Some Writing Tips
Some tips that I’ve always found useful when I’ve written anything are the following:
- Outline your thoughts first. Then go through the outline and make sure that your thoughts flow in a logical order (e.g., from more general to more specific, or whatever). Then write the text.
- Or outline your thoughts later. Go through what you’ve written and outline what you’ve just written. Do the ideas flow? Is something missing? Etc.
- Read each sentence carefully. Read each sentence and really think about what it is you’re saying. Then stop and think whether whatever it is that you’re saying is really what you intended to say. If it’s not, you can ask yourself some questions: Are some words vague or overly general? Do you provide a reason for your assertions? Etc. (See Browne & Keeley, Asking the right questions for additional questions to ask.)
- Read each sentence carefully again. (FYI: I’ve gone through this message at least five times to make sure that I’m saying what I want to say, as well as to delete any spelling or grammatical errors. And, still, I’m sure, that if you looked carefully, you’d find several things to change—as would I if I saw it tomorrow.)
- Put your paper away for a day or more and then go back to it. It’s amazing what you see when you spend time away from what you’ve written.
- Have your writing proofread. Have someone you trust proofread what you’ve written. Does it make sense to that person? (Ask that person to tell you what you wrote about? If the person has captured everything that you had wanted to say, great! If not, then ask what’s confusing, what needs to be added, etc.)
- To check spelling, use spellcheck. It used to be that, in the days before spellcheck, I would go through my paper backwards. It was easier to see the words as words, rather than as thoughts in sentence form, to uncover the spelling errors.
- Don’t rely on spellcheck. With spellcheck you can make sure that you have correct spellings, but if you write a homonym (e.g., rein v. reign) or words that people commonly mix up (e.g., your v. you’re; to v. too; affect v. effect; its v it’s), spellcheck will not detect these mistakes. Only you can through proofing the meaning of what you’ve written.
- Some common errors are the following: mixing up “affect” and “effect”; “it’s” and “its; and, “i.e.,” and “e.g..” In case you’re prone to mixing these up, here are the differences. “Affect” is a verb (synonymous with “to impact”). (For example, “when you tell a funny joke, it affects me; I laugh.”) “Effect” can be used as a noun or as a verb. First, as a noun. “The effect on me when you tell a funny joke is positive.” Second, as a verb (it is synonymous with “to create”). “You effect a positive response in me when you tell a funny joke.” You may find more differences in the dictionary or check with Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style. (I recommend that you get this book period. It’s great. It’s concise. And you can use it for as long as you have to write…anything!
- It’s equals “it is.” Its indicates possession.
- I.e. equals “that is” or “it equates to” or “in other words “; E.g. equals “for example.” One uses e.g. when one intends to provide an example of a set. (The crayon box contains many colors, e.g., blue.) One uses i.e. when one intends to provide the entire set. (The crayon box contains two colors, i.e., blue and red.)
- Read each sentence carefully and delete any extraneous words. (I just replaced “try to get rid of” with “delete” on this latest pass because “delete” is one word and “try to get rid of” is five words.) How can you say what you want to say in as few words as possible? The more you edit out verbosity, the tighter, and usually the more effective, is your writing. Also try to avoid using the passive voice. It is much stronger to say: “She voiced her opinion loudly!” than it is to say, “The opinion was voiced loudly by her!”
- Check out the following references for critical thinking, grammar, and word usage:
- Browne and Keeley, Asking the Right Questions
- Strunk, W. Jr. and White, E.B. The Elements of Style
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- Any good dictionary