-
Trick #1: Build a super structure. Organize your thoughts before you write. If you’re not certain where you’re going, get your ideas down and then review them for the most logical progression. For example, if your intent is to persuade, put your strongest argument first—if you put it last, readers might not get that far and your best thinking will be missed. (See the fourth rule to write by: Begin with the End in Sight Theory: http://www.communitelligence.com/blps/article.cfm?weblog=78&page=727.)
-
Trick #2: If a word doesn’t add—subtract it. Be merciless until there’s nothing left to tighten. Start with clichés. Never again write “enclosed please find” instead of “here is,” or “due to the fact that” instead of “because,” or “at this time” instead of “now.” Also know that if a sentence is 30 words, it’s too long, and there must be something you can cut. The average length in business writing is 10 to 12 words. Change that to eight to 10 if the material is complex, or when you’re writing emails.
-
Trick #3: Practice word choice variety. Don’t begin several sentences in a row—or consecutive paragraphs—with the same word (especially “I”). Read each paragraph to ensure you aren’t repeating a word or phrase too often. But use that thesaurus sparingly: don’t signal readers that you’re searching very hard for another word to use. Also vary your transitions. My personal failing is to frequently use “so,” which means I look for that. Repetition—unless it’s effectively used for emphasis (“government of the people, by the people and for the people”)—is boring and makes readers zone out.
-
Trick #4: Use the active voice. It’s the difference between “I will do it” versus “It will be done by me.” The first is much stronger—and shorter. The only reasons to take the passive approach are if you don’t know who did something, or don’t wish to identify that person.
-
Trick #5: Watch for consistency. Keep an eye on changes in tense, such as sliding between past and present. Choose one and stick with it—unless you’re actually discussing different time frames. Do the same thing with capitalization: it’s either “Company” or “company” in the middle of a sentence. (I default to the latter because the former can look like legalese or bespeak a firm’s ego.) And watch that your subheads use the same approach: all bold, or underlined or the same color.
-
Trick #6: Keep writing reference materials—or buddies—handy. If grammar, punctuation and usage are not your strong suits, know where to get help. Spell check is a good start but doesn’t catch everything. So have those books by your desk where you can easily use them—because if they’re down the hall, you’re more likely to guess, and perhaps wrongly. (You noticed I used “so” didn’t you?) Or know where to go online to get your questions answered. Or find that grammar maven who always seems to know the obscure rules. (That would be me.)
True confession: I am a bit of word geek. My husband and I love a good game of Scrabble. I check the “Word of the Day” on http://www.merriam-webster.com more often than I check the weather. Really. A favorite from last week was “blurge” a verb used largely in Australia and New Zealand to mean slacking off. Genius! Second confession: I like to travel and New Zealand is one of my favorite places on earth.
Which means I am dying to use “blurge” as much as possible to prove what a worldly smarty pants I am. However, being a worldly smarty pants isn’t conducive to being an effective communicator.
An extensive vocabulary scores big points with language arts teachers and the folks who create the SAT. But in real-life, it can be off-putting and confounding. It can muddle your point and prevent you from actually communicating something.
Am I advocating that you dumb down your words? No. You should sound like you, but an understandable you. Treat the fancy words the way you’d treat chili peppers in a recipe. A little can go a long way, although there may be audiences that can handle a great deal of the hot stuff.
I’ve taught myself to tame my inner word geek when writing for and talking with clients and other real people, and let it loose when I am playing Scrabble or doing writing practice. And you better believe I’ll be blurging all over the place this Memorial Day Weekend!
Barbara Govednik launched 423 Communication in 2001 to helps its clients tell their stories through freelance writing services, coaching and editing services, and employee communication consulting and implementation. Read Barbara’s Being Well Said Blog.
-
Trick #1: Do Your Homework. It’s so simple but often the first thing we forget. If you’re trying to reach a publication (print or electronic), then spend some time reading it. (Thank goodness for the Internet—we had no alternative but the library or asking publications for copies before it.) Apply the same approach if it’s a television or online program. If you’re trying to reach a person, find out what you can about him or her first. Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter: you can gather all sorts of information. If it’s someone in your organization—or another organization where you have connections—talk with people who know that person.
