Keeping Your Writing Style Up to Date

Have you kept up to date with your writing skills? Unfortunately, after most people leave school–high school, college, or graduate school–they rarely brush up on their writing skills. And while their skills have stayed the same, writing has continued to evolve.

Writing changes about every five years. While most people don’t notice these subtle changes, they’re there, nonetheless. Sometimes, it’s a change in the way people use punctuation while for others these changes may manifest themselves in certain forms of sentence structure.

Probably the way writers use punctuation has changed the most. Take semicolons, for instance. Back when teachers taught that writing was a more formal affair, people used semicolons extensively. Today, many writers use them rarely, as they tend to slow the reading down. Instead, they substitute a period for the semicolon and begin a separate but related sentence immediately following it. Are you one of those who’s still using semicolons?

Another form of punctuation that has seen more frequent use is the dash or more specifically the “em dash,” the longer of the two forms of dashes. This form of punctuation creates a visual separation that readers can easily see at a glance. Also, today’s writers are using commas less frequently.

Lots of things influence changes in writing style, but none more so than the creation and appearance of electronic text, both on the Internet and in E-mail. Instead of writing in a longer, more formal style, writers today use a more concise approach. Writing is tighter and less flowery with fewer longer, more sophisticated words that many readers may not know.

There are lots of ways to keep your writing style up to date. The easiest method is to read more contemporary writing—writing done yesterday not even 10 years ago. And if you really want to improve your writing style, avoid most literature, except the modern variety written after 1930 or so.

You can also enroll in writing classes. Professional dancers constantly take classes to improve their technique and writers should, too. You don't have to enroll in college-level writing courses.  These can be expensive and more time consuming than you need. However, many colleges offer continuing education courses that are just right. Most of these target a particular kind of writing—novels, short stories, articles, etc.  They usually last only a few weeks and don’t have the added pressure of grades that you’ll find with credit courses.

Another alternative is to attend a writing conference. Here, classes are short and intense, usually  lasting only one to three days. These conferences also offer you a chance to learn from other professionals who are experts in their fields.  Do a search for "writing conferences and your area" to find one near you.
                   
Whatever you choose to do, improving your skills will give your writing a boost. 




       

Improving the Readability of Your Writing

What is readability? Essentially, it’s how easy it is for readers to read your writing. Improving the readability of your writing helps your reader to comprehend what you’re saying more accurately in less time.

Figuring the readability of writing began in the late 19th century in the U.S. Schools didn’t use graded or grade level materials until around 1847. Somehow teachers expected students to learn to read all on the same level. This probably came about because so many schools were one-room affairs with students from all grade levels in attendance. And while educators established graded reading levels for students, no one ever paid attention to the reading level of adults until the U.S. military took a stab at it. They found that in 1937 general adult readers had limited reading ability.

In 1921, Edward Thorndike published his landmark book, The Teacher’s Word Book. In it, he noted the frequency of difficult words used in general literature. For the first time, a notable scholar suggested a means to measure difficult words through mathematical formulas. He showed that overall reading comprehension is directly related to the number of difficult words in any piece of writing. 

So how does this relate to your writing? While you may not know the reading level of what you write, you can take these steps to ensure that it’s readable to the majority of adult readers. Believe it or not, the average reading level in the U.S. is tenth grade. That means there are readers who read above that level and also those who read below it. The more educated a certain group of readers is, the higher their reading level.

As a writer, you can’t assume that everyone that reads your work has gone to college. Depending on your target audience, chances are that about half have done so.

To make your writing more readable, follow these simple steps:

Focus on Your Reader. Who will be reading your writing—young adults, men, women, seniors? Find out as much as you can about your readers' education, reading habits, age, sex, occupational background, and so on. Even knowing the likes of "the general reader" is better than writing in a vacuum. Analyze the advertisements in the publication you intend to write for to help you discover your what your readers like.

Focus on Your Purpose. Why are you writing? What do you expect your readers to do? Read your piece casually? Study it? Use it for reference? Read it for entertainment during leisure hours? Be sure of what you are trying to do and write accordingly.

