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Is your writing clear?

September 21, 2017 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

Awhile back we read about how a researcher rewrote the terms and conditions that you have to agree to when you sign up for Instagram.

Are your essays as bad as those?

As part of the research, they had teenagers read the T&Cs.

Here are some comments from those study participants:

“Boring!” one 13-year-old girl declared during the exercise. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

After 20 minutes, the same teen questioned why she should continue reading.

“Are you sure this is necessary?” she said. “There are, like, 100 pages.”

Afterward, the teenagers said they understood very little about privacy rights on Instagram, despite getting through the terms and conditions.

“I don’t know due to the sheer amount of writing and the lack of clarity within the document,” a 15-year-old said, according to the report.

Which could just as easily be EssaySnark’s response when reading one of your drafts:

“Boring!” one EssaySnark declared during the exercise. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

After 20 minutes, the same Snark questioned why they should continue reading.

“Are you sure this is necessary?” they said. “There are, like, 100 pages.”

Afterward, the Snark said they understood very little about anything the BSer was talking about, despite getting through the end of the essay.

“I don’t know due to the sheer amount of writing and the lack of clarity within the document,” a snarky reader said, according to the report.

Yeah.

That.

Why does this happen?

It happens when you write a datadump instead of an essay.

It happens when you don’t know what you’re going to say, and you just start typing.

It also can happen when you come up with hifalutin words to use, when simple words would do.

So, here’s a test.

Find a teenager.

Give them your essay.

What do they say?

Can they read it and figure out what it means?

Filed Under: writing tips

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Next: ($) Humor in MBA essays »

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