If it’s a company—a potential client or employer, perhaps—then check out its Web site (particularly the news releases) and competitors’ sites. And if it’s a public company, read its financial reports, quarterly financial conference call transcripts or analyst research reports.
This will separate you from all the other folks who have just done a cursory job, or haven’t even bothered. It also will fulfill the need of those you’re trying to reach: the belief that we’re all unique and the world should only send us messages tailored to us.
-
Trick #2: Show You Know. Now that you have this intelligence, weave it in to your communication.
1. Explain why the story you’re proposing would be of interest to the publication’s readership or program’s viewership. (This shows you know who reads it/watches it and what they want.)
2. Reference an important point you discovered about the person from your online research or from people who know him or her. (This shows you value that person’s ideas, opinions, feelings, etc., which helps to create a bond.)
3. Mention the issues you know the company faces and how you have addressed them for other firms. (This shows how you can reduce the company’s risk in working with you—because you already know and have applied the information these people need.)
-
Trick #3: Take Your Ego Out of the Equation. Let’s face it: even though you’re reaching out to this person or organization for your own purposes, as far as the recipients are concerned, it’s all about them. Focus any communication on their needs. Editors and producers want good stories: to keep their readership/viewership up and advertisers happy. Businesspeople and organizations want good ideas, or to improve their implementation: so their departments or operations are stronger, more cost-effective and competitive. Give them a taste of how you can solve their problems—rather than a dose of how wonderful you are.
The truth is that not every pitch you toss will be a homerun. You often have no control over the reasons why the batter won’t take a swing. But if your approach is well-crafted, you’ve eliminated the most common reason for being turned down—and sooner or later, your proposals are going to connect.
-
Trick #1: Know What You Want. How many times have you fired off an email response or returned a phone call and not thought about what you hope will happen? The next time, spend that extra few seconds before and actually answer this question: “What do I want people do after this?” If you believe in visualization, picture them taking the action you’d like. Then ask yourself some simple questions:
- What problems will my approach solve for them? (Once again—people run away from pain faster than they run toward features and benefits.)
- What will they need to know so they can agree with me?
- What barriers would prevent them from taking the actions I want?
- How can I include information—in this communication or somewhere else—that will overcome these?
By knowing what you want—and how you can make others want the same thing—you’ve automatically increased the chances your reader will be persuaded by what you propose.
-
Trick #2: Write with “Yes” in Mind. Have you ever had to write a memo and thought, “They’ll never sign off on this!” And, of course, you were right. It’s the reverse of positive thinking. When you’re sure your ideas will be rejected, that negativity will leak out in a million ways: the words you choose, the way you organize the information, and how much time you spend answering possible objections in advance.
If you can’t write with the belief that your ideas will be accepted, then do something else until you can. Listen to Henry Ford: “If you think you can do a thing or you think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” Don’t shoot yourself in the foot before you begin. If this is an important communication, also know when is a good time to write it. If you’re a morning person, don’t start at 3:00 in the afternoon when you’re at low energy.
-
Trick #3: Include the Call to Action. Tell your readers what you want them to do—and how to do it. If it’s a proposal, media “pitch” letter, or formal communication, the call to action falls at the end. You have used the rest of the piece to present your case so they will agree with you, and now you tell them how this should look.
If you’re writing an email, then put the call to action at the top. You may even want to put it in the subject line. This presumably is a shorter communication, so let your readers know right away what you want and then provide the (brief) details. Most people scan their emails. If your request falls at the bottom, they may not choose to scroll down several paragraphs to find out what you want and might miss it.By the way—don’t make this a “call me if you want to discuss this further.” You have no idea what else is on their plates, how important this is to them, or how many other things are hanging fire on their desks. Let them know when you will call to discuss the ideas—and then follow up.
| Comments |
| RE: Fourth Rule to Write By: The |
| Another terrific posting, Lynne. Thank you. Your theory about beginning with a goal for the communications piece shouldn’t be surprising to anyone but all too often, people seem to get lost in the detail of the writing without remembering to focus on the goal of the piece. Writers do this at their peril – as do any sales people who forget to ask for the order or conduct a sales conversation without a positive outcome always in mind! Kim Dougherty |
Ian Lurie’s Conversation Marketing blog zeroes in on the keys to writing a headline for an online news story. Follow three rules:
Length isn’t (as much of) a constraint. In print, you have to make your headline fit a certain number of column inches. Online, you can add a word or two. Or three. Or even four. Don’t keep a headline short and uninformative.
