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Vicki Meade's 20 Keys to Good Writing
by Vicki Meade
- Keep your reader in mind. Are the tone, vocabulary, and level
of information appropriate for the audience? As you write, picture a
person who represents the audience your piece targets.
- Determine your purpose. Why are you writing? What do you hope
to accomplish? What main message or impression do you want your reader
to carry away? Figuring this out helps you select the right approach.
- Focus your idea. A topic such as "school" is too
broad; you must narrow it down to a specific angle. What do you want
to say about it? For example, you might write how the Internet is changing
the way that students do their schoolwork or how schools have tightened
security over the past decade.
- Start your piece in an interesting way. Even if your introduction
is only one or two sentences, make sure it catches the reader's attention
with precise language and an engaging style. A well-crafted introduction
that makes the reader want to keep reading is known as a "hook."
Some techniques that work well:
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An unusual fact
Dialog
A startling statistic
A vivid example
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A description
A quotation
An intriguing question or statement
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A joke or humorous story
An analogy
An anecdote
A paradox
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- Get to the point quickly. Although you want to hook the reader
in the beginning, don't wait too long before you let readers know what
the piece is about. (In academic writing, the statement of the topic
is known as a "thesis statement." In journalism, it's known
as a "nut graf.") When your introduction is lengthy, go back
and edit it down.
- Have your facts in hand. If you are using facts in your piece,
make sure they are easily accessible (written out on note cards or flagged
in reference books) so you can find them quickly and insert them in
your piece without wasting time and losing your train of thought.
- Involve your readers. When you can, present experiences to
which others can relate. Tell stories or give examples that make your
points real and tangible to the reader. Thrust readers onto the scene,
tap into their emotions, and give them a sense of being there.
- Add color. "Color" means words and descriptions
that help readers see, feel, hear, and smell what is going on. Color
means vivid, lively language—words with texture that appeal to
the senses and involve more than the reader's intellect. Our brains
tend to convert words and thoughts into images—so using images from
the start is a powerful way to communicate.
- Write with conviction. The reader is looking to you for facts
and ideas. Do not present them in a wishy-washy way. Avoid qualifiers
such as probably, almost, rather, and somewhat, which make your writing
sound weak and hesitant.
- Express, don't impress. Use a natural tone in your writing:
don't try to sound like someone you're not. That doesn't mean you shouldn't
use the principles of good writing, including proper grammar and sentence
structure, but avoid sounding pretentious.
- Whenever possible, go for short words instead of long ones.
Sophisticated ideas can often be conveyed as effectively with short
words as with long ones. For example, instead of "magnitude and
configuration," say "size and shape." Other examples:
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Long
Ascertain
Attempt
Communicate
Facilitate
Implement
Numerous
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Short
Discover, find out
Try
Say, write, tell
Help, ease
Do
Many
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- Prune excess words. Unnecessary words slow the reader and smother
your message. A sentence is wordy if it can be tightened without loss
of meaning. Chop redundancies and cut inflated phrases such as "future
prospects" and "past experience."
- Be concrete and specific. Details create vivid images and help
the reader relate. Which of the following gives you a clearer picture?
"The convention was well attended" or "Eighty-five people
came to the Antiques Dealers Convention."
- Use strong verbs. Strong verbs are specific, such as run, fight,
stroll, love, say. They stand on their own without needing adverbs to
beef them up. Weak verbs, which seem abstract and impersonal, tend to
be long words such as employ, postpone, indicate, or construct. An example
of a sentence with strong verbs: "She slopped liquids all over
the place, stumbled and fell when carrying buckets, and could never
stand straight to fold the sheets and tablecloths from the wash without
giggling or dropping them in the dirt."
Sometimes excellent verbs are smothered in sentences because they are
presented as nouns. For example, instead of saying "make a decision"
it is more effective to say "decide."
- Use clichés sparingly or not at all. Clichés
are trite, overused expressions, such as "light as a feather"
or "hit the nail on the head." Whenever possible, say things
in a fresh, original way. Whenever you are tempted to use a cliché,
ask yourself if there is a more effective way to make your point.
- Avoid jargon. Jargon is "inside talk" or specialized
language that is used in certain professions or groups. It excludes
anyone who is not part of the group, preventing others from understanding
the message. If the audience is made up entirely of the inside group,
jargon has a purpose, but otherwise, don't use it.
- Avoid general nouns. Some nouns are so general that they make
writing dull and imprecise. Examples of general nouns are the words
"thing," "area," "aspect," and "factor."
- Use the active voice. The active voice is more direct, emphatic,
and vigorous than the passive voice. In the active voice, the subject
of the sentence does the action: "George Washington chopped down
the cherry tree." In the passive voice, the subject receives the
action: "The cherry tree was chopped down by George Washington."
Besides being boring, the passive voice can leave out important details.
For example, if you say "Colorful flowers were seen along the highway,"
the reader has no idea who saw the flowers.
- Wrap up your piece crisply. Use a sentence or short concluding
paragraph that echoes the main idea without dully repeating it. An effective
conclusion brings the reader full circle from your opening statement
and ties up loose ends. Avoid endings that trail off or that introduce
entirely new ideas that were not addressed in your piece.
- Accept that good writing means rewriting. There's no way around
it—once you've carefully developed a first draft, you must revise and
polish (usually more than once) to have a top-notch piece.
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