{"id":3732,"date":"2025-11-07T15:42:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writing.rochester.edu\/faculty\/wsap\/resources\/?p=3732"},"modified":"2025-11-07T15:42:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T20:42:42","slug":"verbosity-and-clarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writing.rochester.edu\/faculty\/wsap\/resources\/verbosity-and-clarity\/","title":{"rendered":"Verbosity and Clarity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Handouts. Sol Armoskaite.<\/p>\n

Overview:\u00a0<\/strong>These exercises sharpen students’ awareness of clarity and precision in writing. The verbosity and vagueness worksheet<\/a> helps students identify when language is inflated or imprecise and decide whether\u2014and how\u2014to revise it. The Sharpen Clarity, Specificity, and Scope handout<\/a> builds on this by focusing on refining research questions for focus and manageability.<\/p>\n

Uses: <\/strong>This pair of materials supports instruction in revision and rhetorical precision<\/em>. They can be used to help students recognize the difference between wordiness and well-developed explanation, diagnose vague or unfocused phrasing in their own drafts, and practice narrowing overly broad research questions into ones that are answerable within the scope of a paper.<\/p>\n

They work well in first-year and intermediate writing courses, particularly at the point when students are moving from topic exploration to developing arguments or refining research questions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n Browse more in Textual Choices <\/a>
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Handouts. Sol Armoskaite. Overview:\u00a0These exercises sharpen students’ awareness of clarity and precision in writing. 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