Make the headline descriptive. It should stand completely on its own. It’s a micro-summary of the story. If written on a blank sheet of paper, it should tell the reader exactly what they’re going to learn in the rest of the story. Your headline will show up everywhere: In links, in search, etc.. Make sure it works in all those places.
Remember the search engines. Make sure your headline includes the words that folks will use to find the story. You don’t need to be an SEO pro to figure out that folks are more interested in ‘bank bailout’ than ‘Paulson stock purchases’ (keep reading for the full story on that example).
Continue reading: How to: NOT Write an Internet-Ready News Headline
As communicators, we’re responsible for writing clear, simple & memorable messages. But every now & then, we’re guilty of sharing lengthy, complex messages that’ll never be remembered? Consider this bad example of a key message by the Central Manchester & Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust (Agenda for Change communication):
‘Where the combined value of the above payments before actual assimilation remains greater than the combined value of the payments after assimilation, the former level of pay will be protected. These protection arrangements apply to the combined value of payments before and after assimilation, not to individual pay components, excepting the provision relating to retention of existing on-call arrangements.’
While this example is extreme, the point is we must constantly remind ourselves to write in easy to understand terms that our audiences can relate to, allowing them to easily remember what it is we are trying to convey. A great, quick read that helps me stay on track with key message development is “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath & Dan Heath.
The basis of “Made to Stick” is why some ideas survive and others die. Using a framework of “succes” (simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, stories), the authors use examples that make the importance of key message development “STICK.”
Before you start reading, share examples of good and bad key messaging that you have run into or have created.
William Lee and Rick Patrick are the co-creators of “Talkingstick,” a performance series that is part of the increasingly popular storytelling movement where people stand up before a live audience and tell stories. I know Master Lee (his stage name) and Mr. Patrick because we play poker together, and I’ve noticed something interesting about them: As experienced storytellers, they are so familiar with spotting exaggeration and lies that they can quickly identify a bluff in a poker game.
It is well established that being a good storyteller is a useful skill in careers (and not just for journalists and poker players). We need to tell stories all the time — to position ourselves in the job market, to pitch a new business idea to investors, to explain why a failure was actually a success, and so on.
I recently attended a “Talkingstick” show and sat down with Master Lee and Mr. Patrick to learn some of the techniques they use to tell good stories. Here’s what I learned:
1. Keep it simple. The brain gets overwhelmed when trying to process too much information.
2. Openings and closings are very important. When Master Lee and Mr. Patrick organize their shows, they make sure to begin and end the evenings with their strongest material since this is often what stays with the listener. That is the same reason skilled public speakers often memorize the beginning and ending of a speech but allow themselves to improvise more in the middle.
3. Be mindful of your story’s spine. If your story has six parts, all six parts must be essential. Beware of tangents: if something goes too far astray, you will probably lose your audience’s attention.
Read full article in New York Times
First, you need to identify your audience. There are several methods to identify your audience, such as determining keywords that are bringing users to your website, creating user personae and more. Once you’ve identified your audience, you should create content that speaks to each user persona. Do not stray from this concept, because you will lose readers or followers. Readers are finicky at the beginning of any article or post. If you don’t capture their attention with the title, the remainder of the content might as well be in a language they don’t understand.
For example, let’s say you operate a blog about the exam for certified public accounts. Who is your audience? There are a few user personae we can identify without doing much detailed analysis. You can easily create personae for your audience in the same manner.
- Students: those in their early 20s who are working on an accounting bachelor’s or master’s degree, with the intent of taking the CPA exam eventually.
- Entry-level professionals: early- to mid-20s professionals working full time at a public accounting firm, after attaining a bachelor’s or master’s degree. This group is most likely to be actively involved in accounting practices or preparing to become a CPA.
- Career changers: adults looking to change careers or re-enter the workforce.
