TOW #1-How to Say Nothing in 500 Words (Written)

          How to Say Nothing in 500 Words is a guide to what every student does, and how to avoid it. Written by Paul Roberts, a writer well-educated in the ways of the English language who has written many textbooks about the subject, it is witty and concise, while still teaching the reader how to write better. Primarily for students to read, he writes it in the voice of a college professor, frustrated by the lack of originality and good writing in his student's essays. It is heavy in examples, all which I could relate to. For example, the sample essay about college football sounded exactly like what I would write at eleven pm on a Sunday night, which was exactly his point. It really struck me how much I could relate to the examples of bad writing in the article, which is how Roberts intended to get through to his readers.

         Roberts used ten headers to organize his piece, and they were the important overall ideas that the paragraphs underneath them would flesh out. They really helped support his main purpose to educate readers because like he said to, first he gave the main idea and then added details. I think he did achieve his purpose to educate, or at least get readers to start thinking about how they write because it did make me think over my writing to figure out what good and bad things I am doing. One quirky thing I noticed is that it was written way back in 1958, which explains the typewriter, but it also shows how student's writing styles haven't changed a bit since 1958. I could have seen myself writing that bad essay on college football, which hits home to his point in writing the piece, to at least influence a couple of people to stop the bad writing that has been going on since 1958.