25 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING Writers rarely spit out their best copy on the first draft. (If you meet a writer who claims to have the secret for doing so, please let the rest of us know.) First drafts—and second and sometimes third drafts—exist to hash out your ideas on paper. After youve revised your book, story, blog post, or article until you can revise no more, you just hand it off to your editor to clean up, right? Well, thatd be ideal, but most of us dont have the luxury of hiring an expensive editor to review our personal blog post. Because procrastination is the writers best friend, you probably dont have time to even ask a fellow writer pal take a quick peek for errors. So it falls to you to be your own editor. Is it really possible to edit your own work when all the words you just finished writing are so precious? Yes, it can be done—and for the sake of making your writing stand out, it must be done. Grab your red pen, pull up your most recently saved draft, and get to work with these 25 tips to tighten your own copy. 1. Cut long sentences in two Im not talking about run-on sentences. Many long sentences are grammatically correct, but long sentences often contain several ideas, so they can easily lose the readers focus because they dont provide a break, leading readers to get stuck or lose interest, and the reader might get bored and go watch TV instead. See what I mean? If you spot a comma-heavy sentence, try to give each idea its own sentence. 2. Ax the adverbs (a.k.a. -ly words) Adverbs weaken your copy, because these excess words are not adequately descriptive. Rather than saying the girl runs quickly, say she sprints. Instead of describing the cat as walking slowly, say he creeps or tiptoes. The screen door didnt shut noisily; it banged shut. Find a more powerful verb to replace the weak verb + weak -ly adverb combo. 3. Stick to one voice Sometimes its necessary to use both first and second person, but that can be jarring for readers. For example, you might start your introduction talking about yourself, then switch halfway through the piece and start addressing the reader. Try to stick to I voice or you voice throughout one piece of writing. If you must switch, start with one and finish with the other. Dont move back and forth between the two. Your readers will get lost. 4. Remove extra punctuation A powerful hyphen here and a thought-provoking semicolon there can be effective, but a piece of writing littered with all sorts of punctuation—parentheses, colons, ellipses, etc.—doesnt flow well. Oftentimes, you can eliminate these extra pieces of punctuation with commas or by ending a sentence and starting a new one—and that makes your writing that much stronger. 5. Replace negative with positive Instead of saying what something isnt, say what it is. You dont want to make these mistakes in your writing, could be better stated as, You want to avoid these mistakes in your writing. Its more straightforward. If you find negative statements in your writing that contain dont, shouldnt, cant, or another such word, find a way to rewrite them without the not. That probably means youll have to find a more powerful verb. 6. Replace stuffy words with simple ones Some people think jargon makes their writing sound smart, but you know better. Good writing does not confuse readers. If they have to grab a dictionary to finish a sentence, your writing has room for improvement. To get your point across, use familiar words. The English language has thousands of words. You can certainly find a shorter or more common word in your thesaurus than a jargony one. 7. Remove redundancies You dont have to say the exact same thing with two words. Did you catch the redundant words in that sentence? Heres a better version: You dont have to say the same thing with two words. Brand new, advance planning, basic necessities-the list of these common phrases is longer than this blog post. Check out Abouts 200 Common Redundancies, and start snipping. Sometimes sneaky redundancies are separated by an and. If you say your sentences are straightforward and to the point, they are neither. You dont need both words. Your sentences are straightforward, or your sentences are to the point. 8. Reduce prepositions Though prepositions (of, in, to, for, etc.) are helpful little words, they make sentences longer because they cannot stand alone. Prepositions need lots of friends. By cutting the preposition and the words that follow, you can cut three, four, or even five words. Sometimes a prepositional phrase can be replaced with just one more direct word, or cut completely. An easy way to cut prepositions is to look for opportunities to make something possessive. The car of your neighbor is really just your neighbors car. 9. Cut in order to You rarely need it. If youre going to the kitchen in order to make a sandwich, your sentence could be tighter—because, really, youre going to the kitchen to make a sandwich. That in order to makes it take a millisecond longer to arrive at the meaty part of the sentence, which means your story is dragging more than it needs to be. 10. Dont use start to Did you start to walk the dog, or did you walk the dog? Is the car starting to roll down the hill, or is it rolling down the hill? Start to is a more difficult phrase to deal with than in order to, because sometimes you do need it. More likely than not, you dont. Rather than making start the active verb, use the verb thats actually more active—such as walking or rolling-to tell your story. 