- Educators: accounting professors who might need to discuss CPA exam content with their students.
- Professionals: licensed CPAs who are concerned about the future of the profession.
Let’s say we want to target entry-level professionals, because this is likely the largest of the five personae we have identified. Many of these individuals have probably taken entry-level jobs as an accountant but have not yet sat for the CPA exam. One of the greater stresses about this exam is finding out one’s score for each section. Though the exam is largely computerized, it can take a few months for scores to be reported to the appropriate governing body. So “CPA exam score release” is a hot topic and sure to draw attention from entry-level professionals because this demographic would be interested in knowing exam scores.
This would be a perfect theme or title to create your content around. When reading this blog for the first time, readers will immediately be locked in because the content pertains to their situation — not their past, not their future, but what they are actively involved in at the moment. Most readers and discussion groups talk about what’s happening now. What’s buzzing? By focusing your title and content on “the now” of your target audience, you have a much better chance of each reader reading your article or post from beginning to end, which is the goal of any writer.
When selecting a topic, there are a few tips to keep in mind.
- Pick one that relates to at least one of your user personae. This drives at least one group of users to your content and is sure to relate to them.
- Topics should be useful or answer a question. This encourages social sharing, allowing your content to reach beyond its page.
- Pick a controversial or trendy topic. Readers usually show initial interest in current topics and trends compared with those of the past. That is, unless you are comparing a “now” topic with a past topic.
- Limit the sales and marketing aspect of your content. If you’re only trying to sell a product or service, you will probably fail. No one likes to feel as though he or she has been sold, but everyone likes to buy.
3. Editors can’t read your mind, and neither can your readers. Often writers are so immersed in their material that they forget that their readers, editors included, don’t know everything they know.
*If you are writing fiction, review your work for holes in the story. Have you skipped over scenes or backstory that serve a crucial role in the story?
*If you’re writing nonfiction, approach your work like an outsider. Does the work assume that the reader knows the people, places, and theories that are in the book? Is there any jargon that needs to be removed?
4. Guidelines matter. Publishing houses or periodicals create writer’s guidelines for a reason, and it usually has to do with two things: audience and money. The style guidelines are designed to help the writer reach the intended audience (remember #2: it’s not about you). If writers don’t stick to the style guidelines, it just adds more work for the editor—who has to edit the work to fit house style. The format guidelines, including word count, often have to do with money. The publishing company has budgeted for a certain number of pages. Your piece, once dropped into the template, must fit. When writers turn in work that is too long or too short, we have to fix it. (By the way, I rarely hire back writers who don’t follow guidelines. It’s too much work!)
5. Deadlines matter. Think of your writing deadline as just one domino in a long line of dominoes. When one deadline is missed, it affects every other deadline for the project. Yes, there is sometimes wiggle room, so if an emergency arises, please do talk to your editor about an extension. That said, I would not encourage any writer (no matter how good you are) to miss a deadline more than once.
I can talk for hours on the subject, but if asked for the most effective ways to get online readers to read what you write, I would offer these strategies as the most important, which are backed up by eye-track studies as being an effective way to get your message across to online readers:
- Write compelling but clear headlines: Don’t get cute. Online and in print, the headline is almost always the first thing readers look at. Make sure it is clear and gives a good idea of what the post is about, while still leaving the reader wanting more.
- Write in the active voice: Effective online writing is all about getting to the point, and on a line-by-line basis, the most effective way to do that is to use the active voice, which naturally lends a sense of urgency to your writing. The easiest way to do that is to start each sentence with the subject, immediately follow that with a strong, active verb, and then follow that with the direct object. Avoid adverbs: they’re a telling sign that you chose the wrong verb.
- Online writing is visual: Long, dense paragraphs turn off online readers. Create white space in your copy by keeping paragraphs short and using bulleted lists when appropriate. Use bold text to accent key information and use block or pull quotes to draw readers into the copy.
- One main idea per sentence: Keep sentences on point. Avoid multiple clauses and phrases, and lots of information stops and commas. Make sure each sentence has one idea, and not much more than that.
- No sentence without a fact: Every line you write needs to move the story forward. If a sentence doesn’t have a fact, cut it.
