Fluff
“Look for the clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly. Be grateful for everything you can throw away.” (16)
I think this is great advice because it makes for much clearer writing. Clutter confuses a reader with unnecessary words and repeated ideas which makes writing boring. It isn’t original and lacks developed ideas because the same ones are repeated over and over again. Clutter in writing is just like clutter in someones home; it looks disorganized and should be cleaned up.
I’ve heard this advice multiple times before from my dad and teachers so it really hits home for me. For me, my clutter was “fluff” writing. I would rewrite an idea and try to make it sound better than it actually was, but really it would just make the paragraph look longer. I can see the brackets that Zinsser writes about because those were the same brackets on my writing time and time again. Fluff was my way of reaching the page goal because I couldn’t develop and analyze my ideas well. Later in high school, I tried cutting down on fluff and this resulted in less brackets and clearer writing (though I’m sure there still is fluff). Throwing away repeated ideas allowed me the room to develop them more and led to higher grades on essays. If I didn’t follow this advice, my essays and papers would still be filled with brackets and each paragraph would have one idea repeated with no evidence. This advice really changed my writing and I think it is extremely important to follow.
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