"Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
I do not agree completely with the above quotation. But I have paid attention since reading it a few months ago. Usually my writing improves when I break up sentences that contain joined independent clauses.
Cutting those clauses forces me to choose my words with more care. Surprisingly often, gluing independent clauses with a semicolon or em-dash or a "comma plus conjunction" phrase is legitimate but hinders my clarity.
So my new year's resolution is to join independent clauses as little as possible.
As a case in point, here is my stream-of-consciousness draft of the above:
I do not agree completely with the above quotation, but since reading it a few months ago I have noticed how much my writing improved by breaking up sentences. I must choose my words with more care when I minimize joining independent clauses―surprisingly often, gluing independent clauses with a semicolon or em-dash or a "comma plus conjunction" phrase is legitimate but hinders clarity. So my new year's resolution is to join independent clauses as little as possible.
1 comment:
Perhaps it's just me (and I know that I probably ought to try to be more disciplined about not using complex compound sentences when simple ones would do), but I find your "stream-of-consciousness draft" flows a lot better than the version above it. Partly, when the "natural" way of putting something is a compound or complex sentence, the "easiest" way to make it not so can result in fragments or run-ons rather than "complete thoughts."
And there's one point on which Vonnegut certainly overstates his case: it doesn't "show [I]'ve been to college," because I was routinely using semicolons and em-dashes in my fiction early in my high school career. (Quite possibly more than I do now, in fact.)
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