Ross A. Laird

In my creative writing classes I note a common theme among beginning writers: often their prose is what I call loose, or speech-ified. It’s as though their familiarity with forms of speech has come to define their approach to prose. Typically, I spend a great deal of time in such classes on the general subject of how to tighten sentences — how to make them spare, clean, and clear.

Here are my various tips and strategies for how to achieve the tight sentence:

Tips on Tightening