Vagueness, Ambiguity and Clarity in Writing
John Mackey

The first example that I have chosen to use for this assignment is Example number two;

Example 2

I was thrown from my truck as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by a flock of wild turkeys.

The vagueness in this example raises the question of why he was thrown from the truck. What caused this to happen? What were the underlying circumstances that ultimately led to being thrown from the truck? Another question that can be asked is where did the wild turkeys come from? There are all these questions that remain to be asked and also later to be answered. For the ambiguous side of the house, Dictionary.com defines ambiguity as doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ambiguity). In this example what is the author’s intent on explaining? It is simply two sentences that very vaguely explain what happened but what is their purpose or intent that they are trying to achieve by saying what they did in the example? I believe that with this example there is more vagueness than there is ambiguity but also that the vagueness does lead to ambiguity. There are several questions left in this example unanswered.
Re-Written Example
I was thrown from my truck as it left the road because the roads were wet from the rain that had fallen throughout the night and I lost control of my truck. Later when I awoke I found myself lying in a ditch surrounded by a flock of wild turkeys that appeared to come from the woods in the distance.

Now for the second example that I used was Example number three;
Example 3

Next Sunday a collection will be taken to help with the cost of the new altar. Anyone wanting to help to do something on the new altar can step forward and let the committee know.

In this example we look at the vagueness at what kind of