All Posts Tagged With: "writing"

I figure I’ve typed about a billion words – give or take a small novel — in my 30-year writing career. To this day, I still use the old hunt-and-peck method, which means my brain often gets ahead of my fingers. The result is some pretty embarrassing mistakes in my work. I usually catch them while proofing, but the occasional boo-boo does slip through.

When that happens, a little bit of my credibility dies. My excuse is that I never learned how to touch type. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

But there are people out there who really don’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re” or “their” and “there” and “they’re.” In an effort to sound conversational, they write “I should of…” Worse, they leave their modifiers dangling. In public, no less.

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Popularity: 33% [?]

(Third in a series of articles about improving your writing.)

As a newspaper editor, I used to remind my reporters that there was a finite amount of space for their stories. If they could save one or two words per paragraph in a 20-inc story, it might mean the difference between having their work run intact or having vital information clipped out by a ruthless copy editor under deadline pressure.

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(Second in a series of articles about improving your writing.)

By fourth grade in my Catholic grade school, the good nuns had drilled into my head all the parts of speech, the punctuation rules and grammar regulations that were never to be broken, lest they show up on my permanent record. We diagrammed long, rambling sentences, marking the nouns with one red line and the verbs with two, adjectives with a diagonal and adverbs with a squiggly mark. By the time we were done, our diagrams looked like schematics for the Space Shuttle.

At the risk of getting a rap on the knuckles, I’m here to tell you to forget all those rules.

Writing is about communicating. It’s about making the reader feel comfortable with your words, about setting a friendly tone, about being clear and concise. It’s not about blindly following archaic rules that can get in the way of effective communication.

Here are a couple of rules I’m giving you permission to break without fear of an icy glare from the nun in the front of the room:

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I came across this post on the Online Publicity Journal. While I agree that the benefits of a well-written press release are considerable, I disagree that just about anyone can write one and be successful.

There are at least Nine Steps to An Effective Press Release including: understanding what news is and how to meet the media’s needs, developing a relationship with reporters and editors, timing, following up, etc. Even basic formatting, spelling, grammar and punctuation are crucial elements.

That said, I often tell prospective clients they have a choice: they can research the media and develop relationship, research background and statistics, write and draft a release, distribute it and follow up, then hope that the release is effective. Of course, they have to do all this while running the day-to-day operations of their business.

Or they can leave it to a pro.

Most times, it’s a no-brainer.

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(First in a series of posts about ways to improve your writing.)

The fact is simple words communicate better than big words. Some writers feed their egos by using pompous language to impress their audiences. Using big words when simple ones will suffice can annoy and distract the reader from what you are trying to say. Some examples:

Use help rather than assist.

Use live rather than reside.

Use help rather than facilitate.

Use small rather than diminutive.

Use use rather than employ. or utilize.

Use get rather than obtain or procure.

Use best rather than optimum.

Use buy rather than purchase.

Go back and re-read your latest piece of copy. I’ll bet there are at least a handful of instances where you can substitute a simple word and see a huge increase in the readability of your writing.

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