In this interview, Paul talks about how to use storytelling as a leadership tool, ways that storytelling can make leaders more effective, why storytelling it important, and more.
How do companies make storytelling part of their leadership practices?
Some of the most successful companies in the world use storytelling very intentionally as a leadership tool. Organizations like Microsoft, Motorola, Berkshire Hathaway, Saatchi & Saatchi, Procter & Gamble, NASA, and the World Bank are among them. They do this in several ways.
Some have a high level corporate storyteller who’s job it is to capture and share their most important stories. At Nike, in fact, all the senior executives are designated corporate storytellers.
Other companies teach storytelling skills to their executives (because they certainly aren’t learning it in business school). Kimberly-Clark, for example, provides two-day seminars to teach its 13-step program for crafting stories and giving presentations with them. 3M banned bullet points and replaced them with a process of writing “strategic narratives.” P&G has hired Hollywood movie directors to teach its senior executives how to lead better with storytelling. And some of the storytellers at Motorola belong to outside improvisational or theater groups to hone their story skills.
In what ways can storytelling help leaders be more effective?
The short answer is that storytelling is useful in far more situations than most leaders realize. The five most commonly used are probably these: inspiring the organization, setting a vision, teaching important lessons, defining culture and values, and explaining who you are and what you believe.
But there are so many more. In my research for the book, I interviewed over 75 CEOs and executives at dozens of companies around the world and found them using stories in a much wider range of leadership challenges than I ever expected. For example, storytelling is useful when heavy influence is required like leading change, or making recommendations to the boss. But it’s also good for delicate issues like managing diversity and inclusion, or giving people coaching and feedback in a way that will be received as a welcome gift. It can help bring out more of people’s creativity, or help them rekindle the passion for their work. In all, I identified 21 common leadership challenges where storytelling can help.
So you don’t think I’m naïve or overzealous about the topic, I’m not suggesting storytelling should be used in every situation. For example, if you’re trying to decide what your five-year strategy should be, what you need is a good strategist. Or if you’re trying to decide how much money to pay to acquire your biggest competitor, what you need is a good financial advisor.
But once you’ve decided what your five-year strategy is going to be, and you need the 15,000 people that work at your company to line up behind it and deliver it, now you need a good story. Or once you’ve acquired your biggest competitor, and you need the 5,000 people that work there to stay, and not quit, now you need a good story. In short, storytelling isn’t always the right tool to help you manage things; but it’s exceptional at helping you lead people.
Web writing has, with few exceptions, put an end to the days of long-winded, verbose content, and has ushered in an era of quick, concise pieces you can read on the fly, while still reaping the benefits of the information gathered. So, how can these little black dots help transform your copy from good to great and help you draw readers in? Here are some easy-to-follow bullet point basics that can help make your content pop from the page:
Treat them like mini-headlines
Bulleted content should be introduced with short, catchy phrasing that draws the eye of the reader quickly. They not only tell the reader what each section is about, they’re like bookmarks that make it easy for them to scan the entire piece and return later for more information. For example, if you’re writing about the “Best Exercises for Toning your Abs,” a bullet may look something like this:
- The sneaky side crunch: A deceptively difficult move that not only tests your balance, it also torments your oblique muscles in a cruel-to-be-kind manner that will leave you bikini-ready in no time.
Use symmetry
Be consistent. Don’t make one bullet point three sentences in length and then make others six or eight sentences long. Keeping the look similar across each section will visually enhance your blog, article, or on-page content while making it more inviting to the reader.
Avoid a barrage of bullets
The idea here is to make your content easier to navigate, not more complicated. Using too many bulleted lists within one article (more than two, as a general rule) or using sub-bullets (or sub-sub bullets) will make your content look confusing, which will only turn off your reader.
Keep the flow
Use a parallel structure when creating your bullet points. In other words, stay consistent grammatically with the wording you use to introduce your bulleted list. Here’s an example of what not to do:
How can you stop snoring, improve your health, and get a better night’s rest? Begin by:
- Sleeping on your side
- Get rid of allergens
- Improving your sleep habits
Begin by “get rid of allergens”? That’s just not right. The middle bullet should read, “Getting rid of allergens.” Keeping it consistent will help improve your writing style and readability, and will keep you from looking like you don’t understand basic English grammar.
