John M. Williams Style: Lessons In Clarity And Grace

In John M. Williams’ book, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, he discusses the concepts of characters, actions and concision in writing in chapters three, four and nine. Williams emphasizes these points as a part of his vision that writers should write clearly and anyone can write in this manner (2). When a writer understands and applies Williams’ principals as described in these chapters, the reader will perceive the writing more clearly and directly (46). Williams focuses on making the main character the subject of the verbs in each sentence, and making those verbs the important actions performed by the main character (29). Williams states that the first principal of clarity in writing is to make the subjects of the majority of the verbs in your sentence the main character (47). He states you can find the main character in your sentence by making sure the main character appears in the first seven or eight words. If not, look for possessive nouns or pronouns, objects of prepositions, or implied subjects (48). Williams also warns of absent characters, or implied subjects, and using abstractions as characters (49-50). In order to assist the reader in these cases, Williams says to use a “flesh-and-blood” point of view (51). Once you locate the main …show more content…
Hedges qualify your certainty and intensifiers increase your certainty (129). Hedges include words such as usually, almost, perhaps, many, might and appear (129-130). Intensifiers include words such as very, clearly, key, essential, prove and establish. An intensifier can include the absence of a hedge which makes the writing then appear more aggressive (131). While stressing these ideas in writing concisely, Williams also warn against becoming terse or abrupt (134). You do not want your reader to find your writing abrasive and difficult to read. Williams points out Goldilocks rule: not too much, not too little, but just right