What we've been talking about in class, clarity is the most important.

I can follow is argument about the degradation of language, but I'm curious as to how this effects politics and the economy.

I don't know how established this is, but I find the claimed connection between the preciseness of our language and the quality of our actual thoughts to be very interesting. Does language actually allow one to think better?

This is an interesting point. Is the english language getting worse? When I read something written a long time ago I find it hard to understand, because it's less familiar to me. So is it getting worse or is it just changing? The problem is that anyone would say their language is just fine because it's what they're most comfortable with, so it's hard to compare.

It's shocking how much easier this is to read

This seems like too simple of a fix, I'm curious to see how it changes the paragraph.

This explanation makes it clear that the goal is to make the reading as effortless as possible for the reader. We don't want them "diverting energy," we want whatever energy they have to be available for understanding.

I think this is a very important point. Not only will better writing convey your thoughts better, it will actually make your thoughts better!

This is something I haven't tried, but I would like to. It also might help me feel more organized and follow along better.

I think I'm still at the stage where even the plots and figures just confuse me.

I've heard of people doing similar things. Does anyone ever read the whole thing?

Are scientific research papers badly written? Is the appropriate genre to write poorly?

This article is so funny cause these are the exact steps I've gone through

I had a teacher that recommended this, and I think it would be extremely helpful, but its really hard to do. We're all busy (or maybe just a little lazy) and that could turn a 30 minute read into several hours

I never thought about something as simple as a joke being a particular genre, but it's true, and something about it that I can't quite pick apart lets everyone around you know what's going on, most of the time.

Not sure if everyone learned the same thing in American Heritage as me, but this definitely relates to pragmatism.

It's very interesting and helpful to see how the writer struggles in deciding how to write in this genre, or how he should address this audience.

In thinking about where genres come from I was reminded about something I read about how the human brain works. It was something about how it records successes or failures in a certain situation so that it can either correct or act the same the next time it's in that situation. Maybe that led to genres; someone had success in addressing a specific audience in a certain way, so they did the same thing the next time, and the next time until this pattern formed.

I think another relevant thing here is what the student's goal is. We talked a bit about this in class, but some students just want to get the paper/assignment done in the shortest time and with the least effort. They probably won't use this process because it's not a requirement like it was in high school. They may not even consider that it's worth writing the best paper they can and considering strategies to help them do so.

As a physics major I don't think I've gotten over the fear of long page requirements, but maybe I can learn from the strategies of a seven-year-old.