7 Tips for Writing

7 Steps to Better Writing

I have taught in a number of disciplines, but these mistakes seem to derail students across the curriculum.

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Paying attention to these skills will add clarity and power to your writing and probably earn you better grades.

#1 Proofread Your Writing. In a perfect world you finish your piece a few days before it is due so you have time to put it down, walk away, and then come back with a fresh perspective. If I am the first person to read your piece that will probably be obvious to me (and in your grade.)

#2 Escape the Passive Voice. He was hit by Jim = PASSIVE. Jim hit him = ACTIVE. Overusing the passive voice can result in papers that are awkward, dry, and simply confusing.

#3 Cure Comma Diarrhea. Yes, there are many ways to use commas, but we must understand these two:

  • She hit Jim, but Mary bopped Susan’s head. Main Clause - Comma – Conjunction – Main Clause

NO COMMA HERE: She hit Jim and bopped Susan’s head.

  • Willa Cather’s work, including O Pioneers!, is an important contribution to American Start of Main Clause – COMMA – nonessential element – COMMA – End of Main Clause

NO COMMA HERE: Willa Cather’s One of Ours earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

When in doubt, look it up HERE Links to an external site..

#4 Don’t Write as You Speak. We call that colloquial speech. “Isn’t it incredible that Hitler was able to convince so many Germans to follow him?” This is neither academic nor engaging.

#5 Make Sure You Agree. Plural subjects require plural verbs and modifiers, and single subjects require single verbs and modifiers. This is usually not a problem if you abide by #1 above.

#6 Don’t Use Twelve Words when Six will Do.   “These adolescents of present often wade through the daylight hours lost within their permanent haze of touchscreens, tones, and connection.” à

“Teenagers use their cell phones all day.”

#7 Stay on Topic. Discipline yourself to stay focused on the matter at hand. If you drift away from your topic or bring in new material in the latter half of the paper, then you lose both your reader and your opportunity to actually argue your thesis. A good outline will help you avoid this.

Or Use This Guide: “How to Write Good”

 

1.    Avoid Alliteration. Always.

2.    Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

3.    Avoid clichés like the plague. (They’re old hat.)

4.    Employ the vernacular.

5.    Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

6.    Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

7.    It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

8.    Contractions aren’t necessary.

9.    Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

10.  One should never generalize.

 

From Frank L. Visco in the June 1986 issue of Writers' Digest.

11.  Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”

12.  Comparisons are as bad as clichés.

13.  Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.

14.  Profanity sucks.

15.  Be more or less specific.

16.  Understatement is always best.

17.  Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

18.  Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

19.  The passive voice is to be avoided.

20.  Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

21.  Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

22.  Who needs rhetorical questions?