Keep it simple
My teenagers are currently into online memes. The genius of memes is their succinctness—they convey much in a few words, or no words at all. We can learn from that.
Michelangelo is credited with saying, “Take infinite pains to make something that looks effortless.” We admire politicians, scientists, and preachers who can explain complicated things clearly. But when they communicate in such a way that their ideas are the main thing we remember, then their communication is exceptional.
“You may not consider yourself a ‘writer,’ but to strengthen your writing, you don’t have to be. Good writing shouldn’t be reserved for English majors or professional authors.”1 Most of you didn’t graduate as English majors. I didn’t. However, you don’t need a writing degree to be a skillful communicator.
Here are some ways to make your writing stronger:
- Replace adverbs with strong verbs (e.g., use “watch” or “monitor” instead of “continuously check”).
- Avoid the passive voice (e.g., use “The church distributed the flyers,” instead of “The flyers were distributed”).
- Think twice about using intensifiers and modifiers that may be unnecessary (e.g., “very,” “sometimes,” and “immediately”).
- Substitute single words for wordy phrases (e.g., use “now” instead of “at the present” and “to” instead of “in order to”).
- Avoid long lists of examples. Three are often enough.
- Opt for common words (e.g., “concise” vs. “breviloquent”).
- Swap nouns for verbs (e.g., use “decided” instead of “made a decision”).
Here are some tools that can help you identify ways to strengthen your writing:
- Dictionaries and thesauruses are available online if you don’t have paper copies.
- The “Find” function in Word is useful (type Ctrl-F on PC or Cmd-F on Mac). I use it to help identify an excessive use of constructions like “ly” or “ing.” You can search for words like “very,” “is,” or “that” and use it to identify repetitive use of a single word. Removing these will often make your writing stronger.
Greg Ciotti, a writer and marketing strategist, says, “Whether your job is to write support emails or novels, [all good writing] is humble. Hiding your toil is the final gift you must give your audience.”2 So let’s take the time to revise our writing so that it communicates clearly.
1. Ali Mese, “Write to Express, Not to Impress,” Medium, https://medium.com/swlh/write-to-express-not-to-impress-465d628f39fe (23 September 2019).
2. Gregory Ciotti, “Easy Reading is Damn Hard Writing,” Help Scout, https://www.helpscout.com/blog/damn-hard-writing/ (3 September 2015).