. Have you chosen words that are honest—specific, unadorned, plain?
   
   
3. Have you used only those words that are necessary?
   
   
4. Have you chosen energy words; verbs that move the prose?
   
   
5. Have you varied the lengths and patterns of the sentences, experimenting with the effects of following long sentences with a short sentence, or the opposite?
   
   
6. Have you supported general ideas with examples?
   
   
7. Have you considered arranging your ideas in ascending order of importance, saving the best for last?
   
   
8. Have you considered comparison, contrast, metaphor and analogy to sharpen meaning?
   
   
9. Are transitions smooth, creating a bridge to lead your reader from one point to the next?
   
   
10. Do sentences flow in a coherent order, according to time, space, ideas, or logic?
    
    
11. Have you considered arranging parallel ideas in parallel structure?
    
    
12. Have you experimented with emphasis by changing rhythm and cadence?

                                                (By coordinator Donna Boetig)