Overwriting (prose)
Overwriting in prose is a writing style where the author needlessly over-elaborates a point to the detriment of the reader. Nordquist, a rhetoric professor at the University of Georgia describes it as "a wordy writing style characterized by excessive detail, needless repetition, overwrought figures of speech, and/or convoluted sentence structures."[1] Guinness, writing in The New York Times described the cause of overwiting as "It’s a lot easier to throw words at a problem than to take the time to find the right ones",[2] Guinness's advice was "Go through what you’ve written and look for the bits you can cut without affecting the whole — and cut them."[2] He reasoned that benefit to be "It will tighten the work and make everything you’re trying to say clearer."[2]
Analysis
Demír, in an analysis or overwriting in English-language technical articles by primarily native Turkish speakers, identified the following categorizations: "meaningless intensifiers"; "long phrases and sentences"; "unnecessary passive voice"; "redundant expletives and introductory phrases"; "adjectival & adverbial verbosity"; dDouble negation"; "long conjunctions and subordinators"; and "repetition and needless information and redundant word".[3]
Examples
- The Sympathizer, a novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen criticized for overwriting.[4]
- Eudora Welty: "Monsieur Boule inserted a delicate dagger in Mademoiselle's left side and departed with a poised immediacy." — identified by Checkoway and highlighted by Nordquist.[1][5]
References
Footnotes
- Nordquist 2018.
- Guinness 2020, Cut, cut, cut.
- Demír 2019, pp. 487–488.
- Caputo 2015.
- Checkoway 2001.
Sources
- Checkoway, Julie (2001). Creating Fiction: Instruction and Insights From Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs. Writer's Digest Books. OCLC 46650506.
- Caputo, Philip (2 April 2015). "'The Sympathizer,' by Viet Thanh Nguyen". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
A parenthetical quibble. Good as it is, "The Sympathizer" is sometimes marred by overwriting. Lines like this — "The waiters arrived at that moment with the solemnity of Egyptian servants ready to be buried alive with their pharaoh, platters with the main courses propped on their shoulders" — appear a bit too often.
- Demír, Cuneyt (2019). "Writing Intelligible English Prose: Conciseness vs. Verbosity". Söylem Filoloji Dergisi. 4 (2): 482−505. doi:10.29110/soylemdergi.617184. ISSN 2548-0502. Archived from the original on 26 August 2021.
- Guinness, Arthur (7 April 2020). "How to Edit Your Own Writing". The New York Times. United States. Archived from the original on 13 August 2021.
- Nordquist, Richard (2 April 2018). "Definition and Examples of Overwriting : Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 18 August 2021.