How can we become effective writers? Some first steps.
Natasha Latham
Freelance Copy Editor & Proofreader | Lifelong Learner & Educator | I draw on my education background to support writers in refining their work and finding the best words.
Throughout my career as an educator and proofreader, others have asked me how to write effectively. (I like to describe excellent writing as effective rather than good because the term effective is less subjective than good.) Here are a few strategies I use in my own writing:
Learn from respected writers.
The first thing I recommend is a lesson I learned in my college creative writing class. "To be an excellent writer, read excellent writing." Glean techniques about style, vocabulary, and tone from a variety of sources. If you're interested in using third-person objective narration, for example, reading the front page of the newspaper is a helpful start. If you want to write straightforward fiction, read Ernest Hemingway. Or if your goal is to create a visual picture in the reader's mind, read "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg.
Develop your vocabulary.
Another useful strategy is to use the dictionary frequently. Using the dictionary to look up unfamiliar words serves two purposes. One of those purposes is to learn what the word means in the context of what you're reading. The other purpose of using the dictionary is to find synonyms for the unfamiliar words. Sometimes, a synonym is more familiar than the word you looked up. In that case, you've gained clarity. If you follow up by looking up the synonyms, you'll both increase your vocabulary and learn the shades of meaning between those similar terms.
Simplify your vocabulary and word usage.
As writer Malcolm Gladwell explains, "Writing should be simple enough that it does not defeat the reader." Even though we as writers may understand what we're trying to say, it's our responsibility to ensure that our readers can understand it. The late Paula LaRocque, writing coach for the Dallas Morning News, reminds writers, "When intelligent readers cannot understand a piece of writing on first reading—and without effort—the writer has not done his or her job. Why? Because the effort should be the writer's, not the reader's." The average adult prefers to read at a grade level below tenth, according to LaRocque. How do we make our writing clear?
Let's start with using the "briefest, brightest, truest version of a word." LaRocque encourages her readers to use shorter words instead of longer words. Instead of using lengthy, for example, use long. We can often use urgency instead of expediency. Or what about savvy instead of perspicacious? If the shorter word won't change the original meaning, use that word. You'll be saving your readers time and effort.
If we're using shorter words to express ourselves more clearly, let's use fewer words to say the same thing. (As the author William Strunk wrote in The Elements of Style, "Omit needless words!") Using surveyed instead of did a survey of, for example, saves us three words. Prepared for is briefer than made preparations for. Although conveys the same idea as despite the fact that.
To further "omit needless words," avoid redundant expressions. Here are a few examples:
Use shorter sentences.
Gladwell was "delighted to find that he’d been writing at an eighth and ninth grade level. It didn’t mean the way he was writing was dumb. It meant he was writing simply." In his article "Something Borrowed," Gladwell begins most paragraphs with simple sentences. This technique gives readers a break from longer paragraphs of direct quotations. The shorter sentences also show a transition from one part of the story to the next.
LaRocque's advice for writing sentences? Use the "cleanest, clearest, most interesting and dramatic sentence structure [. . .] subject-verb-object, in that order." Using this syntax enables writers to use the active voice, making our writing more conversational. Starting with the subject also makes it easier for us to get to the point.
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Journalism instructors warn about "backing into the lead." In writing, we "back into the sentence" when we start with prepositional phrases or verbal phrases before stating the subject. Consider "In an unexpected turn of events, we got stuck in a thunderstorm." Besides the "word clutter" of In an unexpected turn of events, the subject is in the middle of the sentence. We don't speak like that, and the prepositional phrase gets in the way of the subject.
As LaRocque advised, instead of simply writing as you speak, "Write as you speak when you speak well."
Some Final Thoughts
Clear, concise, correct writing doesn't come naturally to most writers. We often think that using flowery or overblown language makes us sound educated. That misconception sometimes makes writers think that the brief sentence "dumbs down" our writing. Albert Einstein disagreed, saying, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
A Note from Natasha
I "met" Paula LaRocque after reading several of her columns in the Dallas Morning News. Before her death in 2021, she and I would email about interesting points she made in a column. We also shared our thoughts about useful resources for writers and editors. I thanked her for caring about language and encouraging others to do the same. She then thanked me for emailing her and sharing my experiences with The Elements of Style and Edit Yourself.
Recommended Reading
On Writing Well, by William Zinsser
The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White
Edit Yourself, by Bruce Ross-Larson
The Book on Writing, by Paula LaRocque