TOW #1 How to Say Nothing in 500 Words

In 1956, Paul Roberts wrote an essay addressing the issue most high school and college students have. This issue would be the horrifying task of completing an assignment in a certain amount of words. The most daunting thing of all is trying to limit what you have to say in a certain amount of words. Or even worse is trying to expand upon a topic you have no clue about just to reach a certain amount of words. Paul Roberts an expert on the English language does a great job of telling the reader how to overcome this obstacle and write skillful short essays. Roberts writes for many books about English, his knowledge of words helps achieve his purpose. The topic is about a student struggling to write an essay on college football in 500 words. Roberts shares important tips that every student will find helpful. His tips include avoid writing about the common topic, removing unnecessary words, and enlightening the reader by including illustrative examples. Just listing out tips would bore the reader but Roberts uses wit, and comparison and contrast to entice them. He says “What with one thing and another, its 10 Sunday night before you get out the typewriter again. You make a pot of coffee and start to fill out your views on college football.” His humor can relate to his audience of students. If you haven’t stayed up all night to complete a task the night before, (are you really a student?) Because the author is so relatable to the audience he gets his point across. His best strategy in the text is comparison and contrast. Colorful words, colored words, and colorless worlds all sound the same to an average student. But Roberts goes in-depth to explain the difference between each one. He writes about 4 paragraphs for each one including examples of those types of words. By his clear explanations and comparing and contrasting certain words Roberts achieves his purpose. As his strategic devices show, Paul Roberts does an impressive job of achieving his purpose.