Category: writing advice

1. You’ll build R-E-S-P-E-C-T. If you keep your audience and their interests in mind, you’re more likely to write shorter, more focused attention-getting content. One size doesn’t fit all: if you’re targeting sneaker wearers, they’re more likely to feel comfortable dressing-down than those who don high-heels.

2. You’ll build believability. Readers tend to trust informative, stylish, and error-free text. Such content is also more memorable. In the 1980s, Coca-Cola’s slogan “Coke is it” reinforced its name and reputation among the biggest soft-drink sellers.

3. You’ll build credibility. You’ll look smarter if you consider how people will understand your writing. To use Coca-Cola as another example, when the company began selling their soda in 1920s China, shopkeepers translated their name phonetically on signs and among the variations was one that meant “bite the wax tadpole.” This funny misinterpretation has become so famous Coca-Cola even features a blog post about it.

4. You’ll make a better impression. Forethought cuts the effort required to create a piece compared to winging it until it fits your topic. This results in clearly structured, easier to understand writing.

5. You’ll build authenticity. Friendliness and approachability helps business. If you aren’t too pushy and take care to write truthfully with heart and some soul, you’re closer to connecting with customers. Overall, follow the first four steps and people will like your content more than if you ignore them. 🙂

Quotes

Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give. ~ William Arthur Ward

Before you speak, text, or write:

T: Is it True?
H: Is it Helpful?
I: Is it Inspiring?
N: Is it Necessary?
K: Is it Kind?

~ anonymous; sometimes attributed to Socrates (“Socrates’ sieve“)

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

The passive voice – Passive verbs, those in “to be” form tend to weaken sentences compared to active verbs. You can’t always avoid them, especially if you don’t know who did (or will do) something.

Example: “Your landscape plan determines how you want your lawn and garden to be designed.”

In this case, if the document isn’t specifically addressed to the do-it-yourselfer, the passive voice is a shortcut around whether the reader will handle the details him or herself or choose a professional.

Otherwise, knowledge of who will tackle the task yields a more direct revision: “Your landscape plan determines how you want to design your lawn and garden.”

Prepositions at the end of sentences – “With,” “for,” “on,” and “to” are among the prepositions some grammarians suggest you shouldn’t park at the end of sentences. But if you rearrange them, your sentences will sometimes sound awkward.

Example: “Which street are you on?” vs. “On which street are you?”

Conjunctions at the beginning of sentences – When I was in elementary school, my teachers advised me not to start my sentences with because, but, also, and, or other conjunctions; despite the formality, it was a way to make students work harder to word their sentences. To me, it’s fine if the sentences you start with those conjunctions aren’t merely fragments.

Example: “And vanilla ice cream.”
Better edit: “And I love vanilla ice cream.”

Split infinitives – The phrase Captain Kirk (William Shatner) says during the Star Trek TV series opening credits before the theme starts is a classic example: “To boldly go where no one has gone before.” (a la Grammar Girl.) Essentially, it’s the placement of an adverb — in this case, boldly, before a verb form (to go; the infinitive) — instead of after it, where some grammarians believe adverbs traditionally belong. Sometimes, it just doesn’t sound right to position adverbs properly, and we split infinitives to clarify what we mean.

Use of the second person – Depending on their audience, not everyone writes in a formal, grammatically correct tone. It’s more personal and direct to refer to you as you, instead of the more distant phrase the reader.

Quotes

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment, and education — sometimes it’s sheer luck, like getting across the street. ~ E.B. White

Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs. ~ Jack Lynch

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

1. Words count – A general idea of the length of your piece can dictate how much information to include and help you maintain a better focus on what it will cover.

2. Work on a title – It can sometimes be better to save the name of your piece until the end, especially to take the pressure off the need to come up with a great, memorable title. A temporary, or working title, can serve as a jumping off point to help you focus on your subject matter.

3. Outline – Even just a brief list, a “mind map” with circled topics, or a flow chart of what you plan to write about can form a great starting point.

4. Three keys – Essentially, your article needs a beginning, middle, and an end. The beginning often contains the most important and attention-getting material, which piques people’s interest in reading the rest of the work. The middle is where you present further information, building on the beginning, and the end is often where you sum up your key points, however, you can do that in the beginning, too.

5. Your audience – Think of the people who will read your piece: their genders, their ethnicities, their ages, their lifestyles, their incomes, their jobs, and their education levels. This will help you narrow the topics for your subject matter, and put yourself in their shoes. Answer the questions they would ask, or ask them directly yourself what they think you should cover.

Quotes

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” ~ A. A. Milne

“Bottom line is, if you do not use it or need it, it’s clutter, and it needs to go.” ~ Charisse Ward

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

1. except/accept – These words can be easy to confuse because they look similar and sound the same. Except means not including, whereas accept means to consent to receive something offered or believe or come to recognize (an opinion, explanation, etc.) as valid or correct. One way to remember the differences between them is to think of their prefixes, ex- and ac-. Ex- means not part of, and you can think of the letter X, which to many of us, is a symbol or short-hand for exclusion. Accept begins with a, as does its synonym, agree, so you can think of it as if it’s A-OK.

2. ensure/insure – Their meanings are similar, in the sense that they make a result more sure. To ensure means to make sure. To insure means to secure or protect something or to buy an insurance policy for protection from loss. In general, the word tends to have a more financial focus than ensure.

3. compliment/complement – These words are even more confusing because their pronunciation is the same. Obviously, the key difference between them lies in one letter: “i” and “e.” Both words also generally have positive meanings.

A compliment is a polite expression of praise or admiration or an act or circumstance that implies praise or respect. You compliment someone when you tell him or her you like his or her new haircut.

Complement is a thing that completes or brings to perfection, a number or quantity of something required to make a group complete, or to add to (something) in a way that enhances or improves it; make perfect. A way to remember the differences between them is to think of the word complete when you think of the word complement — they both have an e. Like the word polite, compliment has an i.

4. piece/peace – These are yet more words that sound alike, have similar spellings, but have different meanings. Common phrases such as “peace of mind” and “to give someone a piece of your mind” add to the confusion. A piece is a part of something whole, to piece means to assemble something from parts and peace is defined as freedom from disturbance; tranquility or the end of war or violence. When I think of piece, I think of pie — it helps that the first three letters are the same, and I make the connection to a slice of a pie. Peace is more of a full, whole concept.

5. then/than – Then means at that time or afterward. Than is often used in comparison to something else or when contrasting something.

Examples:

John will put on his pajamas, and then go to bed.
Mary’s hair is longer than her sister Rachel’s.

Think of how you pronounce then and than and think before you use them in sentences when you write; practice pronouncing the a in than and the e in then more clearly to also help you remember their differences.

Quotes

“Our language is funny — a ‘fat chance’ and a ‘slim chance’ are the same thing.” ~ J. Gustav White

“If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.” ~ Doug Larson

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com