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M3 Small Group Discussion

M3 Small Group Discussion

Q Your initial post, read the newspaper article published in the Washington Post, 'Rigorously disentangle’ and other examples of bad federal writing’ (attached with this item). Select one of the poorly rated examples discussed in the article (just the snippet) and share it with the group. Use the rules of clarity, conciseness, and coherence presented by Swain and Swain to evaluate the piece. As a response to others, identify 1 strategy they could have employed for each dimension to improve the clarity, conciseness, and coherence (again, 1 strategy for clarity, 1 for conciseness, 1 for coherence). There are just a few specific examples in the article and that is okay! It means it is likely some of you may use the same quote for the initial post. That is fine as you all will have different ideas, etc. Sorry if this was confusing. Initial posts will: 1. Provide a link to example and provide an initial summary of the major errors they see (250 words or less). 2. Post their thoughts about the piece, and 3 strategies that could have been employed to improve the piece. 3. Post a question to the group about the selected piece to solicit their feedback on the quality of the writing and to identify specific examples of how the strategies suggested by the lead could be implemented.

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In the article, ‘Rigorously disentangle’ and the other examples of bad federal writing, government agencies were evaluated on their writing styles. Many scored low on the conciseness, clarity and plain writing. Writing for these agencies should be simple enough that the everyday citizen can interpret and understand everything that is being relayed.