Teacher: “For the holidays, I would like everyone to write an essay with their thoughts upon tradition.”
Student: “How long should it be?”
Teacher: “Use a standard 5 paragraph format. I expect at least 1 page from each of you.”
If you have spent any time in the classroom, this scene should not be at all foreign to you. I still cringe every time I see it played out—the fact that we measure quality in terms of length when the two are really independent variables. However, I blame neither the teacher nor the student. The student has come to expect specific directions on how to do every assignment. Meanwhile, the teacher realizes many students will be lost without some sort of standard to be measured against. Unfortunately, the dangerous cycle is perpetuated.
In reality, some people can say so very much with a simple message scrolled on a wall. Meanwhile, nothing can be said with oh so many words. (Politicians are particularly adept at this.) The mark of great writers is not how many words they use, but which ones. The art of brevity and choosing the right words is a fine one; it is also becoming increasingly important as our information overload continues. Those who master the art of brevity hold great power.
If we recognize that the art of brevity is an important one, why do absurd length requirements continue to be enforced? I understand the student’s need for some sort of standard scaffolding to write with, but how about trying a new one? Instead of having requirements, how about constraints? Force students to think about each and every word by limiting the number of words allowed. Try it yourself—can you tell a fragment of a story in just 140 characters?
This is not a new concept; I have participated in many chain stories where each contributor adds just a single sentence. However, using the power of Twitter, we get Twittories. By using the power of the network, a very interesting collaborative story is being developed. Since the contributors come from so many cultures, the perceptions and voices vary and add an element of surprise to the story—you never know what will come next. If you haven’t already, register to participate in a little collaborative, creative and brief writing.
What if students were asked to do the same thing? Imagine the thought which would have to be put into each and every word if the grade was based upon only 42 of them. Students would learn the art of brevity, and how to use their entire vocabulary to express their ideas clearly. It is not what is said, but what is not said.
What are your thoughts on brevity? How do you teach it in class? In the spirit of word choice, see if you can keep your comments to under 42 words. How concise can you be?
Or, in another word: brevity.
Edit: due to some issues with licensing, images in this post have been changed.
- Photo by Frederik Ramm
- Photo by spinster on Flickr
A couple of ideas...
1. I have done some work with sixth form Critical Thinking classes where they have to sum up new ideas in a Haiku - http://www.mrstacey.org.uk/teaching/?p=109. It worked well, and I know use it with other classes as well. Try it out yourself!
2. Last summer there was a debate over the Chicago Business School’s decision to allow applicants to include a four-slide, non-multimedia, printed slideshow. This led to to the four-slide competition over at Dan Meyer’s blog which is worth checking out in the context of this post - http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=314
I hope we see more of this from all you students 2oh.
Along the same lines, what are the ways that, in your experience, don’t work as ways to learn?
For example, what are the best and worst ways to improve your voacabulary? Your sentence style? Your critical thinking?
And so much more. The questions above are more in the realm of “schooliness” than I normally prefer to dwell, but I would still appreciate some input on them.
Keep up the good work, all of you. The evidence of learning - both for the writers and the commenters - is already remarkable.
Over and over I try to insist that it is quality of expression, using complex structures such as different tenses and opinions and reasons, that will allow them to achieve rather than number of words.
I can see why the exam board gives a word count indicator but I do find that some students count(no pun intended) on it too much.
It’s just something both teachers and students need to ..learn. We’ve mastered length - but it seems we’re struggling on keeping things brief.
I agree with Clay - by taking the new tools and technologies and translating them into teaching/learning modules for the classroom, you are melting the boundaries between the “real” world and the school experience.
Keep the suggestions coming!
diane
On a completely unrelated note, I’m curious as to why you used copyrighted material in your post. Several of the photos you embedded in your post are clearly marked as “All rights reserved” by the author on Flickr. Perhaps you should rectify this problem by removing the offending photos?
Today, the material of wealth is information — and it is abundant. Today, the skilled writer is one who can write the most with the fewest words. The information product that will compete for the readers attention will be that which appears to require the least investment of time.
Along the same lines, I’ve done some music production over the past few years, mostly with synthesizer and computer. I can’t read music, and know almost nothing about it. But it is great fun assembling musical score on a computer display and then having it played back to me.
The last step of any project, to me, is when I go in and remove the music that is not needed. The most important thing I’ve learned about music, from these activities, is...
The power of the musical notes that you remove.
