A Practical Method for Polishing Your Writing
OR
Liposuction! Do it Yourself at Home!
(The 3rd Biannual Liposuction Seminar)

Jim Hodges
Division of Biostatistics
University of Minnesota

Wednesday, March 5th
3:30pm
Moos T 5-125
Minneapolis Campus

Abstract:
At every stage of your academic life, professors, thesis advisors, and journal editors will tell you to polish some document you've written, or to tighten it up, make it more readable, or -- most often -- make it shorter. Sometimes grad students come to me puzzled about how to polish or tighten or shorten their documents. This seminar gives a practical method for doing that.

This seminar specifically gives a method for making documents shorter. Reducing a document forces you to assess the value of each sentence, phrase, and word, and thus forces you to read your prose closely and to simplify it.

I'll begin with a principle: Save many words in total by saving a few words in many places. This is illustrated copiously in a memo I'll hand out. The memo has 7+ pages of examples from documents I've edited, each with a clearer, shorter revision. The examples are grouped according to things that indicate a chance to save words ("The preposition 'of'", "The passive voice", "The verb 'to be'", etc.).

For the rest of the seminar, I'll demonstrate the method in real time using documents sent to me by brave volunteers. The method is simple: Reduce a document's length by reducing individual paragraphs; reduce a paragraph by making it at least one line shorter. This idea turns editing into a game in which you compete with yourself to make each paragraph at least a line shorter. I call this method "liposuction" and the results will amaze you.

A social tea will be held at 3:00 PM. in A434 Mayo. All are Welcome.
For more details contact 612-624-4655 or see http://www.biostat.umn.edu/seminar_academic.html