11. Nix that In about 5 percent of your sentences (total guess from the grammar police), that makes your idea easier to understand. In the other 95 percent, get rid of it. I decided that journalism was a good career for me, reads better as, I decided journalism was a good career for me. 12. Replace thing with a better word Usually when we write thing or things, its because we were too lazy to think of a better word. In everyday life, we may ask for that thing over there, but in your writing, calling anything a thing does not help your reader. Try to replace all thing or things with a more descriptive word. 13. Try really hard to spot instances of very and really This is a difficult one to remember. I almost never get it right, until I go back through my copy, and the word jumps out at me, and then I change the sentence to, This is a difficult one to remember. Because really, how much is that very helping you get your point across? It doesnt make the task sound more difficult. Same thing with really. Its not a really difficult tip to remember. Its simply a difficult tip to remember. Got it? 14. Make your verbs stronger Make is sometimes used in the same way as start to, in place of what could be a stronger verb. For example, I first titled this post, I wrote 25 ways to make your copy stronger. When I re-read it, I realized the verb wasnt strong. Id used make as the verb, when it doesnt tell the reader much at all. So I changed the title to 25 ways to strengthen your copy. Eventually I realized tighten was an even better verb. 15. Ditch the passive voice As this UNC handout explains, using the passive voice isnt really wrong, but whenever you have the chances to make your writing clearer, you should-and avoiding the passive voice is one of those instances. I know the passive voice when I see it, but Im bad at explaining it, so Im going to leave that to Grammar Girl. Explaining grammar is her specialty. 16. Refer to people as who not that John is the guy who always forgets his shoes, not the guy that always forgets his shoes. Its easy to make this mistake, because that has become acceptable in everyday conversations. Its more noticeable when its written down. 17. Avoid currently Currently is virtually always redundant. Dont write: Tom Jones is currently a communications director. If Tom Jones is anything, hes that at that moment; you dont need currently to clarify. Just get rid of it. 18. Eliminate there is or there are at the beginning of sentences This is often a symptom of lazy writing. There are lots of better, more interesting ways to start sentences. Oops. See how easy it is to make this mistake? Instead of starting a sentence with there is, try turning the phrase around to include a verb or start with you. For example, replace the sentence above with, Start your sentences in a more interesting way. If your copy includes a lot of phrases that begin with there is or there are, put some time into rewriting them. 19. Match up your bullet points Bullet points are a popular and effective way to organize complex ideas. Just make sure your bullets correspond to one another. Too often, writers mix and match mistakes to avoid with a positive action you should take, or they transition to shoulds halfway through the post—which only confuses the reader. If your piece is called 3 Career Mistakes You Dont Want to Make, heres a bullet point that works: Forgetting to tailor your resume each time you apply for a job Heres one that doesnt work (because its not actually a mistake—the writer inadvertently switched to what you should do): Make sure you tailor your resume Often you can turn any idea into a tip by adding a verb. For example: Remember that sitting on your head helps you write better. Make your bullet points consistent and your writing will read more smoothly. 20. Use contractions Which sounds more personable: I am heading to the market that is close to my house, or, Im heading to the market thats close to my house? Contractions make your writing sound friendlier, as though youre (not you are) a real person. That helps you connect with readers. Contractions can also make your post easier to read and comprehend. So go out of your way to include them in your posts. Your editor will thank you. 21. Steer clear of the -ing trap We were starting to … or, She was skiing toward … Whenever you see an -ing in your copy, think twice about whether you need it—because you probably dont. Instead, get rid of were or was, then eliminate that -ing and replace it with past tense: We started to … or She skied toward … Pruning excessive -ings makes your writing clearer and easier to read. 22. Check your commas with that and which When used as a descriptor, which takes a comma, but that doesnt. For example: We went to the house that collapsed yesterday, or We went to the house, which collapsed yesterday. Confused about when to use that vs. which? Grammar Girl offers a great explanation. 23. Replace over with more than for numbers Over 200 people did not like your Facebook page—more than 200 people did. Of course, everyone will know what you mean if you use over, but using more than is one of those little details that will help your writing shine. 24. Hyphenate modifiers Whenever you modify a noun with more than one word, you need a hyphen. Lots of people dont follow this rule, so its a great way to show you actually walk the walk. That means you need a hyphen if youre writing about full-time work. You dont need one if youre working full time. Got it? The exception: No need to hyphenate modifiers that end in -ly. Those are OK on their own. So your newly hired employee doesnt need that hyphen. 25. Identify your tells No matter how good a writer you are, when you write a first draft, you have a tendency to spit out sentences in a certain way or use certain words. The more familiar you become with editing your own copy, the more quickly you should be able to pick up on your tells—and the more ruthless you can be in eliminating them. Start to plagued me while writing my book; I made the start to mistake again and again. Once I knew to look for it during revisions, I was able to correct it. (Hint: If this is a problem for you, try using Words search function to look for start. Youll catch each one, so you can evaluate them individually.) Betsy Mikel is a freelance writer who has been reading and writing since she was a TV-deprived bookwormy kid. The Write Life helps writers create, connect and earn by covering topics from marketing to publishing to freelancing. A version of this article first appeared on TheWriteLife.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 07:16:43 +0000
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