"The truth is that the reader is always right. Chances are, if something you’re reading doesn’t make sense, it’s not your fault—it’s the writer’s. And if something you write doesn’t get your point across, it’s probably not the reader’s fault—it’s yours. Too many readers are intimidated and humbled by what they can’t understand, and in some cases that’s precisely the effect the writer is after. But confusion is not complexity; it’s just confusion. A venerable tradition, dating back to the ancient Greek orators, teaches that if you don’t know what you’re talking about, just ratchet up the level of difficulty and no one will ever know."
"Don’t confuse simplicity, though, with simplemindedness. A good writer can express an extremely complicated idea clearly and make the job look effortless. But such simplicity is a difficult thing to achieve because to be clear in your writing you have to be clear in your thinking. This is why the simplest and clearest writing has the greatest power to delight, surprise, inform, and move the reader. You can’t have this kind of shared understanding if writer and reader are in an adversary relationship. "(pp. 195–196)
Source: O’Conner, P. (2003). Woe is I: The grammarphobe’s guide to better English in plain English. New York: Riverhead Books.
The assignment:
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/researchsources/includingsources/paraphrasing/without.cfm
Read that second paragraph. It has the best ideas I've seen for how-to-paraphrase.
Let us know what you come up with.
The care with which Degas observed his model, a ballet student in the Paris Opéra named Marie van Goethem, is reflected in the extraordinary number of surviving sketches in charcoal and pastel as well as in the preparatory sculptural study of the figure in the .
Based on the provided excerpt from the book "Woe is I: The grammarphobe’s guide to better English in plain English" by Patricia T. O’Conner, it seems that the assignment is to reflect on the importance of simplicity and clarity in writing. The author emphasizes that if something a reader is reading does not make sense, it is likely the fault of the writer and not the reader. Similarly, if something a writer writes does not effectively convey their point, the responsibility lies with the writer.
The author highlights the distinction between simplicity and simplemindedness, pointing out that a skilled writer can express complex ideas clearly and effortlessly. However, achieving such simplicity is challenging since clear writing requires clear thinking. The author emphasizes the power of simple and clear writing to engage, inform, surprise, and move the reader. Therefore, the goal of the assignment may be to explore the importance of simplicity, clarity, and effective communication in writing.