“How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” Paul Roberts essay, “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words,” describes my papers to a T. I always ramble on with filler content that dulls my papers, makes you want to fall asleep, and frankly I was quite content with this. I always had a passing grade in English, so why bother changing your style. Roberts has shown me more ways to make my papers better in 14 pages, than I had learned in all of my high school classes. Roberts also refers to calling a fool a fool, I find this to be very good advice. This is often easy for me to do when talking to someone in person. I have no issues and usually no regrets letting someone know, straight up, how I feel. Why hold back? I don’t, unless it’s in a paper. When referring to excessive timidity, “My high school principal was a fool,” is a prime example. I would normally vocalize to someone how I felt about my principal in wording such as that but on paper it would be, “My high school principal never made the right decisions. He always thinks the jocks are better than everyone else, no matter how intelligent or unintelligent they act.” …show more content…
Roberts has very good examples of how to make your papers more colorful. Using words such as, resourceful in place of smart, or engrossed instead of busy, are very good examples of a simple change that can make a big (difference) alteration in your essays. I have a very difficult time staying engaged in reading when the same, lifeless words keep popping up. Prior to reading Roberts essay, I would have (never) not in any way, used the colorful words described by Roberts, in my own essays. I am usually straight to the point, using simple wording from my everyday vocabulary. Having a thesaurus handy will help me acquire a more tasteful vocabulary while adding depth and color to my papers, such as a painting. I am going to make this a top priority moving forward in this