How to Write (in a thousand words or less)
I’ve written about editing, eliminating distractions, getting started – it’s time to get down to basics. Too many people don’t know how to write. Period. Yeah, they can make marks on paper, but when it comes to making a clear, compelling, and meaningful statement, especially one more than 140 characters long, they fail.
So here, in no particular order, are 17 ways to make your marks on paper as good as they can be.
- Write naturally. Not necessarily how you talk – speaking and writing are separate crafts and are processed differently by the brain – but using a tone and language that is natural to who you are. Avoid “university words” (even if you’re in a university) and jargon (unless among peers).
- Have a plan. Outline if you can, but at the least make sure you know where you’re going and how you intend to get there. Don’t ramble on hoping your reader will put it all together in the end. They won’t get to the end.
- Use active, forceful verbs. Use verbs that convey action, movement, and purpose; avoid verbs that are passive and simply indicate existence or equivalence (e.g. “Our company is a leading manufacturer of…” vs. “Our company leads in the manufacture of…”). Never use a verb in a sentence that you wouldn’t do. For example, if you wouldn’t “interface” with a business partner, don’t write it.
- Avoid adverbs. Adverbs are words that modify the verb. If you’ve used a strong, active verb, you don’t need to modify it. While you’ll have to use adverbs occasionally, most of the time you should strike the adverb and choose a better verb.
- Be for something or against something. As in life, people avoid standing for something in their writing. They often seem to use language that, in a way, would tend to imply that they are perfectly ok with whatever opinion you might be comfortable with. Boooo-riiiing! Take a stand, build an argument, and convince your reader that you’re right.
- Cut “think”, “seems”, “believe”, and other opinion words. This goes along with the last point, but there’s more to it than just hemming and hawing. Too often, people write their opinions, which you should be convincing me of, not using to support your argument. Don’t tell me what you think, believe, or disagree with, tell me what you know.
- Write for people. Don’t write for some generic audience "out there", and for the sake of all that is holy don’t write for search engines. Picture the person, real or imagined, you want to read and be moved by your writing, and write for that person.
- Be present. I don’t mean you have to write in the first-person (though that’s not as bad as your high school teachers led you to believe), but there should be a sense of you the writer in your work, of your humanity and passion for your subject.
- Don’t be clever. Unless you’re writing something intended to be witty — a greeting card or joke to begin a speech with, for example — avoid clever turns of phrase that make you feel smart. Here’s what will happen: 1 or 2% of your readers will say "Oh, that’s clever. See what they did?", 50% won’t notice at all, and 48% won’t get it. I’m being generous here.
- Hook ‘em early. Start with the headline, which should say why I should read this. Then write a strong introduction that draws your reader in and makes them want to read on. Tell a story, make a bold statement, offer up a surprising fact. Don’t open with "According to Wikipedia…" or "According to Webster’s…". YAWN!
- Use topic sentences. Every paragraph should clearly say what it’s about. The topic sentence might not be the first sentence — it might even be the last sentence, or the first part of the third sentence. But somewhere in the paragraph there should be a line that, taken on its own, says what the paragraph is about.
- Have a conclusion. People fuss a lot over introductions, and slack on conclusions. Tell your reader why they bothered to read your piece. Remember, the conclusion is the part your reader is going away with — make it count.
- Explain yourself. Never assume your reader agrees with you. If you say someone’s bad because he barbecues puppies, you’d better explain why barbecuing puppies is a bad thing. Maybe your reader thinks puppies are delicious and nutritious — can you afford for that reader to completely miss the intent of your writing?
- Have a trusted reader. Whenever possible, get your work read by someone you trust to be honest with you. Listen intently to their responses, even when your reader tries to blunt their critique. For example, if they say they didn’t get a part, but that’s probably because they didn’t know anything about the topic, you need to rewrite that part so that, even knowing nothing about the subject, they do get it.
- Let it rest. Never write up to a deadline. Allow your writing at least a few hours, a day or two if you can, before you come back to it. You’ll be surprised how much cruft you find when you approach your writing with fresh eyes.
- Cut, cut, cut. You’ve been told that a piece of writing should be exactly as long as it needs to be to get its point across. That’s wrong – it should be half that long. There is no piece of writing, except the published work of the greatest authors, that couldn’t benefit from a savage reduction in length. Concision counts.
