Tag: concise writing

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Guest Posts

Rich and Concise: How to Tell More without Extra Words

Guest posts

Using fewer words to convey clear ideas will always engage readers. Concise writing grabs the reader’s attention because it does not use any extra verbs, nouns, and nominalizations. 

A writer’s work becomes more effective by avoiding redundant phrases and conveying the idea quickly. Improve concise writing by engaging in writing exercises, reading other exemplary works, and consciously avoiding the temptation to use long sentences. Here are a few ideas to make every writing piece rich and attractive and creating lasting memories for the readers. Your New Year writing goals might become a reality with this helpful guide.

Improve Vocabulary to Avoid Nominalizations

Read the works of other authors, dictionaries and use various online resources to improve your vocabulary. Using apt words instead of extraneous sentences will make the writing look rich, exquisite, and easy to understand. Writing “he assessed the software,” instead of “he decided to do a thorough check on the pros and cons of the software,” will interest the readers better.

Always aim to keep the sentences under 30 words and paragraphs under 300 words maximum. Convey one single idea by starting with logic or statement, explain the reason or cause that adds to the argument and highlight what you wish to convey precisely. 

This software helps in improving all your performance challenges related to managing a strict deadline and increasing productivity by helping you keep track of your daily progress through automatic backup.

The software makes automatic backups of daily progress to increase productivity and manage deadlines better.

Logic – The software takes automatic backup.

Cause – of daily progress to increase productivity.

Highlighting point – manage deadlines better.

Both sentences convey the same message. But, the second one is easy to read and remember. 

Cultivating Brevity in Daily Writing

Avoiding filler words and correct noun usage is essential to master concise writing as they are tricky to use. Avoid using the common filler words like “that,” “of,” or “up” as they make the sentence unnecessarily long. E.g., I climbed the stairs/ I climbed up the stairs. Do not start a sentence with “this,” “there is,” “there are,” and “it.” 

Always start a sentence with subject, and use a noun along with these four words – this, that, these, and those. For example – avoid “this is unbearable” and try “The pain is unbearable.” Avoid writing “I like these” and write, “I love these colors.” Try to avoid extra nouns like, “these are the basic and necessary steps you must do,” and write “do these important steps.”

Avoiding these common mistakes will make the writing look much more professional and exciting to read. Following this set of collective rules is termed brevity, meaning short and to the point. Incorporate brevity in the emails or resumes, business writing, letters, and all other daily writing forms to save time and convey strong and short messages effectively.

Proper Adjective and Minimal Adverb Usage  

Improve the vocabulary by expanding your knowledge of various common but less used adjectives. There are plenty of ways to shorten a sentence using the right adjectives. Some common examples are very good – superb, really boring – tedious, too harsh – severe.

Correct use of adjectives is vital to set the mood of the sentence and create an emotional appeal. Most of the “Show don’t tell” writing principles stress using proper adjectives to convey emotions. Adjectives are the key to good writing, and mastering the correct usage of adjectives through training and expanding knowledge will improve the quality of writing extensively. 

Try to avoid adverbs usage unless necessary, as most editors try to filter out nearly all the adverbs unless it is indispensable to use them. The thumb rule is to use the adverbs only to mention color, size, or quantity. Most beginner writers tend to use adverbs with “ly” extensively. Instead of writing “quickly,” try to write “quick to.” 

Effective Active Voice Usage

Minimizing the usage of adverbs will also lead to writing efficiently in the active voice. Passive voice writing is often not preferred in business communications and official reports. The modern writing comprising blogs and social media also does not encourage using passive voice sentences. 

Writing in active voice and using passive voice only in unavoidable circumstances is an efficient way to showcase excellent writing skills. Replace adverb usage with exciting descriptions that paint a picture of the situation or background. Classic novels do a great job of describing the situation without excessive adverb usage.

Read them regularly and try recreating the everyday modern conditions in a similar style to improve concise writing. Read contemporary science fiction to learn about brief descriptions.

Try Various Writing Exercises 

Writing, as is with painting, is a skill that will improve only with constant practice. Try various writing exercises incorporating the points mentioned above. Start by creating an exciting tweet about this article in 140 characters using just 22 words.  

Read the work of prominent authors like Kurt Vonnegut, who is well-known for concise writing. Start writing their work in your own words for two minutes, setting up a timer, and write in your style.

Once the time is over, compare your writing with the original piece and spot the differences in the wording. Now count the words in your essay, shorten them in half, compare your shortened work with the original part, and note the improvement. 

Select a caption or appealing newspaper heading and paraphrase it within 20 words without using any filler words. Try the numerous other writing exercises available online and judge where you stand in using articulate words as a writer.

Conclusion

Write for your audience and with a will to provide something valuable and easy for them to understand. Do not overstuff words. Try to edit and re-edit several times before you are certain that every message is concise. Building a loyal readership is all about providing variety and trying not to be monotonous. Avoid making your sentences long and complicated. Organize your ideas, streamline the writing structure and convey the message confidently without any extra frills to bait the audience.  

Leon Collier is a UK-based academic writer and editor working among the best professional paper writers. His current job is with https://my-assignment.help/nursing-assignment-help/ where he helps medical students write research papers, essays and lab reports. When not busy writing, you can find him reading books and novels or playing tabletop games with his buddies. Follow him on Twitter @LeonCollier12.

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Guest Posts

Do You Know These Benefits of Writing Poetry?

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Poetry is such a beautiful form of literature. It allows you to say so much without having to write pages and pages. Through symbolism, rhymes, rhythmic, and aesthetic language, poetry can truly express the author’s deepest emotions and wildest thoughts. And, the best thing about poetry is that it brings certain benefits to the author.

