Friday, January 04, 2008 Lee: Quick ways to improve your writing By Kelvin Lee Babble on
I'VE written this Babble On Op-Ed Column for Sun.Star Davao since 2003. I even did a stint as a Food Correspondent for the That's Beijing magazine, when I lived in China. I've also contributed articles to the AIM (Asian Institute of Management) Leader Magazine.
This doesn't even count the number of editorial and writing positions I've held in college and law school, nor the English teaching positions in China and Ateneo Grade school. Yes, I've been writing for a while now.
Over the course of this "writing career" I've figured out a few simple writing tips that can drastically improve the quality of your work. They mostly revolve around keeping things short and simple:
1.) K.I.S.S. "Keep It Simple Stupid. Readers as a whole don't like it when you complicate the things you are writing. It tends to tire them out and discourages them from reading more.
Simplicity is key. Otherwise, you're just trying to show off to your readers. The point of writing anything is to make yourself understood. Not to show off. Stick to the basics and keep things simple. Your readers will thank you for it.
2.) Shorten Your Sentences. Shorten Your Paragraphs - Be like Ernest Hemingway. He liked his sentences "cut to the bone." He abhorred long and complicated ones. Even if you think it makes you look smart to have a hundred word sentence, trust me, you don't. Instead you are just making things difficult for both yourself and your reader.
Get rid of all the unnecessary words in your sentences and in your work. Stick to the barest minimum you need to get your point across.
While we're at it, try to stick to short paragraphs too. Long paragraphs tend to tire out the reader and looks daunting to the naked eye. Reader fatigue will set in, and you don't want that.
In fact, you could try one sentence paragraphs. The successful Brazen Careerist author and blogger Penelope Trunk swears by this technique and tries to get away with as many one sentence paragraphs as she can.
3.) "One Thought, One Paragraph" Author Stephen King, in his memoir On Writing, believes that having one basic thought in a paragraph works best when
writing.
This is because having more than one idea in a paragraph tends to confuse readers. They lose the train of thought of the article. Instead of understanding what the written piece is trying to say, readers wind up trying to figure out what each individual paragraph is saying and how they connect to each other.
This wastes the time of the reader, and that means the time the writer spent writing the piece has just been wasted too.
Try to stick to one idea per paragraph. This keep your ideas organized and helps you with the flow of your written work
4.) Use Words You Know- When I used to check essays as a teacher, I was always irritated at the number of fancy words my students would use in their writing.
They would get a simple word they did know, pick up a thesaurus, and then just throw in the fanciest synonym that they saw. This was exactly what George W. Bush did in Phillips Academy, Andover, when he was in high school. To impress his teachers, he replaced the word "tears" in his essay with "lacerates." He got a big fat zero for his trouble.
It didn't work for George W. Bush and it definitely won't work for you.
Use words you know. Use words you understand. That way, you'll at least know what you're writing (and you can probably avoid that failing mark too).
In Short
To write articles that are readable, complexity is the enemy. Unless you are writing for an academic journal, there is no point in making things complicated.
Keep things simple. Keep things short. Stick to one basic thought per paragraph and use words you know. You'd be surprised how quickly your writing gets
better.
Improve your writing skills.
(Email me at babbleoncolumn@yahoo.com, or read more at http://kelvinlesterlee.wordpress.com.)
