A reading I really liked and stuck to was "How to say nothing in 500 words" by Paul Roberts. I really liked this essay in particular because of the content that was in the essay. It seemed to explain how to write an almost perfect paper by doing things that someone would not necessarily think about in their writing process. He states that a writer needs to avoid using content that is obvious for a reader. An example of this would be, "I think cell phones are becoming more popular." It is a statement that can be easily proven. He also says that a writer needs to take the unusual side of writing. When choosing a paper topic, one should decide to write a paper on something that is not written about very much. Another thing Roberts said that stuck to me was avoid padding. I have a bad problem about padding sentences. I will add words and phrases to a sentence that have no use for the idea of the sentence. Roberts also states that it is bad for a writer to use cliches in his/her writing. "No writer can avoid them altogether, but good writers avoid them more often than poor writers." states Roberts. I personally should try to succeed in the area of taking the less usual side. It makes writing a paper or essay so much easier and interesting because it makes the writer think more.

-Tyler Jarvis