Design Your Writing to Fit. Once you know your audience and your purpose, you can design your piece of writing to fit. Ordinarily, this means that you start raising your readability by increasing the number of "personal words." For easy and interesting reading, a story design is usually best--either sustained narrative or anecdotes, illustrative examples, and practical applications, sandwiched between straight description. For instructional pieces, the best design is the direct "you" approach, or cookbook style.

In other words, you can increase the number of "personal words" by using the first and second persons for yourself and your reader and by explaining your ideas through the experiences of people.

Use Direct Quotes at Key Points. Move your narrative along by using direct quotes at key points along the way.  After increasing the number of "personal words," increase the number of "personal sentences." In today's professional writing the proportion of dialogue to narrative is increasing steadily. Successful writing today uses a conversational approach

Break up Sentences and Paragraphs. Next, shorten the length of your average sentence. To do this, look for the joints in complex sentences and break them, changing dependent clauses to independent clauses. Also, there’s a natural relationship between the length of sentences and the length of paragraphs. After you’ve shortened your sentences, break up your paragraphs to fit the changed rhythm. And avoid using semi-colons. Put a period where a semi-colon should be. But make sure the new sentence following it relates directly to the previous one.

Use Simpler Words. While you should generally choose a simpler word over a more complex one, some of the long, complex words may be technical terms that shouldn't be changed. As for the rest, remember that complexity rather than length makes for reading difficulty. Many complex words are abstract nouns. Change these nouns into verbs, particularly simple verbs with adverbs. For example, instead of using the word “condescension,” use “look down on.”  And no, using simpler words won’t make you seem less intelligent. That’s a myth fostered by academics who like to show off how smart they are. As a writer, no one cares how intelligent you are, only that you communicate your thoughts well.

Help Your Reader Read. You’ll raise the level of readability indirectly if you try to help your readers read. Point out to them what’s significant. Using bold type, tell them to remember what they should remember, use headings to prepare them for what they’re going to read, and summarize for them what they’ve read.

Learn to Cut. The most common problem with beginning writers—and some advanced ones, too—is wordiness. Tightening up your writing by cutting non-essentials will make essentials stand out better and save the reader time.  If your piece of writing is too long, some readers may skip it altogether.

Rearrange for Emphasis. Readers remember best what they read last. Rearrange your writing with that in mind. Repeat important concepts towards the end so that readers will remember them.

Punctuate for Readability. Avoid semicolons and colons which tend to lengthen sentences. Parentheses make writing appear more formal and take away from its conversational casualness. Also, get in the habit of reading what you’ve written aloud to “hear” where punctuation should go.

Following these simple steps will help to drastically improve your writing with an almost immediate effect.

Writing in the Fast Lane

Speeding up your writing doesn’t mean you should write faster but instead quicken the pace. Your readers will thank you for it.

Your writing most likely has a slower pace—the speed at which a reader reads it—than it probably should. This is the result of what you learned in school. Traditionally, most academics believe that the longer you make your sentences, the more intelligent you seem. That’s why the majority of textbooks are such slow reads.

Ernest Hemingway learned this same writing style when he was in school, but when he began to write professionally, he realized that it slowed down his writing. Throughout his career Hemingway experimented with style and, like any professional writer, constantly learned new techniques. This style persisted in most of his writing and changed the way many writers work today.

At the core of Hemingway’s style were short sentences. And while he’s known for simplified, direct prose, most writers don’t know that he worked hard for these effects and that he had a reason for using them—clarity. When he wrote for newspapers, clarity was his objective. Even today, newspapers continue to use a clear, direct style. USA Today took this style to a new level by producing tight, clear text that could be read in a much shorter time, most often with a person’s morning coffee.

Hemingway wrote sentences that were straightforward and clear so that his readers could understand the points he made even if they were skimming quickly through his articles. You, too, can achieve a similar clarity by writing shorter, more direct sentences. This is especially helpful to keep in mind when rewriting your work. Don’t hesitate to break up long complex thoughts into bite-size morsels for added readability. But clarity wasn’t the only reason for Hemingway’s brevity.

