Simple Steps to Better Writing
Make the Written Word Easy on the Eyes with These Easy Rules
Whether writing articles for publication, essays for friends, autobiographies or business communications, get the point across with clear and concise prose.
It does not take a lot of work to ensure readable writing. Begin by eliminating useless words that do not add to clarity. Use the FIND capabilities of word processing software to locate every occurrence of the word “that.” It is surprising how many occurrences of “that” turn up in everyday writing.
In many cases “that” is a useless word. For example, typically someone might write, “He said that it wasn't fair to attendees that had been waiting a long time in the front hall to be routed to another door.” This sentence is just as clear if it reads, “He said it wasn’t fair to attendees waiting a long time in the front hall to be routed to another door.”
An even more egregious error is the expression “the fact that.” This should be removed from every writer’s vocabulary. How much simpler to write, “Although attendees have to wait in the front hall, this is no excuse to route them to another door,” than, “The fact that attendees have to wait in the front hall is no excuse to route them to another door.” There are simple words to substitute for “the fact that” such as “since,” or “although.” Alternatively, there are easy rewordings such as, “I was wrong,” rather than, “The fact that I was wrong.”
Use Short, Active Sentences
Use short, direct sentences and the active voice as much as possible. The sample sentence above would be more forceful if reworded to, “Attendees waiting in the front hall should not be routed to another door.” Even stronger would be “Do not route attendees waiting in the front hall to another door.” The initial sentence example in the second paragraph above includes the passive phrase “had been waiting.” The final reworded example is active. It is also 50% shorter.
Fighting the urge to use “that” and passive constructions is difficult. The very last sentence above could easily be written, “Note that the final reworded example was written in active tense.” However, neither “Note” nor “that” adds anything to the sentence’s clarity. Furthermore, the “was written” is passive. Resist these common errors.
Check Readability and Review
By all means use the word processor’s grammar and spell check ability but do not rely on this solely. Print out the text, let it sit as long as convenient, and re-read it for errors. Get someone else to proofread if possible. If the grammar checker includes readability statistics, view the results every time. This article rates an 8.3 grade level with 3% passive sentences. Unless writing for an extremely sophisticated audience, try to keep the grade level no higher than nine. Finally, if working with short articles, read the text aloud. The ear will pick up poor structure that the eye may miss.
