Maria Florida Paraan-Caragay

College Of Law

Four Laws of Writing

CLARITY

Clarity means making your content easy to understand. The purpose for the concept of clarity
in writing is to help students realize what they can do to make their own writings clear, concise,
and ready to be read by others. The value of clarity in writing is more valuable than most
students understand or realize.

One of the key elements of effective communications is clarity. Your persuasiveness, accuracy
or interesting subject matter cannot achieve your objectives if the audience is struggling to
understand your message. Below are principles for creating understandable writing

Use Short Active Verbs

Simple words get your point across more quickly than complex words, and using the active
voice makes it obvious who did what to whom (or what). Additionally, simple words and the
active voice make your text direct and concise, which means it will be easily understood.
Example: It runs like a well-oiled machine (simple verb, active voice) works better than it
operates like a well-oiled machine (more complex verb) or it is run like a well-oiled
machine (passive voice).

Be Concise
Unnecessary words dilute the meaning of your message, so read through your drafts in order to
look for sentences or words that are redundant (needlessly repetitive) or otherwise not
required.
Examples: In the phrase connect together, the word together is redundant.

The expression at this point in time can be replaced with the word now.

Be Specific
The more specific you are, the more likely people are to understand you. Example: Senior vice
president says more than top executive.

Use Familiar Words

Watch for Misplaced Phrases

The placement of phrases can obscure or clarify the meaning of your sentence.

Pay Attention to Commas

Missing or superfluous commas can change the meaning of a sentence. Example: Originally
selected students has a different meaning than Originally, selected students
UNITY

Unity is a very important characteristic of good paragraph writing. Paragraph unity means that
one paragraph is about ONLY ONE main topic. That is, all the sentences -- the topic,
supporting sentences, the detail sentences, and (sometimes) the concluding sentence -- are all
telling the reader about ONE main topic. If your paragraph contains a sentence or some
sentences that are NOT related to the main topic, then we say that the paragraph "lacks unity,"
or that the sentence is "off-topic."

INTEREST

Why interest matter? Interest for writing afects the ways that students approach writing and
the results they achieve. Research on writing and motivitation indicates that students wh have
an interest for writing are more likely to set effective goals, make use of helpful strategies, and
seek feedback as they work with writing tasks. Also, more likely to develop a sophisticated
understanding of what writing is and the possibilities that it can afford.

COHERENCE

Coherence refers to a certain characteristic or aspect of writing. Literally, the word means "to
stick together." Coherence in writing means that all the ideas in a paragraph flow smoothly
from one sentence to the next sentence. With coherence, the reader has an easy time
understanding the ideas that you wish to express.

Coherence is achieved when sentences and ideas are connected and flow together smoothly. An
essay without coherence can inhibit a readers ability to understand the ideas and main points
of the essay. Coherence allows the reader to move easily throughout the essay from one idea to
the next, from one sentence to the next, and from one paragraph to the next.

Example:
Credit cards are convenient, but dangerous. People often get them in order to make
large purchaseseasily without saving up lots of money in advance. This is especially
helpful for purchases like cars, kitchen appliances, etc., that you may need to
get without delay. However, this convenience comes at a high price: interest
rates. The more money you put on your credit card, the more the bank or credit
union will charge you for that convenience. If youre not careful, credit card debt
can quickly break the bank and leave you in very dire economic circumstances!

1. Topic Sentence. The paragraph starts with a very clear, declarative topic sentence, and the
rest of the paragraph follows that sentence. Everything in the paragraph is tied back to the
statement in the beginning.
2. Key terms. The term credit card appears repeatedly in this short paragraph. This signals
the reader that the whole paragraph is about the subject of credit cards. Similarly, the word
convenience (and related words) are also peppered throughout. In addition, the key term
danger appears in the topic sentence and is then explained fully as the paragraph goes on.
3. Defined terms. For most readers, the terms in this paragraph will be quite clear and will not
need to be defined. Some readers, however, might not understand the term interest rates,
and they would need an explanation. To these readers, the paragraph will seem less coherent!