Another thought-provoking post, taking the idea of brevity into interesting new areas. Thanks!
@Dave: I too have done work with the Haiku; I find it a very interesting format to work with. In addition to forcing a maximum number of words, a format is forced upon you. However, there is such a thing as too many constraints. Still, it certainly does make you think about word choice.
I followed the four-slide competition with interest and actually posted about it on my personal blog at the time.
@Clay: Certainly too much “schooliness” to answer... keeping it in mind for a future post. I can say that making flash cards does absolutely nothing to improve my comprehension...
@Adam: I know exactly how that goes... I have had classmates actually end a sentence abruptly as soon as the required word count is reached—even if they haven’t made their point. If we cast aside word counts, none of these problems get run into. (Or, when teaching brevity, there is no requirement that you use all of the words.)
@Susan: Thanks. Analyzation is important.
@Diane: I personally think we can do a lot at Students 2.0 by helping out teachers with showing them what works for us. We can also melt boundaries. (Between teacher and student, real and school, online and offline)
@Kevin: You’ll be happy to know that I replaced the photos with Creative Commons licensed photos—always a good policy to go by. Thanks for pointing it out!
@David: So much of the world is based upon how much you can get out of a set amount of resource. Density goes hand-in-hand with brevity—especially when in a rich information landscape.
I think it is true for everything: there is immense power in what you remove. (Especially in business)
@Simon: From my experience, brevity is important in workplaces and universities. I think it is very interesting how as students climb through elementary and secondary school, greater length is added. (Simple, short sentences in Kindergarden to immense essays as a Senior)
However, then a tipping point is reached: a point where the better writer is the one who can say the most with the least number of words; word counts get steadily smaller as we learn the art of brevity.
But why teach length on the first place? Instead, how about teaching kindergardeners to think about each and every word used. The smartest kid isn’t the one who can us a whole lot of big words just to say something simple—it’s the one who can express it with just 2 short words.
Obviously, a 42 word limit is too little—this just reinforces the idea that we should teach value of words without giving requirements upon the number of them.
A typical high school myth says that the longer it is, the better it is. But it is really just a myth. I think part of the problem here is that we as students are too used to writing specifically for the teachers. As a student, the only audience for my writing has been my teacher, until I started blogging. Perhaps students will be more careful with their writing and word choice if they had a larger audience and a larger purpose.
Blogs and Twitter are both ways to teach brevity.
I’ve worked with my 5th graders on what we’ve called an ‘economy of words’. One of their first assignments with me is to write about themselves in 100 words or fewer. They struggle with it but learn a lot from it.
I think the point about audience is an important one. The writing our students do for us, as teachers, is not authentic. We need to stretch ourselves and our students to really help them grow as writers.
(On the 5 paragraph essay, my husband has had his college students write 5-7 page papers that were only 5 paragraphs because it was so ingrained.)
But, why write 4 pages of something you can say under a page? It’s actually harder to write briefly - the choice of words, examples...
@ Shana: I definitely agree with blogging. I tend to write *to* the teacher - fitting his/her standards - whatever required. But, writing for another audience, you take into consideration many other different things; I’ve learned that if it’s too wordy, the audience loses interest and it sounds constipated.
Powerful writing and brevity arise through verb choice. I taught brevity by forbidding all use of the verb “to be.”
Both Twitter and texting rely on a platform. Blogging offers greater flexibility, as it only requires an internet connection, not a specific platform or device.
And I apologize for going nearly 20 words over the 42 word limit — but that includes indefinite articles
Cheers,
Bill
My senior pupils get 5 marks deducted from their dissertations by the exam board if they are ONE word over the limit! They also have to be ‘trained’ to do an essay in 40 minutes for exams.
Keep up the excellent site.
It is inspiring to read the work of students who are engaged and interested. Remember though, as teachers, we deal with students who are not - engaged or interested - and who would love to be brief and say nothing at all and be finished.
Sometimes those assignment guidelines - as constrictive as you may believe them to be (and I agree with you) - are necessary to help guide and encourage students who struggle with education, who dislike writing, who dislike school, who dislike learning, and who do not see open-ended or brief assignments as a challenge to be concise but as an opportunity to do as little as possible.
I remember one of my teachers used this concept last year and it really made some of us squirm. I mean, most of us could write an essay to standard for an exam, but summing something up in a short number of words was almost impossible. Great technique to use, it really makes students think, and I thought I learned more on the subject doing it that way than I would have writing an essay.