- Rewrite. You’ll break all these rules in your first draft. That’s why it’s called a “first” and not “only” draft. Writers just don’t get it right the first time – cut, cut, cut and rework your text into a lean, tight, and clear piece of work.
Any other tips for writing? Let us know in the comments.
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Dustin Wax
Dustin M. Wax is the project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.
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Comments
David says on June 11th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Taking out words like “i think” and “i believe” take away the readers ease of knowing how strongly the writer feels about what s/he has written. For example: I think the world may be flat, but I also think it may be round, since evidence points to round, for now I’ll believe that the world is round. This is just my opinion.
In all honesty, if memory serves me correctly, I have had less comments on argumentative articles where the grounds for my conviction seem less solid, but if I were to speak negatively about the grounds of opposer’s of my convictions, I fear for their characters sake often may seem less solid than my grounds.
A little quid pro quo: Some stand on mountains and some fly. Who is better?
Thanks for your article! I’ll be referring to it!
Tom in Raleigh says on June 11th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Good article, especially about writing more than one draft. My students don’t write multiple drafts, and then are baffled by their poor grades. Given what we know about high school writing instruction….(grinding teeth).
Meanwhile, I am firmly in the “I believe” or “I feel” camp. I tell my students that I don’t care what they believe or fell–I only want to read what they can prove logically or empirically. This may be a tough standard, but eliminating the tendency to talk about students’ “feelings” takes away their license to ramble on about nonsense unrelated to the task before them. They become better writers when they focus on what they can logically prove. I don’t think that “real world” writing is much different than academic writing. “I believe” is a hedge writers use to indicate that “it’s just my belief, and you may disagree, and that’s OK.”
52success says on June 11th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
very good suggestions for writing. Rewriting is a basic but important step to improve writing skills. I love this article
Shanel Yang says on June 11th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Writing Tips for Bloggers. Hmm. Since I’m a relatively new blogger, I started writing my posts the only way I knew how — in a style hopefully less boring and formal that my previous legal research and writing yet less “anything goes” as my sometimes wholly unsubstantiated ramblings in my diaries. My blogging style is a work in progress, to be sure. Just over half a year later, I’ve already evolved dramatically to a more conversational style.
My tips for new bloggers would be, in addition to Dustin’s great tips:
1. Less is more. A shorter post is almost always preferable to longer ones unless your topic genuinely requires more detailed treatment. I’ve seen some posts that just about beat a simple point to death with too many examples and too much repetition. Then, some readers might feel as if the writer had nothing important to say about it after all.
2. Lots of headings. It’s almost impossible to have too many headings and subheadings, as long as they accurately describe the section they are introducing.
3. Sometimes there’s no baby in the bathwater. If after you follow Dustin’s tips Nos. 16 and 17 and you still don’t think your article is working out, it might be time to put it in the “great ideas that didn’t work” pile. Don’t worry that your time or effort has been wasted, though, because that “failed” post is sure to spark new ideas for future posts that will work.
Dustin, thanks for another great post!
Happy writing, everyone!
Mark says on June 11th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I also believe that spelling, grammar, and punctuation are important. I tend to read very quickly, and poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation slow me down. Sometimes the effect on my reading speed and enjoyment is dramatic if the writing is very poor. It also makes it harder to focus on what the person is trying to communicate.
I tend to like writing where I don’t really notice the writing as much as the concepts that are being communicated.
Gregg says on June 11th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Wait a minute, is that “140 characters” statement a jab a twitterers?
If so, that’s funny!
(full disclosure: I’m on twitter)
Dustin Wax says on June 11th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I do aim to amuse. For the record, I’m on Twitter too — twitter.com/dwax
Ben says on June 11th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Dustin, I stumbled upon this post today. I’ve read many essays offering tips for writing stronger. This is the best I’ve seen. Great work, I gulped it up. Thanks!
Dan says on June 11th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I am currently trying to improve my writing, and think most of this is good advice. I do this it is funny that you said not to be clever (twitter), and always have a conclusion. In this piece you seemed to break both of those rules… haha
Anyways I delicioused the article, and will try to follow some of these ‘rules.’