Why are we putty in a storyteller’s hands? The psychologists Melanie Green and Tim Brock argue that entering fictional worlds “radically alters the way information is processed.” Green and Brock’s studies shows that the more absorbed readers are in a story, the more the story changes them. Highly absorbed readers also detected significantly fewer “false notes” in stories–inaccuracies, missteps–than less transported readers. Importantly, it is not just that highly absorbed readers detected the false notes and didn’t care about them (as when we watch a pleasurably idiotic action film). They were unable to detect the false notes in the first place.
And, in this, there is an important lesson about the molding power of story. When we read dry, factual arguments, we read with our dukes up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally and this seems to leave us defenseless.
There are many wonderful people living the Gospel of the One-Pager that we can all learn from. A few examples:Strategy to Performance Dashboard Downloadable, this SlideShare tool from BlueOcean gives you 9 pages of templates to fill in.One Page Business Plan from lifehacker.comOne Page Job Proposal for getting a new job
Build a One Page WebsiteTo find more on your own, simply Google “one page (fill in the blank)” for whatever you’re seeking. Somebody out there has created a one-pager for just about everything!Don’t Just Copy the Templates: Develop a One-Pager Skillset
To truly live the Gospel of the One-Pager, don’t just search for specific one-pagers. Look across all that you find for patterns:• What do all these one-pagers have in common?• How do the get to the crucial stuff while editing out the noise?• How are they packaged?• etc.Among other things, you’re likely to find:
• They all have one key point, and no more!
• Everything else is compelling storytelling to support that key point
• They target the audience’s head (thinking), heart (feelings), and hands (action)Once you begin to practice what most one-pagers have in common, you will have forever harnessed the Power of the One-Pager. And that’s a superpower that will serve you well, everywhere!
I love outlines. Most of my writing starts with an outline, which becomes the functional framework for all my content creation.
Headline
- I like having a simple keyword in the headline. It makes it easy to attract the eye of folks scanning my website, their RSS feed, or their social streams.
- Here are a few of the sample mini-frameworks I use
- Keyword: [A facet of defining this keyword]
- Some version of numbered list
- Otherwise short and descriptive with at least one keyword
Opening Line
- No more than 2 sentences
- Usually a quip, but always a luring statement.
- I often think about what would make you click if seen in the space of a Google SERP, a Tweet, or a RSS reader
Opening Paragraph
- Ask a question,
- Make a statement, or
- Challenge an assumption
Convince Me Please
- I rarely exceed three paragraphs in this mid-section
- I use sub-headlines or numbered sub-headings
- I generally use one of three frameworks:
- 3 numbered sub-headings + respective paragraph
- 3 headlines + respective paragraph
- 1 list introducing paragraph + bulleted list + 1 expounding paragraph on the list
Thy landing page shalt have but one goal, and the number of the goals shall be one. Not two, not zero, but one.
If thy landing page hath zero goals, it is a “branding” page, and such vanities shall bear no fruit.
If thy landing page hath more than one goal, thou shalt confuse thy visitor, who shall leave thy site in disgust and anger.
Thy copy shalt not be divided amongst more than one goal, for such shall surely drive thy visitor to lamentation and thy copywriter to madness.
Ask any journalist and they can tell you about the 5 Ws and an H. Any solid news story covers those six basic ingredients. The same is true for communicating with others.
Want to ensure you don’t forget a critical detail in your communications? Think 5 Ws and an H to ensure you’re not missing an important detail, sharing the all-important context, and making it relevant for your audience.
What
What’s the decision? What does it mean? What should I know? What’s in it for me?
Why
Why is it the right decision? Why now? Why is it important?
Where
Where is this decision coming from? Where/what locations will it affect? Where can I get more information?
When
When is this happening?
6. Passive voice is always wrong. Wrong! Passive voice is when you don’t name the person who’s responsible for the action. An example is the sentence “Mistakes were made,” because it doesn’t say who made the mistakes. If you don’t know who is responsible for an action, passive voice can be the best choice. (See episode 46 for more details.)
