To the art of writing is joined the art of thinking, a sequence which may seem strange but which is perhaps only too natural.                      – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The unfortunate trend to rely exclusively upon English courses — most of which are merely literature and ‘creative writing’ courses — for our training as writers is perhaps responsible for the inability of most people to write effectively. Writing that conveys ideas, knowledge, or understanding must be learned and practiced. To do that effectively you must become skilled in grammar, logic, and rhetoric, the Medieval ‘trivium’ and the arts that foster excellence in language.

Stepping up to an advanced level in the humanities requires considering seriously the quality of your writing. Words and the arrangement of them matter. George Orwell famously wrote (Politics and the English Language) that “the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts,” a sentiment with which I am in agreement. Rid yourself of the bad habits, argues Orwell, and you will think more clearly. Abraham Lincoln, too, implicitly understood the connection between writing and thinking; he regularly asked his advisers to write two-page briefs in order to help them clarify their thoughts.

Some suggested works for improving your reading skills:

• How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler

Writing is also fundamental to good living and we will work throughout the year to develop skills in keeping a journal. Journaling is not a commonplace habit, it is a keystone habit. Keystone habits affect how you work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate.

Some strategies for better writing include:

* Using active voice. e.g. NOT ‘The tower was knocked down with a well-placed shot’, BUT RATHER ‘A well-placed shot demolished the tower’.

* Avoiding the conditional. Most history essays demand the simple past tense. e.g. NOT ‘King Henry would eat an entire chicken before attending court,’ BUT ‘King Henry ate an entire chicken before attending court.’

Some of my pet peeves when it comes to writing include:

1. Empower:    really? ‘Empowerment’ is a prime example of the cant embeded in post-modernist identity politics.
2. Impact/impactful:  a colon or a tooth is impacted; nothing is ‘impactful’.
3. Moot: despite those who seemingly confuse this word with mute, the Saxon word ‘moot’ means debatable, that is, open to discussion. This is not a moot point.
4. People, the:   never make this the subject of a sentence. ‘The People’ makes little sense as a subject or object unless you’re writing revolutionary rhetoric. European nobility used the term ‘the people’ to refer disdainfully to the so-called middle class and French Jacobins used it to mean ‘those who think as we do’ (those who didn’t agree ideologically, were not among ‘the people’ and, therefore, killed!). Qualify your terms better and your analysis will improve exponentially.
5. Pro-active:   seriously? Do we yearn so much for someone who actually does something that we must invent a linguistic redundancy? ‘Active’ pretty much conveys the sentiment. Leave off your own stance with regard to it. (By the way, who has ever heard of someone taking a pro-passive or anti-active stance?)
6. Rise:   Unless you are writing about the temperature or a balloon DO NOT use ‘rise’ in analytical writing. As a noun, this word carries little real meaning and all too often tends to the cliched as a historical argument. So while King Richard might have risen to meet the dawn before the Battle of Bosworth, the Middle Class is never rising.
7. Split Infinitive:   Despite Star Trek’s bastardization of language, a split infinitive remains grammatically incorrect. Stop being linguistically lazy and avoid them in your writing. Yes, language changes and most journalists today do not think twice about adverb placement, but academic writing should maintain the ban on the split infinitive.
8. Use v Utilize:   these are neither synonyms nor interchangeable. Utilize derives from a philosophical concept, utilitarianism, and has a specific philosophical meaning. A person uses a fly rod on the river to catch trout, while Eskimo hunters utilize a whale for sustenance.
9. Very:   Why bother? This word adds nothing to your thought. Let it go. Something is either important or not important, so there is no good reason for telling your reader that your point is very important. It is the functional equivalent of ‘gee, I wish I knew more adjectives to express degree’.