Dr. Paul Jorgenson, Computer Science

Hollywood knows that an actor is only as good as his/her writers. Look what happened to President Reagan when he ad-libbed an answer to a question about the Iran-Contra affair.

"Since I was not informed, as a matter of fact, since I did not know that there were any excess funds until we, ourselves, in that checkup after the whole thing blew up, and there was, if you'll remember, that was the incident in which the Attorney General came to me and told me that he had seen a memo that indicated there were more funds."

Ronald Reagan
President of the United States
explanation of details of the Iran-Contra Affair

What was President Reagan really saying? To understand, rewrite this in several steps:

1. Eliminate "filler phrases" (e.g., "to be candid&").

"Since I was not informed, as a matter of fact, since I did not know that there were any excess funds until we, ourselves, in that checkup after the whole thing blew up, and there was, if you'll remember, that was the incident in which the Attorney General came to me and told me that he had seen a memo that indicated there were more funds."

2. Eliminate redundancies.

"Since I was not informed, as a matter of fact, since I did not know that there were any excess funds until we, ourselves, in that checkup after the whole thing blew up, and there was, if you'll remember, that was the incident in which the Attorney General came to me and told me that he had seen a memo that indicated there were more funds."

3. Eliminate run-on sentences.

"Since I was not informed, as a matter of fact, since I did not know that there were any excess funds until we, ourselves, in that checkup after the whole thing blew up, and there was, if you'll remember, that was the incident in which the Attorney General came to me and told me that he had seen a memo that indicated there were more funds."

4. Clear up modifiers.

"Since I was not informed, as a matter of fact, since I did not know that there were any excess funds until we, ourselves, in that checkup after the whole thing blew up, and there was, if you'll remember, that was the incident in which the Attorney General came to me and told me that he had seen a memo that indicated there were more funds."

5. Suppose you were his speech writer. Prepare a clear statement for the President.