Revising The Official Prose Using The Paramedic Method

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Professor
WRT 102
Analytical Essay 1
Fall 2018
Revising Prose
In Revising Prose, Lanhamargues that formal writing style muddles the American prose style and suggests a means of revising the official prose using the paramedic method. He begins by emphasizing the importance of formulating a statement of purpose stating that it makes prose style stand out, and hence ease of communication (124). However, with a caveat, Lanham recommends the use of a straightforward prose instead of official style since the former is effective in passing the message than the latter. However, he underscores the importance of having proficiency in both styles since itgives the writer the freedom to choose the most correct and appropriate style when need arises. Lanham (2007) further asserts that writing plainly is critical since the vital commodity is no longer information but human attention. Though we live in an age of information overload, he posits that in the information economy, language is simply a tool for communication rather than a commodity (125). Though valid, this position does seem to contradict with his other observation that information commoditization has taken over from the physical commodities. This implies that words are both a communication medium and a commodity. Though he argues that revising prose is ideal for political judgment, stylistic judgment is critical in capturing human attention which is an essential commodity in the modern attention driven economy (125). Therefore,language only describes things and people and should be as plain as possible so as not to confuse the target audience.
Lanham also argues that physical things should dominate the words that it describes. As such words should rank second to the things they describe in the attention economy. Unlike in the goods economy, words now allocate attention rather than describe things or actions. This implies that words now occupy an important position in the attention economy. In the goods economy, money only plaid a derivative role and hence time and money could be saved through efficient use of words (127). Nonetheless, the author argues that this is serious assumption that cannot work in a goods economy. In fact, he believes that their use in the attention economy can be disastrous. He compares wasting to wasting attention, which is a scarce resource. Unlike the plain style, official style is does not yield the desired results. His argument is that since attention is what adds value to the attention economy, plain style is now more valuable than ever before (128). Nevertheless, official style continues to thrive simply because words no longer m...