So: you write a paper that makes perfect sense to you, but it comes back with “awkward” scribbled throughout the margins.

“Awkward,” “vague,” and “unclear” word choice Don’t be too attached to what you’ve already written if you are willing to start a sentence fresh, you may be able to choose words with greater clarity.įor tips on making more substantial revisions, take a look at our handouts on reorganizing drafts and revising drafts. This handout will explain some common issues related to word choice and give you strategies for choosing the best words as you revise your drafts.Īs you read further into the handout, keep in mind that it can sometimes take more time to “save” words from your original sentence than to write a brand new sentence to convey the same meaning or idea. When your instructors write things like “awkward,” “vague,” or “wordy” on your draft, they are letting you know that they want you to work on word choice. You might ask yourself, “Is this really what I mean?” or “Will readers understand this?” or “Does this sound good?” Finding words that capture your meaning and convey that meaning to your readers is challenging.

As you revise your draft, you make more choices. As you work on a paper, you choose your topic, your approach, your sources, and your thesis when it’s time to write, you have to choose the words you will use to express your ideas and decide how you will arrange those words into sentences and paragraphs. This handout can help you revise your papers for word-level clarity, eliminate wordiness and avoid clichés, find the words that best express your ideas, and choose words that suit an academic audience.

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