Three ways to improve your writing
Whether it’s in an email, on a website, or through a tweet, writing is an essential form of communication. Good writing tells people who you are and what you’re about. It gives you a voice and builds your perceived identity.
Take Advantage of the Rules
It probably wasn’t your favorite subject in school, but grammar is an essential tool in writing. Become obsessive about grammar. It will improve your copy instantaneously. Here are a few clues to get you started:
“That” and “Which” have different uses in a sentence.
‘That’ is used when what follows defines the thing that precedes it. It is restrictive; it qualifies what you’re talking about. ‘Which’ is used for nonessential, additive information. When you use ‘which,’ you almost always precede it with a comma.
“Between” and “Among” are not synonymous.
‘Between’ is used when discussing two objects, ‘among’ is used when discussing more than two things.
Commas are needed less often than you think.
They aren’t all necessary, I promise, and there are better ways to create pauses in your narrative.
There are some extremely useful grammar tomes out there, including The Elements of Style, and Words Into Type. Of course, there’s also the web, which is an accessible means of brushing up on the rules.
Explore Your Thesaurus
One of the most common issues I see as an editor is unnecessary word repetition. There are over 1 million words in the English language. We should use them.
When a word reappears several times in a single presentation or webpage, it depersonalizes the message and subtly implies a lack of confidence — Think of a telemarketer who gets flustered when forced to go off script. You want your written material to demonstrate the facility you have with a subject, and what better way to show that than with fresh, eloquent material?
For example, a word I see in branding copy a lot is “target.”
- We target your vulnerabilities and help you overcome them.
- We take a targeted approach.
- Using our robust algorithm, we can target the top-five factors that lead to successful sales.
It’s a great, powerful word, but the strongest words are diluted the quickest. What about these alternatives:
- We identify your vulnerabilities and help you overcome them.
- We take a precise, exacting approach.
- Using our robust algorithm, we can pinpoint the top-five factors to successful sales.
There are a lot of great words out there; they may simply take some unearthing. There are many excellent online thesauruses, too. These are a few of my favorites: Thesaurus.org, Power Thesaurus, and Visual Thesaurus.
Keep it Simple
Leonardo Da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” and he was right. Our inclination can often be to fill a page with detailed, adjective-heavy prose. This impulse makes sense—you want people to get your work and love it just as you do.
More often than not, however, the simplest way to say something is the most powerful. A reader’s attention span is shockingly slim. A sentence that has ten clauses and goes on for six lines requires a lot of focus and energy from the reader, and there’s no reason to believe they’re invested enough off the bat to tolerate that.
Consider:
We are a global hospitality company with a widely recognized, industry-leading brand and a tradition of innovation developed over our more than fifty-year history that drives a mission to provide authentic hospitality by making a difference in the lives of the people we touch every day.
Versus:
We are an industry-leading global hotel company that has provided warm, authentic hospitality experiences for over fifty years. It is our mission to make a difference in the life of each person we touch through innovative, extraordinary service.
Just because a sentence is simple doesn’t mean it’s boring. Shorter sentences are easier to follow, and therefore offer greater clarity and resonance for readers who may be exploring your work for the first time.
Also, consider how you read. What happens when you reach the end of a sentence, when you see a period or a question mark?
That’s right, you take a pause. Pauses are gifts. They allow the reader to digest what they’ve just taken in. Simple, declarative sentences create a deeper experience, letting your reader internalize knowledge and walk away with a better understanding of what you’ve said.
These are just three, and there are plenty more. If you have a good tip of your own, share it here. Or have questions about writing? Get in touch.
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Written by Clare Smith Marash