How to Edit Sentences for Meaning

I took a course in college called "Rhetoric." In this course we learned to dissect the meaning of every sentence in a paragraph.

I still remember the exercise - it was so brilliant - yet so simple (as most good ideas are I suppose!)

Here's what it was:

You print out a page of text you wrote.

Then you get a blank piece of lined paper.

Now you go one line at a time, starting from the top and write down the essence/meaning of each sentence on one line. You can't go over a line.

When you finish a paragraph you look at your lines meanings and you can instantly see which sentecens you should keep as is, which ones can be trimmed down, and which ones should go!

It doesn't seem like you could get all this from such a simplistic exercise - but I swear it works!

Sincerely,
CB Webmaster