The benefits of writing poetry might be a mystery to you, but we’re here to tell you more. We’ve put together a list that will help you learn just how good poetry can be for you, mentally and physically. Let’s take a closer look.

1. Expressing Emotions

The number one benefit of writing poetry lies in expressing emotions. This is crucial for those people who have trouble dealing with how they feel.

And, one thing’s for sure- you should never swipe your emotions under the rug.

Through writing poetry, you’re able to:

  • process the emotions you’re feeling
  • use creativity to express them
  • deal with them in your poetry and let them go

That means that poetry helps you let go of certain feelings instead of constantly holding on to the past. And, this is extremely beneficial for your mental health and inner peace.

2. Escaping Reality

We all need a break from our reality every now and then. And, poetry allows us to create our own little world and escape in it whenever we like.

People who write poetry regularly report that they feel shifted away whenever they’re in this process. Here’s what that means:

  • writing poetry takes you to your happy place
  • you feel relaxed, stress-free, and inspired
  • you can rest from the daily noise and tension

Escaping your busy reality is a good idea, and poetry is one of the best ways to do it.

3. Building Self-Awareness

Learning about ourselves and getting in touch with our inner-selves is never a bad idea. This is something we should try doing for as long as we’re alive.

Why?

Because it helps us build self-awareness and grow stronger on a personal level. Here’s how poetry helps you build self-awareness:

  • you express your ideas and emotions in your poems
  • you do it intuitively, which makes it honest
  • you re-read those lines and gain new insight about yourself

Poetry allows you to learn about yourself, grow, and improve.

4. Memorizing Important Moments

When certain things happen in our lives, we like to hold on to them. Whether it’s a beautiful memory or a life-changing event, it’s good to be reminded of your past experiences.

But, holding it all inside can be potentially harmful to our mental health. This is why it’s a good idea to write it down through poetry. This way, you’ll be:

  • getting it out of your system
  • making sure it’s never forgotten
  • allowing yourself to re-live it whenever you read the poems

Angela Baker, a literary critic, and editor at Trust My Paper, says:

“Poetry is one of the best ways to preserve some of the most important moments of your life. When you turn them into poetry, they’ll forever remain alive and available for you to re-live them. That’s the beauty of poetry.”

Angela Baker

5. Remove Emotional Pain

Some of the most beautiful poems were written as a result of great emotional pain. When we suffer, we feel most inspired to write poetry because we feel the need to ease the pain we’re feeling.

Poetry helps us remove this emotional pain, and here’s how:

  • we bring it out of ourselves
  • we deal with all the emotions we’re feeling
  • we find relief and peace

Writing poetry benefits those who are struggling to heal from a recent emotional episode and need a hand to do it successfully.

6. Improving Cognition

Poetry isn’t just beneficial for our emotional side. It also has a positive impact on our brand and cognition, so we can almost say that it’s making us smarter.

Here’s why this is the case:

  • writing poetry is a complex process
  • it requires us to combine the words, hidden meaning, symbols, rhymes, and rhythmic
  • this process makes our brain active and stronger

Poetry helps us train our brain into being sharper and working smoothly. As a result, our overall cognition, memory, and focus are improved.

Final Thoughts

Writing poetry is an immensely enjoyable and beneficial process we should all try. People who write poetry experience significant benefits and improvements in their well-being.

Hopefully, the benefits listed above helped you understand just how valuable the process of writing poetry is. Use it as inspiration to start enjoying writing poetry more.

Donald Fomby is an experienced freelance writer and amateur poet. He currently works as an editor at Supreme Dissertations. Donald mainly focuses on literature-related topics and aims to provide practical advice his readers can apply easily

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History in the Making

What I Learned from the Author of Charlotte’s Web – Part 1

by Sandra Merville Hart

 

I wanted to instill a love of reading in my daughter from a young age so we read at bedtime. One novel we both enjoyed during her elementary school years was Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.

When beginning my writing journey, I found a wonderful book originally self-published by one of White’s professors. An editor asked him to expand and revise it. Studying the end product, The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, inspired me.

The learning began in the introduction where White recalled his teacher omitting needless words eagerly from students’ papers as a demonstration to the class. Every writer cringes in sympathy to imagine being the one used as an example.

[bctt tweet=”#Write concisely but don’t avoid details. Instead make every word count. #Author” username=”@Sandra_M_Hart”]

Strunk taught his students to write vigorously. Such concise writing contains no unnecessary words. This doesn’t mean authors avoid details. Instead, make every word count.

The professor worried that readers flounder in murky waters. Authors must write in a way to “drain the swamp” and enable the reader to reach dry land. His main concern was the confusion the reader felt upon encountering unclear sentences and paragraphs.

This compassion for the reader struck me. Surely our most important job is to communicate a clear message. We fail when our audience puckers their brow and reads a sentence a second or third time.

I am a work-in-progress. If you write, you probably feel the same way. Rejections abound in our profession as in other creative careers. Silently listening while an editor or critique partner scratch out phrases or suggest a better way to portray an action challenges us. Like Strunk, some are very positive they’re right.

We owe it to future success to listen and mull over the suggestions after the sting of rejection wears off. Applying their suggestion may affect a later scene.  You know your story. Evaluate their comments and learn from them.

There are more gems to share from this writing book. This article is the first of a three-part series. Join me next month for part 2.

As much as White squirmed under his professor’s editing, he benefited from the wisdom.

May we do the same.