Another reason too use shorter sentences is for dramatic effect.  In “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” when the lead character is nearing death because of a gangrenous leg, Hemingway writes: “All right. Now he would not care for death. One thing he had always dreaded was the pain.” Here the short sentences have a cumulative effect, pounding home the idea that the hero is nearing death. Try to achieve a similar effect in your writing by stringing together a series of short sentences when you want to stress a point or add dramatic punch to your prose.

Still another use for short sentences is to add variety and music to your writing. Hemingway often mixed longer and shorter sentences for a more rhythmic effect. In The Old Man and the Sea, he told his readers the thoughts of the old fisherman: “Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him. How many people will he feed? he thought.” The first sentence contains two conflicting thoughts: the old man’s sorrow for the fish and, in contrast with this, his continued determination to kill it. The next sentence suggests the old man’s motivation for fishing, namely to get food. The change in sentence length lends a musical quality to the writing and adds pleasing variety.

So how else did Hemingway speed up his sentences? First, he chose shorter words  and second, he often omitted commas.

Although Hemingway used commas in his writing, he often achieved his greatest technical innovations by omitting them in compound sentences. A compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses. The clauses are usually joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction, such as and, but, or, nor, for, so, or yet. By far the most common coordinating conjunction is and.

An example from The Sun Also Rises. The narrator is hoping to see the bulls run at Pamplona, Spain. Joining a crowd of spectators he rushes ahead with them to the bullring. At this point Hemingway speeds up the pace: “I heard the rocket and I knew I could not get into the ring in time to see the bulls come in, so I shoved through the crowd to the fence.” The absence of a comma before the word and increases the tempo, conveying some of the feeling of being in the crowd.

But omitting commas can sometimes make sentences confusing, so you don’t want to overuse this technique. But when you come to a section of your story where the action needs to move at a quicker pace, you may wish to try Hemingway’s trick of speeding up your sentences. Follow these tips and you’ll be writing in the fast lane.

The Three W's of Writing

Everyone can write. Well, actually just about everyone can put words on paper. But not everyone can be or wants to be a writer. And this is where the three “W’s”—why, what, where—fit in.

Why do you want to write? Before all else you must have a reason for writing—a purpose. If you want to become a successful writer, you’ve got to decide what drives you to write. There are loads of other professions to which you can devote your time and energy, so why chose writing?

Perhaps you love words—the sound of them, they way they’re used in sentences, the idea of creating images with them. Your love affair with words may have developed out of a love of reading. However this came about, it will be the driving force behind your writing.

Or perhaps you feel a compelling need to communicate with others. You may have strong feelings on a particular subject and wish to relay them to others. For instance, you may feel strongly about climate change or spousal abuse or any number of other trendy topics.

But why choose writing? Why not take up photography or videography? Each is a powerful communication medium in its own right. And that brings us to the next “W”—what.

What do you want to write? Whatever you decide to write begins with you. This is the subject matter not the format. If you ask yourself if you should write non-fiction books or novels, articles or short stories, plays or film scripts, you may find it hard to choose. But once you know which subject you’ll be writing about, the best format will become apparent.

What you write about depends a lot on your personal interests. Perhaps you’ve been interested in animals since your first trip to the zoo at a very early age. You may feel strongly about the plight of some creatures on the endangered list and write about them to make your readers more aware of their dire situations. Or maybe you feel in love with traveling after your first flight and want to share with your readers the wonders of the world.

Maybe you like to present challenges and puzzles to your readers through mysteries or adventure stories. Whatever you choose to write about should begin with you. And that takes us to the third and final “W”—where.

Where does writing fit into your life? Most people aren’t born to be writers. They become writers over time through a variety of circumstances.

Some realize early on that they love to write while still in elementary school. But for countless others, the need and passion to write doesn’t appear until much later in life. Perhaps it comes from the encouragement of a teacher along the way or the inspiration brought about my reading the works of a famous writer. However, if the urge to write seizes you later in life, you’ve most likely been pursuing another career path—one to which you feel equally passionate and attached.

The good thing about writing is that it can be done while you’re engaged in another career. For many, it begins as a pastime. But then the urge becomes so strong that they feel the need to break away and devote the rest of their lives to writing. Which is it going to be for you?










