Learning to Write

Learning to write well in college means learning (or re-learning) [blank] to write clearly and plainly. Now that doesn't mean that plainness is the only good style, or that you should become a [blank] to spare, unadorned writing. Formality and ornateness have their place, and in competent hands, complexity can take us on a dizzying, breathtaking journey. But most students, most of the time should [blank] to be sensibly simple to develop a baseline style of short words, active verbs, and relatively simple sentence [blank] clear actions or identities. It's faster, it makes arguments easier to follow, it increases the chances a busy reader will bother to pay attention, and it lets you [blank] more attention on your moments of rhetorical flourish which I do not advise abandoning altogether.