5. “I.e.” and “e.g.” mean the same thing. Wrong! “E.g.” means “for example,” and “i.e.” means roughly “in other words.” You use “e.g.” to provide a list of incomplete examples, and you use “i.e.” to provide a complete clarifying list or statement. (See episode 53 for more details.)
4. You use “a” before words that start with consonants and “an” before words that start with vowels. Wrong! You use “a” before words that start with consonant sounds and “an” before words that start with vowel sounds. So, you’d write that someone has an MBA instead of a MBA, because even though “MBA” starts with “m,” which is a consonant, it starts with the sound of the vowel “e”–MBA. (See episode 47 for more details.)
3. It’s incorrect to answer the question “How are you?” with the statement “I’m good.” Wrong! “Am” is a linking verb and linking verbs should be modified by adjectives such as “good.” Because “well” can also act as an adjective, it’s also fine to answer “I’m well,” but some grammarians believe “I’m well” should be used to talk about your health and not your general disposition. (See episode 51 for more details.)
2. You shouldn’t split infinitives. Wrong! Nearly all grammarians want to boldly tell you it’s OK to split infinitives. An infinitive is a two-word form of a verb. An example is “to tell.” In a split infinitive, another word separates the two parts of the verb. “To boldly tell” is a split infinitive because “boldly” separates “to” from “tell.” (See episode 9 for more details.)
1. You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition. Wrong! You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition when the sentence would mean the same thing if you left off the preposition. That means “Where are you at?” is wrong because “Where are you?” means the same thing. But there are many sentences where the final preposition is part of a phrasal verb or is necessary to keep from making stuffy, stilted sentences: “I’m going to throw up,” “Let’s kiss and make up,” and “What are you waiting for” are just a few examples. (See episode 69 for more details.)
You can find more information about each of these myths in the Grammar Girl archives.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”
4. In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”
The other day, I found myself thinking about all the ways we use words. Scratch “all!” Let me start over: The other day, I found myself thinking about the ways we use words.
Is the word “all” necessary?
Consider:
How do I love thee? Let me count all the ways.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Would we find Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem as memorable with “all” in the first line?
Consider these:
Arrest all people who break laws.
Arrest people who break laws.
Color in all the blank squares below.
Color in the blank squares below.
All people have their good and bad sides.
People have their good and bad sides.
The above sentences without “all” are stronger and more respectful of the reader. Their attitude is calmer, less preachy and more appealing because they’re missing one little word. Notice I chose not to write “all because.”
Look: There may be a place for “all,” for example, when you’re giving instructions and you want to make certain the person understands: Color in all the blank squares below. However, if I wanted to be emphatic, I would write, Color in the blank squares below. Check your work and make sure you don’t miss any. I think it’s far more respectful when you use a separate sentence to express that thought.
Getting even with “even.”
Even you have faults.
You have faults.
Everyone is trying harder. Even he is.
He is trying harder, just like everyone else.
He collects everything, even pennies.
He collects everything, including pennies.
Even when Jim applied himself, his output was average.
When Jim applied himself, his output was average.
Even if you’re extremely lucky, your chances are not very good.
If you’re extremely lucky, your chances are not very good.
My point? “Even” is another one of those words that act as the moral equivalent of a blinking neon sign. Yes, it can be used to express surprise about an unlikely event; however, invariably, I prefer alternative sentences that avoid using the word.
Delete “just”
I want just the facts!
I want the facts!
Just because you’re intelligent doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try hard.
You’re intelligent. Does that mean you shouldn’t try hard?
We got there just in time.
We got there in time.
You get the point.
Write without “that”
I think that you’re intelligent.
I think you’re intelligent.
I say that a person is only human.
I say a person is only human.
I believe that all men are created equal.
I believe all men are created equal.
This is the gift that we give each other, the gift of love.
This is the gift we give each other, the gift of love.
Some sentences require the word “that;” however, it is often unnecessary. When it is, leave it out!
“All,” “even,” “just” and “that:” I am not suggesting you never use those words. I am suggesting that each time you want to use them, you see if you like the sentence better after you rewrite it without that word. Give it a try!
It’s just better writing.
Scratch that. It’s better writing!
