Not concise:
These are situations in which there is not very much social interaction.
Concise:
These situations lack social interaction.
Comment:
The key to writing concisely is often using a verb with a sharp and clear meaning to replace a longer way of expressing the same thing.
Performing convincingly during your in-person or online academic interviews requires careful preparation.
In this first post on the topic, I want to share ideas for what is often the final question from the admissions committee during an academic interview: “Do you have any questions you’d like to ask us?”
This question is especially important since it generally comes at the end of the interview. Your interviewers are most likely to remember the beginning and end of your interaction (due to what’s called the “primacy” and “recency” effects, respectively), so you want to make sure you have an especially strong answer for this question about questions.
My first and most important suggestion is to NEVER ask about anything that you could easily find on the program’s website. One of your main goals during the interview is to demonstrate that you have selected the program for the right reasons. That means showing your awareness that the program is an excellent match for your goals and interests. Convincing the interviewer of this requires proving that you have researched the program carefully. So the last thing you want to ask is something like, “Is there an internship in this program?” or “What kind of courses will I need to take?”
Ending your interview like that could be a fatal mistake, no matter how well it went up to that point.
The best answer to “Have you got any questions about the program?” is to ask about something that relates specifically to you and that shows you’re considering the program an important part of reaching your specific educational and career goals.
You could say something like, “I’m interested in your program in part because you take very seriously the project of helping students build a network. As a future entrepreneur, this is very important to me. Your website mentions the alumni networking event and two other networking social events. I was wondering if there are other ways you support students in meeting their networking goals?”
This is a great response, because it shows you are thinking carefully about your future in the program, and it demonstrates that you have researched the program thoroughly.
You could also consider asking what sort of jobs recent graduates have accepted. Or, if it’s relevant to you, you might inquire about any special support provided for international students. As long as the answer to your question is not readily available online, and the question relates specifically to you and your needs, then it will be a good one to ask.
My final tip is to always take a paper and pen to your interview, and write your questions on the paper in advance. This prevents you from forgetting them. Make sure to write at least three, because sometimes the answers to one or two of your questions will be covered during the rest of the interview, and you don’t want to be left at the end with nothing to ask about.
Good luck! More on academic interviews soon.
One of the tricky questions about comma usage is how to use commas in a list of items.
For example, should it be:
I love to eat apples, oranges, and bananas. OR I love to eat apples, oranges and bananas. ???
Technically, both versions are correct. But I prefer the second. I try to make my writing as clear, simple and elegant as possible, and part of my strategy is to eliminate anything unnecessary. The final comma in a simple list is unnecessary, so I leave it out.
Sometimes, though, you need to add the final comma to preserve your meaning. Here’s an example I love from Ben Yagoda’s book How to Not Write Bad (the title is a joke, by the way, to demonstrate how jarring bad writing can be).
Imagine a student writing about what he is grateful for. Yagoda shows how the final comma in a list is sometimes not superfluous. There’s a big difference between:
I am thankful for my parents, Ayn Rand, and God. AND I am thankful for my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
In the first statement, the student is clearly listing three things for which he is thankful. In the second, he appears to be claiming he’s the offspring of Ayn Rand and God. That final comma sometimes makes a crucial difference in meaning.
You often also use a final comma in a list of items when the items are longer. Here’s an example:
He returned many items from the storeroom to their original owners, including a bicycle once ridden by Joe Clark, a colourful kite featured in a film about South Africa, and a white ribbon used to alert troops in World War Two to the surrender of a village.
The final comma improves readability in cases like this.
So, sometimes the final comma is needed. Other times you can use it or not. The most important thing is to keep your use consistent throughout your document. So if you use the final comma in a short list once, use it every time. Or if you plan to leave it out of a short list, make sure you leave it out every time. You can make an exception and plop a comma in there, though, whenever it improves readability or is needed to shape the meaning.
Yesterday, I received an email from a student I mentored a few months ago. He wrote to share the good news that he had been accepted into his ideal program. I’m always happy to see emails like that in my inbox. And, it’s a very smart thing for students to do.
It’s great to express your appreciation for the people who helped you succeed. You did most of the work, but the people who nudged you in the right direction are happy to know you’re grateful for their assistance. Your email makes your instructors, professors and mentors happy, and it also means you stay fresh in their minds. It makes you memorable. That’s key to creating and maintaining a strong network.
Now that I’ve had an update on where that student will be studying, I’ll be more likely to think of him when I hear of events he might be interested in or opportunities that could benefit him.
The bottom line: maintaining friendly, professional communication with those in your academic life shows them you’re the sort of person who values their assistance, it keeps you fresh in their mind, and it encourages them to think of you when opportunities arise.
It just makes good sense. And, many studies have shown that the simple act of expressing gratitude makes YOU happier. That’s what I call a win-win situation.
One of my recent posts introduced the concept of writing “concisely,” meaning eliminating unnecessary words.
Here are a few more examples.
1] Not concise (some people say “wordy”): this research sheds some light on
Quick fix: this research illuminates
The word “illuminates” is powerful and precise and replaces the four words “sheds some light on.”
2] Not concise: she researches various types of categories of minerals
Quick fix: she researches categories of minerals
The words “various types of” add no additional meaning to “categories” and so should be deleted.
3] Not concise: they sat in a circular formation
Quick fix: they sat in a circle
Isn’t a “circular formation” just a “circle”?
4] Not concise: the paper puts the emphasis on
Quick fix: the paper emphasizes
Same meaning, 50% fewer words.
If you have interesting examples of ways you’ve made your own writing more concise, please share them as a comment!
The best academic writing provides the most information with the fewest words. This is called being “concise.”
Think of being concise as eliminating unnecessary words.
Sometimes you do this naturally. You’d almost certainly never say this: “The sweater of Brenda is red.” [6 words]
Instead, you’d express the same idea more concisely: “Brenda’s sweater is red.” [4 words]
Although we all speak concisely at times, most writers could trim many words from their writing while preserving the meaning. Concise writing feels much sleeker and effective to readers.
But keep in mind that writing concisely means eliminating UNNECESSARY words. Writing concisely does not mean every sentence must be as short as possible. Sometimes extra words are useful. Here’s a great example. The most famous writing manual written in English is called The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White. In Steven Pinker’s new book, The Sense of Style, Pinker quotes White, a student of Strunk’s, talking about Strunk’s lecture style. According to White, Strunk once, with great pomp and ceremony, iterated his perspective on conciseness:
“Omit needless words! Omit needless words! Omit needless words!”
It’s funny at first, because nothing seems less concise than saying the exact same thing three times. But I wouldn’t suggest leaving out a single syllable. None of those words are unnecessary, because they make his utterance, through their sheer humorous irony, unforgettable.
My previous post highlighted the importance of avoiding ambiguity in your communication.
[Notice that above I could have said, “My previous post was about….” Instead, I replaced “was about” with one descriptive and powerful word: “highlighted.”]
I want to share my all-time favorite ambiguity. A classmate of mine in university wrote this in a creative non-fiction assignment. He was writing about the interaction between a friend of his and the friend’s mentor. Here’s what he wrote:
“He said, ‘Thank you very much, professor,’ and stroked his beard.”
Can you detect the ambiguity?
It makes me laugh every time. Readers don’t know whether the student was stroking his own beard or the professor’s beard!
I probably don’t need to write a future post explaining that it is not appropriate to express gratitude to a professor by stroking his beard.
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