MWC Tutorial Workshops Thursday, April 13, 2023, from 10:00 am to 11:30 pm -Online

The Craft of Clarity
Have you ever found yourself struggling to articulate your ideas? Have you ever said, “I’m having a hard time explaining what I mean…”? Are your sentences often repetitive, wordy, or unclear? This workshop begins with the assumption that we write because we have something to say. But how do we get started when we’re still developing our idea or concept? And once that is clear, how do we make sure we communicate and develop it clearly? This workshop aims to provide you with tools to help you craft clear sentences that say what you mean. Together, we will untangle the assumption that long, wordy sentences are needed to convey profound ideas and examine how we can better utilize grammar, concision, and cohesion to express ourselves clearly.

This workshop aims to teach you:

1. How to get started, and what to do when your concept isn’t clear to you yet
2. How to stop pre-conceived notions of what writing should look like, especially in an academic context, from getting in the way of the writing process
3. Why few words are always best—and when to break this rule
4. How to let the nature of the concept determine the structure of your argument
5. How to build your concept across multiple sentences and craft an effective paragraph
6. The raison d’être check: why the answer to the “so what” question is essential to clarity

Instructions: Please bring a concept you are attempting to develop, or one you had difficulty developing in a previous paper. This should be expressed in one to three sentences. If you’re really stuck, bring a bullet-point list. This can be on your laptop or on a sheet of paper. Be prepared to workshop your ideas with your colleagues.
Bio: Holly Vestad is an editor based on the unceded lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation. She has held editorial positions or freelanced since 2014, and throughout her career she has helped writers shape texts among different genres and stages into polished works ready for publication or submission. She holds a SSHRC-funded MA from Simon Fraser University (2018) and pursued three years of FRQSC-funded doctoral studies at McGill University before leaving the program to pursue a career in editing. She is currently a tutor at the McGill Writing Centre, and “The Craft of Clarity” workshop is designed as a response to the most common questions and concerns she hears among students and writers.