OK, you’ve probably heard many of these tips before. But sometimes it helps to have a cheat sheet or two handy, yes? Or, you know, you can spend your lunch break re-reading Strunk and White. Wait. That’s my job.
- To jump-start a sentence, scrap the “noun + is” combo. If you ran a farm, verbs would be your fleet, muscular Thoroughbred horses, nouns your dependable but slow-moving Holstein cows. You want to get places quickly, you don’t ride a cow, ammiright? So, when you’ve got a point to get across, avoid the common pitfall of hitching nouns to the verb “to be,” and grab an action verb instead. Compare the plodding “The T-1000 is a success.” to the more snappy and vivid “The T-1000 excelled in all markets.”
- Fight jargon. Did you synergize your strategies to create actionable models of sustainability over time, or did you work together to write a business plan? Then say so. Keep your reader’s attention by being direct.
- Watch your adverbs. Often, those words ending in –ly. To continue with the farm analogy, these words are your prize roosters. They’re pretty and they have their use, but too many is distracting and annoying. Use them…sparingly. (Unless you’re hiding out at work writing bestselling Vampire novels for highschoolers, in which case, use them all the time. Teenaged girls love extra adverbs!)
- Deep-six preposition sandwiches. “With regard to growth, the party expanded over time, through the efforts of our constituents.” What a yawn! Give your content more impact by tossing out doughy prepositional phrases (the stuff you need tons of commas to tack on) and getting to the meaty subject.
- End with a punch. There’s a reason it’s all about getting the last word. Your readers will remember you and your topic better when you finish with a joke, witty turn-of-phrase, or astute prediction. You’ll regret not listening to this one.