However, on the topic of brevity, let’s be careful. Certainly, much of what you write about is excellent, for there is great value in being picky and careful about exact wording that a writer chooses to use. Alas, being brief is also quite dangerous, for much of what we choose to write about needs to be explained thoroughly for a reader, one who might not know much about what we are writing about, to truly grasp our message. Instead of brevity for brevity’s sake, consider carefully determining the best wording of a passage, but don’t be brief at the chance of leaving something important out.
Teachers themselves haven’t been brought up in this culture. For example, they put all their notes in a PowerPoint and read from it. The best way to give presentations is to have the PowerPoint back you up - re-enforce what you are saying, not to read from it.
Sometimes writing something short and sweet is harder than trying to write something long. Design and layout of documents is important; but it’s not something taught in school, and most people don’t recognize how important good design is. Art classes would talk more about design within constraints. (A problem I’m working on now)
Plus, I could see many students in my honors class just throw 42 words together and claim it as done. - We are so strapped for time that we take shortcuts and that is why many of the guidelines Arthus talked about are set up. Sure some would believe in the spirit and perfect their 42 words, but I think many would move on to something else.
But it is true that length is the “easiest” and “fastest” way to measure the “quality” of something. It’s also the most qualitative - something important to preserving the appearance of fairness in the grading system.
Perhaps with some incentive students would spend time on it - what if their work was posted online??
-Michael Plasmeier http://theplaz.com
@Lisa: It doesn’t surprise me that your students don’t like that answer. It is much easier to be told what to do and do it than to think of how to do something yourself.
@Brad: Your Drabble writing technique sounds very interesting. I think it is an interesting adaptation of the timed writing piece—only, instead of having a time limit, you have a word limit.
@Bill: You are right that technological limits from Twitter do not equate to real limits. I like to think of them as hacks which introduce students to the concept while they are still learning the art of brevity.
@James: Interesting to hear such stringent enforcement of brevity. I imagine many students have to go back and really think about each word to make sure they are under the limit—removing unnecessary words.
@Bellflower: I understand the need for guidelines, especially for struggling students. Perhaps a technique to be employed would be to set both a maximum and minimum word count for those students—ensuring they learn to be brief without avoiding the assignment.
@Sean: Thanks, Sean. I agree that it really makes students think about what is the core of the concept, and remove the extraneous words.
@Jason: Ah, but that is how one masters the art of brevity—anybody can say too much or too little, but only a master can say just the right amount.
@ThePlaz: I agree, writing something short and sweet can be especially hard. Blogging certainly can be an incentive. Just as someone can say nothing in 2,000 words, someone can say nothing in 42.
@Darren: Lovely quote.
Here’s one of mine:
The rest of you fail. (I am within constraints since each of my replies is under 42 words.)
Just catching up on some posts and yours caught my eye.
I agree that sometimes the focus is too much on length and not often enough on brevity and clarity. In fact, I wrote a post about it a month or so ago...I was recalling how often I hear students ask, “how long does it have to be?”
http://futura.edublogs.org/2007/11/14/how-long-does-it-have-to-be/
I think there’s a great deal to be learned by editing. And a great deal to be learned by extreme editing.
Have you seen any of the micro-fiction? We have a book of micro-fiction short stories in the library, and I think that would be a great way to bring the idea into the classroom.
In my post, I also mentioned the Four Slide Contest from this summer as another way teachers could use powerpoint differently with students.
I realize my response is long ;), but the idea of turning your perspective on its head and approaching assignments from a different standpoint is exciting to me. Anytime you approach something with a fresh eye, you learn a great deal!
RE: “How long does it have to be?” I try to break that vicious cycle by responding to students’ scope-limiting questions with ridiculous requirements such as “4.65 pages, exactly”.
( < 42 words)
@Scott: Indeed—why I chose 42 words; a number to live by. ~U2
Total words: 42 =)
Thanks for stopping by.
Externally imposed limits on what you may explore seem criminal.
Limitless choice of expressive means can be disabling.
Self-imposed constraint in expressive means can be liberating.
Without this sentence I’d have used twenty-nine words – I’ve spoiled it now.
@Almost: Great to hear the international perspective. Do you know if this is for all schools in the UK? Congrats on being commenter number 42.
Don’t know if it was true for all schools in the UK, but I would guess it might very well have been. Different cultures have different styles for academic essays, and UK and US academic cultures are (or at least were) somewhat different.
Lisa B.
Good website!