Jeff says on June 11th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I will forever be in debt for my first law firm sending me to a writing seminar by legal writing guru, Bryan Garner. (BTW, I’m not plugging him, especially considering I may be misspelling his name) He stressed forgetting the elementary school rule regarding hanging prepositions (Nothing ruins our writing more than trying to avoid this ridiculous non-rule.) and using that energy to eliminate “of” from your writing. Doing that alone incredibly improves your writing, including decreasing your passive voice usage. You should also eliminate superfluous words. Certain word like “that” can usually be eliminated without you even noticing *that* it’s gone.
History Student says on June 12th, 2008 at 1:03 am
What is a “university word” and if you are writing for a university paper why wouldn’t this be appropriate? Are you suggesting we dumb down our writing? How will people learn new vocabulary?
ae says on June 12th, 2008 at 3:47 am
An interesting list.
My issue is that most of the points actually contradict number 13. There is no real justifications behind them. Obviously it is presented as ‘advice’, but I still end up unconvinced by most of these points.
Debora says on June 12th, 2008 at 4:48 am
@History Student
I have a collegue who seems to find it nessary to always use the most difficult word he can think of. This is part of the reason why his papers are difficult to read. It also gives me the feeling he’s trying to make me feel stupid (or himself more intelligent), since I need a dictionary for at least a few words in each paper he writes. It makes his papers very unpopular to read.
I think the idea of Justin’s tip is: why use “university words” when you can use words everybody understands and uses.
Malweth says on June 12th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Disclaimer: I’m certainly not an English student.
I also don’t see what’s wrong with using less common words so long as you know their meaning and aren’t using a thesaurus to find them (unless you’re just trying to find the correct word). The emphasis should be put on correctness in order to get the point across.
I’d also like to see adverbs used correct-ly. I can barely stop myself from correcting my colleagues every time they speak.
Dustin Wax says on June 12th, 2008 at 10:40 am
For some reason, I didn’t get the usual notices that there were new comments on this post, so I spent yesterday just thinking the post was being ignored.
But I look today, and there’s a lot of comments, so here’s my response to, well, everyone!
Tom: There are, of course, times when “I believe” is fine — e.g. a “This I Believe” essay for NPR — but as you say, most of the time it’s hedging, and that’s not the way to write forcefully.
Shanel: This wasn’t intended for bloggers, but your point on headers and subheads is important even in print — it’s important to give readers a “roadmap”. (I admit I don’t do headings as often as I should, though.)
Mark: I think I wrote more about grammar and spelling in earlier posts, but absolutely — poor grammar and spelling gets in the way of even the most brilliant ideas. Never trust a reader to do more work than you’re willing to do.
Dan: I don’t mean “don’t be funny”, I mean avoid the really clever turns of phrase that sound great but aren’t as clear as just saying what you mean might be. Of course, there are exceptions, especially in literary writing. On conclusions — you’re right, this piece breaks a few of the rules, since there is really no argument, either. I leave it to you to decide whether that’s a considered exception or a shortcoming…
Ben: Thanks.
Jeff: It’s funny — if you read Zinsser’s _On Writing Well_, he recommends the opposite of almost every rule, such as ending with prepositions. It’s as if those rules *want* us to write poorly.
History Student: *Never* dumb down your writing. At the same time, if you’re writing for non-academics, don’t say “hegemonic discourse”, and if you’re writing for other academics, don’t say it just to sound smart. Use jargon where it clarifies. The problem is, too many people use long words and complex concepts that they don’t understand because they think that’s the style of academic writers — and I include a lot of academic writers in that condemnation. Think of someone like Stephen Jay Gould, who could explain very complicated concepts with language accessible to anyone. Einstein, Darwin, Freud, even Foucault — they all wrote beautifully simple language expressing incredibly complex ideas.
ae: I don’t see the contradiction. You need adverbs to explain yourself?
Sara says on June 12th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
In terms of Cut, Cut, Cut, I think Chanel’s famous rule of accessorizing can be applied to writing: “When you think you’re ready to leave the house, remove one item.”
Bob Younce at the Writing Journey says on June 16th, 2008 at 7:26 am
An excellent nuts-and-bolts article. This is one of my mantras - that good writing matters, even online.
Some of these things are so basic, yet so elusive online. Use topic sentences, have a conclusion, proofread - all very basic ideas, but also very neglected.
Good form, Dustin.
Sit says on July 1st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Your points resonated strongly with me. An honest list from an obviously experienced writer. A useful guide throughout the writing process.