Paul Mchenry Roberts How To Say Nothing In 500 Words Analysis

Summary of “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” by Paul McHenry Roberts, is a funny and well-written essay, in which Roberts details ways that freshman college students can bring their papers to life and make them more interesting to read. Throughout his essay, he outlines nine main tips that students can use to develop their writing more effectively. These nine tips are: Avoid the obvious content, take the less usual side, slip out of abstraction, get rid of obvious padding, call a fool a fool, beware of pat expressions, colorful words, colored words, and colorless words. Throughout the essay, Roberts walks students through his nine suggestions and describes in detail what to avoid in each one. He suggests getting “to the heart of the matter”(Roberts) and staying away from obvious content or arguments. This is content has …show more content…
He tells students that they should avoid using pat expressions whenever possible, and that while they cannot always be avoided, they should be used only when the reader can find no other way to word it. Roberts then goes on to explain appropriate use, and the differences between colorful, colored, and colorless words. Colorful and colored words are both acceptable to be used in papers as long as they are used correctly. Colorful words are used to provoke emotion in the reader, but he cautions students to not use too many of them, since overuse can turn a reader away. Colorful words are similar, as they also provoke emotion, but these are words that the reader will already have associations attached to. These associations could be either good or bad, so students should be cautious when using them. Colorless words, Roberts described, are words that would be difficult not to use in a conversation, but when writing have very little actual