It's pretty safe to say that most people think they understand the English language and its nuances. We all passed Language Arts in elementary school. We all passed that evil, eighth grade English class. We all passed senior year English literature.
We learned how to write properly during that time frame, right? Hopefully. Did all of those writing tips stick around afterwards? Debatable.
There are a few grammar necessities that may have been left along the way: writing with clarity, reducing clutter, using variety in your sentences and using sentence emphasis effectively. These points are important to maintaining your writing effectiveness, and I'll give some examples about how to understand these concepts.
Writing with clarity
There are more than enoughblog postsonthis topic alone.In summary, be specific with your word choice and order. For example:
Chuck is my new favorite show on Netflix.
vs
Chuck is my favorite new show on Netflix.
(It's been five years since it ended. Move on.)
Reducing clutter
I think this is the easiest to fix. Whenever you're finished writing, read through your work to see if you might've been redundant or long-winded.
It would be difficult to find someone who has not been deliberately lied to on purpose.
vs.
It's hard to find someone who has not been lied to.
Variety
Most people don't enjoy reading the same sentence multiple times because then the reader is either confused or is bored. There's always a better way to make repetition interesting and clear. Take my intro for example:
We all passed Language Arts in elementary school. We all passed that evil, eighth grade English class. We all passed senior year English literature.
vs
We all passed Language Arts in elementary school; that evil, eighth grade English class and senior year English literature.
Sentence emphasis
This is the main blame for some "click-bait" titles. When people look through headlines they are looking for something to catch their eye, so the first few words of the title will always be the most important part of the story.
It has been reported that there has been a severe, multi-car pile-up on I-35 this afternoon.
vs
A severe, multi-car wreck on I-35 during rush hour has been reported.
Yes, there are times when some of these are okay breaking, but if you're writing an email to your boss or attempting to sound intelligent in that political post you're thinking about writing on Facebook, you probably want to make as few errors as possible.
Hope this guide helped you out in some way. Thanks for listening to what I had to say and I hope you have a great day!
