By Divine Agodzo
I will be devoting the next few blog posts to sharing my top writing tips. You will hear or read about literally hundreds of ways to improve your writing, dispensed by various writing and communications pros, but which ones have the most ability to truly revolutionize your writing? How can you turn tepid or even good writing to compelling prose that wins hearts and minds? I believe the answer lies in these 15 tips, covering various areas of the writer's craft. I will be sharing these tips in batches of five. Try them and let me know if they don't revolutionize your communication.
1. Make a professional judgement on the right tone for your piece and stick to it. Does the subject require a serious tone? Would humour be appropriate and effective? Do you need an objective tone of voice, as in journalism/news releases? Or, on the contrary, is a subjective approach similar to the style of advertising and marketing copy the right choice? Knowing the right tone and keeping to it is critical in matching your writing to the right audience and occasion.
2. In writing, structure is king so make sure your composition is well organized. Almost every type of writing needs a good introduction that leads the reader into the piece (tell them what you are going to tell them), a body (tell them) and a strong conclusion (tell them what you told them, with a call to action and a punchy, memorable close). This model may not apply to everything you write, but it is a time-tested formula that can provide the skeletal framework needed to hold up your writing.
2. In writing, structure is king so make sure your composition is well organized. Almost every type of writing needs a good introduction that leads the reader into the piece (tell them what you are going to tell them), a body (tell them) and a strong conclusion (tell them what you told them, with a call to action and a punchy, memorable close). This model may not apply to everything you write, but it is a time-tested formula that can provide the skeletal framework needed to hold up your writing.
3. Check each sentence to ensure that as a general rule it conveys a single, clear, complete thought or idea. Ask yourself, what is the key message or idea in this sentence and is it expressed clearly? Do I have multiple ideas or points in one sentence? Also, evaluate each sentence to determine how/if it may be misunderstood and if there is anything that may be unclear, edit or revise as needed.
4. Make sure your paragraphs are cohesive and that they convey only one key idea, developed through elaboration and examples. Properly structured cohesive paragraphs generally begin with a thesis sentence, which is a fancy term grammarians use to describe the main idea you want to get across. Each subsequent sentence should both build and hang on the “umbrella” idea in the thesis sentence. They may explain the thesis, elaborate on it, or supply illustrations that support the main point. In a cohesive paragraph, each sentence is a logical development of ideas in previous sentences and there is reasonable “flow” from one to the next. Revise or eliminate “hanging sentences” that don’t fit into this building block structure due to the fact that they don’t develop a preceding thought or idea.
5. Use well placed transitions to create unity of structure. In good writing, no sentence or paragraph is an island. Bridge words, otherwise known as transitions, help you link everything together in the audience's mind. Transitions may have different functions. For example, they can be used in a follow-up sentence to emphasize an idea expressed in an earlier sentence (in fact, indeed); to show contrast between earlier ideas and those following (but, however, although, yet, regardless); to express the development of an idea (additionally, further); to signal that you are clarifying or elaborating on thoughts in an earlier sentence (for example, in other words); or to indicate the next step in a process or the flow of time (next, finally). One caution: transitions are somewhat like salt -- you absolutely need to have them sprinkled through your writing, but overuse can defeat its purpose. Used well, transitions carry the audience along, without being overtly noticeable.
Check my next blog post for the next five tips, coming soon!
