A fifth grader at Homeville Elementary School in West Mifflin recently won $5,000 in an essay competition sponsored by Nickelodeon - “…which must be spent on improving play activities at her school.” Her essay topic? The importance of play.

Now, while you might be thinking: Hah? I say this is an important opportunity to remind us how useful essay writing skills really are. If a fifth grader can win $5,000, imagine how much a 17-year old can win. Of course, I’m simplifying things a lot, but I’m sure you get my point.

Circumlocution - in essay writing - is the use of a large number of words to say something which can be said equally well, if not better, in fewer words. Circumlocution introduces unnecessary “floweriness”, which is generally an irritant to readers, judges (for competition essays) and examiners (for examination essays). The possibility of making grammatical mistakes also increases as the quantity of words written rises and sentence structures become more complicated.

An example of circumlocution would be:
Circumlocution - I want an idea of how long it would take for this project to be completed.
Concise Version - I want an estimate of the project’s time frame.

There are a few reasons why circumlocution occurs. For one, the writer might not be able to find the exact word to express a certain thought. For everyday conversations, this is normal as thinking of a suitable word at the spur of the moment is indeed difficult. But for essay writing - where you should have time to refer to a dictionary, thesaurus or friend - circumlocution is inexcusable. In fact, if circumlocution persists in your essay writing, it indicates a weak vocabulary.

Another reason for circumlocution is that a writer may falsely believe that by using longer, more complicated sentences, containing bigger and more “bombastic” words, it will seem more impressive. Well, what do you think? Would any sane person say that the long phrase “at this precise moment in time” is more impressive than the word “now”? Obviously not.

So, kick circumlocution out of your essay writing “strategies”, and start writing concise sentences now. The more you practice writing concise sentences, the faster you will improve your essay writing!

“It is important that we leave no stone unturned…”, or “It is with my deepest regret that I have to inform you.” Well, we’ve all heard cliches - phrases so commonly used that they have become hackneyed. Of course, cliches were once phrases extremely suitable for the particular context they applied to, but they have been used far too often in inappropriate contexts and consequently, have lost their original force.

So, given the negative connotation attached to cliches today, should we use them in our writing? I’d have to use a hackneyed phrase myself: It depends. In general, cliches should be avoided like the plague because it is more likely that they will be used inaccurately, rather than otherwise. In letter writing, cliches can also suggest a lack of sincerity as they are common expressions rather than your own original thoughts and feelings.

But when used sparingly and appropriately, they deliver a very strong message because well-used cliches not only show your understanding of the language but they also represent your strong intent at pushing through that message (to the extent that you are willing to use a cliche).

Therefore, let me reiterate the words of almost all English teachers today: Do Not Use Cliches unless you really, really understand how they should be used. This translates as: If you happen to be in doubt over the appropriate context of any commonly used phrase, do not use it - especially if you are writing an examination-level or competition-level essay.

This is going to be an essay plan built for an essay titled: How True Is It That Sport Divides More Than It Unites? Like all essay plans, this is merely a basic framework for the essay. That means detail and examples will be sparse, to ensure that content points stand out clearly.

• Stand: True to some extent.
  Elaboration: Sports events often become a show of power or superiority for certain countries, as well as the arena for them to compete for glory.
  Examples: Consider the all-dominating nations, United States and China. Both regularly top the charts in major sporting events, such as the Olympics.

Content Points:

1. Competition to host world-class sporting events tends to foster animosity between competing countries
   Elaboration: After all, these events are a source of both prestige and money for the winning (host) country. It is not surprising that the governments of losing nations would harbor some sort of animosity towards the winning nation.
   Examples: Although China was once vying to host the olympics, the Olympics Committee gave it to Sydney.
2. International sporting events bring out and exacerbate political differences between competing countries
   Elaboration: Assasinations of athletes and violent retaliations are not uncommon due to political differences.
   Examples: Take for example the assassination of Israeli athletes at the Munich Games and the Soviets, in retaliation to the US boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games, boycotted the 1984 Games during the Cold War period. The Soviet Union with Cuba, East Germany and 14 other countries boycotted the Olympics when the US was hosting it.
3. Differences between countries and athletes arise when biased judging occurs
   Elaboration: Sporting results that are deemed partial or unfair can cause differences between nations to arise.
   Examples: At the Athens Olympics, supporters had to be appeased when Alexi Nemov was given a low score for a spectacular gymnastics routine. A South Korean gymnasts, a clear winner, also lost the gold medal to his US counterpart.

Counter Points:

1. Sport plays a role in uniting individual countries.
   Elaboration: A sporting achievement can rouse a nation’s people together, especially a multi-racial nation.
   Examples: The matches by Singapore’s table tennis player, Li Jia Wei, at the Athens Olympics, brought Singaporeans together as one people and brought out the pride of the people for the country.
2. International live telecasts have helped to connect viewers from all over the world
   Elaboration: Satellites have brought about a global viewership for sporting events. People of all nations and races now watch the same event at the same time - a feat unprecedented before the advent of live telecasts. This is a wonderful expression of unity between people of all nations.
   Examples: Live telecasts of the World Cup and the Olympics have helped to connect viewers from all over the world - characterized by differences, division, competition and hostility.

Given that each content and counter point can be used to fill one paragraph, the total paragraph count for an essay written using this plan should be seven - 1 introduction, 1 conclusion and 5 content and counter paragraphs. This essay plan, therefore, should be most suitable for short essays, like those written for ‘A’-Level General Studies or General Paper examinations.