                               

The 3C’s of Freelance Writing

Since probably from the time you started school, you’ve always associated writing with the ABC’s. But there’s so much more to it than just putting words into sentences. If you are or are planning to become a freelance writer, then you need to also follow the three “C’s”—content, communication, and commitment.

Sure, having a great vocabulary—especially of familiar words—is necessary for any writer. But assembling them into effective, meaningful content is the key. Impressing readers with words you use is one thing, but using those words to express thoughts that are clear and precise is another.

And not just any content will do. It’s got to come from the heart as well as the mind. You’ve got to have something important to say about a subject—even if other writers have said similar things. It’s your perspective on that subject that’s important.

Writing is communication. So is speaking. People communicate their thoughts and ideas to other people using either or both. The difference between writing and speaking is that in the former, the person uses only words. There is no gesture, body language, or voice inflection—there’s no visual or audible means of any kind. Whatever the readers gets from the words is all done by inference and interpretation.

In speaking, a person uses all those things. The listener, even if it’s only a voice recording, hears the inflections and the intonations. He or she hears the emotions.

The third and last of the 3 C’s is commitment. In order to be a successful writer, especially one who freelances, you’ve got to be committed t your work. That commitment goes beyond just a commitment to your writing. It also includes constantly improving your skills as a writer, being aware how others write and comparing your work with theirs.

But more of all you have to be committed to your readers, for it’s they who will make or break you as a writer.

It’s All in the Edit

Next to writing the actual words, your most important job as a writer is to edit your work. Good editing makes all the difference between writing and really good writing. However, many writers find it tedious—they like only the buzz they get from the actual process of writing. Also, just as many writers don’t really know what editing is all about. They think they know based on corrections made by English teachers when they were in school, but this is far from the editing needed to make a writer’s work look professional.

First and foremost, before doing any editing, step away from your work. Let it sit idle for at least a day or several. The longer you refrain from looking at it, the better. Your mind will forget about it eventually, so when you do look at it again, you’ll see it in a new light.

Editing is much more than just correcting mechanical errors—spelling, punctuation, verb tense, pronoun agreement, and general sentence structure. Editing deals with the content of your piece. Does it make sense? Is the flow logical? Are your words familiar enough for all readers? (See my previous blog on using $20 words).

Whatever you’ve written, you’ve done so to express yourself on a particular topic. Have you done that? Will that be clear to your reader? Clarity is the number one problem with most poorly edited writing. Remember, your reader can’t phone you or send you an E-mail to ask what something means.

Generally, editing consists of four jobs:  deleting, rearranging, rewriting, and correcting.

First read through your work and delete any word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph that doesn’t belong. If you can eliminate the word and there's no loss of meaning, then eliminate it.

If you haven’t looked at your work for a while, you may notice that some parts need to be rearranged for better continuity. Readers won’t make the leap, so don’t expect them to figure out what you mean. Make your writing logical. If you’re not telling your story chronologically, make sure you won’t lose your reader in the process.

After you delete parts or whole sections and rearrange others, you’ll most likely have holes to fill, so you’ll have to rewrite some parts to make sure they read well and make sense. In this editing phase, you may also want to check for smooth paragraph transitions. These help your writing to flow effortlessly from paragraph to paragraph.

Lastly, and only then, correct any errors in spelling, punctuation, verb tenses, and pronoun agreement.

Once you’ve edited your article, short story, or book, it may be time to let someone else have a crack at it, especially if it’s a book. Find someone who is a serious reader to go over it in detail. Better yet, hire a professional book editor. With the ease of self-publishing for Kindle or Nook, too many writers today are trying to sell what amounts to writing trash. Make sure whatever you sell is the best it can be before you put it on the market.

Keeping Up With the Times

How many times have you taken a writing refresher course? If you’re like most people, probably never. If you’re more serious about writing, maybe once or twice.

Unfortunately, after most people leave school–high school, college, or graduate school–they rarely brush up on their writing skills. And while their skills have stayed the same, writing has continued to evolve.

