Clutter is the disease of American writing. Our national tendency is to inflate and thereby sound important. But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what—these weaken the strength of a sentence.

Simplify, simplify. How can we achieve such freedom from clutter? The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other. It’s impossible for a muddy thinker to write good English. He may get away with it for a paragraph or two, but soon the reader will be lost.

Writers must therefore constantly ask: what am I trying to say? Surprisingly often they don’t know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: have I said it? Is it clear to someone coming across the subject for the first time? If it’s not, some fuzz has worked its way into the writing. The clear writer is someone clear-headed enough to see this stuff for what it is: fuzz.

I don’t mean that some people are born clear-headed and are therefore natural writers, while others are naturally fuzzy and will never write well. Thinking clearly is a conscious act that writers must force on themselves, as if they were working on any other project that requires logic.

Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.

【小题1】Which of the following contributes to good writing?

A．Avoiding using passive structures.

B．Leaving out words without a meaning.

C．Using short words instead of long ones whenever possible.

D．Choosing adverbs carrying the same meaning of the verbs.

【小题2】What’s the relationship between clear thinking and clear writing?

A．Clear thinking equals clear writing.

B．Clear thinking reflects clear writing.

C．Clear writing may not rely on clear thinking.

D．Only clear thinking brings about clear writing.

【小题3】What does the underlined word “fuzz” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Something cloudy.	B．Something difficult.
C．Something uninteresting.	D．Something complicated.

【小题4】What may be the best title for the text?

A．Bad writing and clutter	B．Out of clutter find freedom
C．Simplify to achieve good writing	D．Nobody is born to be a good writer