Writing With Substance: You Can Haz it! SRSLY!

What is Prose"

The Oxford English Dictionary, which you can access via our library's list of Research Databases, defines prose as "Language in the form in which it is typically written (or spoken), usually characterized as having no deliberate metrical structure (in contrast with verse or poetry)." When I refer to "your prose," I mean your writing, and my use of it usually encapsulates matters of style as well as ability and strength that make the writing you produce unique to you. Other definitions in the OED describe it as "plain, simple, or matter-of-fact; (often with negative connotations) that which is dull or commonplace" and as "a narrative." I will never use "prose" as a pejorative term, and we need not associate it with "plain" (or equate "plain" with boring).

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