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Samar Shean
English 101H
Professor McKeever
October 2 2015
Word Count: 755
"How to Say Nothing in 500 Words Summary"

In "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words" (1956), Professor Paul Roberts (1917-1967) argues that
"the writer's job is to find the argument, the approach, the angle, the wording to take the reader with him."
He opposes clich phrases and papers that lack meaningful content, or as he would say "bloodless." The
author mentions how even though subjects or topics may change throughout the years, "the principles of
good writing should remain constant" (Roberts). Basically there is no excuse for not being able to form a
good piece of writing as long as we are sure to take his advice on important recommendations and follow
the general guidelines on how to successfully develop an essay.
Professor Roberts opens his lecture with an essay on the topic "why college football should be
abolished." The essay is written in the form of how most freshmen college students would write an essay;
including obvious & weak content, biased arguments, and commonly used terms in everyday language.
He goes on to describe his suggestions on how to give life to dull essay topics. Robert's first major point
is to avoid the obvious content. He includes that we should stay away from what is completely expected
of the writer, so apparent remarks and points that are already known should be avoided. Paul believes we
should have a list of the ideas and arguments that first come to mind, and avoid using them all because
chances are if you thought them, so did everybody else. People should have their own personal reasons to
support a certain side of an argument, so think deep and outside of the box.
"Take the less usual side" is Paul's second guideline in which he describes to favor the side that
most people won't. Take the side less traveled by. If you want your essay to stand out from the rest, you

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must write about something different. The essay may be no better written that the other students but the
fact that it is written from a different perspective and shows an impressive argument, it will indeed get
noticed. Paul includes that the instructor is just as human as his students; therefore he needs exciting
content to stay interested. He continues to explain why his students should "slip out of abstraction." This
means that the writer shouldn't just provide the hard facts but more rather give detailed examples of the
topic. Facts may be dull and boring to keep up with but giving examples or telling a relative story may
enlighten the mood and keep the readers' attention. He believes the illustration of the facts are what
strengthens an essay.
The author recommends avoiding extra words that dont have a strong significance which he
refers to "padding a paper." He thinks that students shouldnt focus solely on fulfilling the required word
limit by using nonsense words. He informs writers to be straightforward and get to the main point by
using meaningful content and stating the facts with proof. Roberts suggests we avoid "pat expressions"
which are phrases such as "In my opinion" or "the way I see it." He thinks that avoiding common
expressions will attract more attention on an essay because it won't sound as basic as the other papers
turned in. Getting to the main point quickly with the right choice of words will indeed meet the needed
word limit. He adds that it's almost impossible to completely avoid them, but we should still try to limit
the use of those expressions as much as we can.
Professor Roberts concludes his recommendations by describing the meanings and differences of
using "colored, colorful, and colorless words." He further explains by using colored words, the writer
should be aware and careful of where they place certain words. The structure of colored words have a
great importance with their association or meaning. Colorful words are meant to strike emotion whether it
be good or bad, for example the word mother is associated with strong feelings of home, security, love,
and food but also the word mother-in law may be associated with unpleasant feelings depending on the
reader. Finally, Roberts discusses colorless words, which he believes gives students the most trouble.
Colorless words lack detailed meaning, for example the word nice appears in casual conversations and

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can be associated as slang. Colorless words are just general terms that are not very descriptive and won't
provide the paper with potency.

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