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 overwriting 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 the benefit would be "It will tighten the work and make everything you’re trying to say clearer."[2]
Examples
- The Sympathizer, a novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, criticized for overwriting.[3]
- 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][4]
References
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Nordquist 2018.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Guinness 2020, Cut, cut, cut.
- ↑ 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. Search this book on
- 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.
- 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. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - Nordquist, Richard (2 April 2018). "Definition and Examples of Overwriting : Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
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