Everyone learns to write for one reason and one reason only–to do classwork and homework in school. Seldom does anyone learn to communicate in a conversational manner, except to talk. Generally, most teachers don’t care much how their students talk. But on the outside, both talking and writing are important forms of communication. And the world of sheltered and structured academia is unlike anything on the outside.

Writing changes about every five years. While most people don’t notice these subtle changes, they’re there, nonetheless. Sometimes, it’s a change in the way people use punctuation while at others these changes may manifest themselves in certain forms of sentence structure.

Take semicolons, for instance. Back when teachers taught that writing was a more formal affair, people used semicolons extensively. Today, many writers use them rarely, as they tend to slow the reading down. Instead, they substitute a period for the semicolon and begin a separate but related sentence immediately following it. Are you one of those who’s still using semicolons?

Lots of things influence changes in writing, but none more so than the creation and appearance of electronic text, both on the Internet and in E-mail. Instead of writing in a longer, more formal style, writers are using a more concise approach. Writing is tighter and less flowery with fewer longer, more sophisticated words that many readers may not know.

Have you checked your writing style lately? Perhaps it needs a bit of updating.

Don’t Forget the Basics

With the advent of computers, the Internet, E-mail, and especially texting, many students have glossed over basic writing skills in favor of abbreviated forms of communication. While most will sadly be able to get by communicating in writing, those interested in becoming writers have to heed to the call.

If you have any dreams of becoming a published writer, you need to pay close attention to your writing skills and, for some, English usage. The writing business has standards of quality—strict ones—that all writers follow, from best-selling book authors all the way down to beginning freelancers writing for their local newspaper.

While most people think that writing skills mean punctuation and capitalization—what writers call mechanics—the truth is they also include things like phrasing and idioms, and at the top of the list, sentence structure and paragraphing. Way down on the list is vocabulary. It doesn’t take big words to make your readers understand what you’re trying to say.

So if you’re writing skills aren’t up to par, it doesn’t matter how great your ideas are because you won’t be able to express them properly.

If you find your writing skills below par or perhaps lacking altogether, enroll in a basic composition class or a basic writing class at a local school night or community college. The former are less expensive and usually run for six to eight weeks. That’s plenty of time to get your skills in shape, especially if you have assignments to write each week.

Of course, you can improve your writing skills on your own, but you won’t get any feedback and that’s very important—not only from the instructor but from other students. If you have any plans to publish anything, get started now improving a writer’s second greatest asset—your writing skills. The first is your ideas.

The Importance of Revising

Writing isn’t only about putting words on paper. It’s really about arranging and rearranging words until they say what you mean. Many beginning writers fail to revise their work. They write a first draft and stop there. While you don’t have to completely rewrite what you write, it’s important to make sure what you’ve written communicates clearly to your readers.

To begin, check your work for misplaced content. This might be as simple as an event that’s out of chronological sync or a misplaced modifier. You may have a dull opening that won’t hold on to your reader’s attention or an ending that doesn’t end with a bang. Whatever you’re problem, a little revising can go a long way.

The most common reason for revising is for length. If you plan to sell to newspapers or magazines, you need to adhere to their length requirements, not write long diatribes in which you ramble all over the place. Today, the length of most published articles and short stories lies somewhere between 800-1000 words. As the Internet has threatened to take over the publishing world, magazines in particular have changed their layouts to reflect a “Web” look which means shorter pieces.

Start by deleting any unwanted content. Remove words like “very,” for instance. How nice is nice? Very nice. This word does little to advance the information in your work. You get the idea. Also, check to make sure you’re not using the same words and phrases continually. Create a little variety, and by using words that produce a more exact image to your reader, you’ll write clearer as well.

After you’ve deleted parts of your writing, you’ll be left with holes that you’ll need to mend. To do this, you’ll need to write new sentences, combine others. Be careful that you’re not asking your reader to make a leap in information. Never assume your reader knows what you’re talking about.

Another form of revising is a type of refreshing. When a book has been in print for a while, often publishers will ask the author to revise it for a new addition. This can mean new language and perhaps new information. In today’s fast moving world, a lot can happen in five years–an average length of time a publisher waits to revise a book. Travel guidebooks, on the other hand, are usually revised annually or biannually.