Seven Quick Tips

1.  Avoid unnecessary words or phrases in your sentences.  Adding extra phrases makes your communication less clear.  Unnecessary words and phrases make it harder for your reader to find your main thought or point.
    
2. Energize your writing by selecting action verbs.  Verbs provide the action in your sentences. Instead of using verb phrases, use the finite verbs.  Don’t say, “The focus of this class is writing.”  Do say “This class focuses on writing.”
    
3. Don’t use negatives (notice the irony of that sentence?). Instead of saying, “she didn’t go”, use, “she stayed.”  Avoiding negatives makes your writing more succinct.
    
4. Keep your sentences short – no longer than 2 lines.  The odd long sentence is acceptable.  Too many thoughts or too many phrases modifying a sentence can cause you (the writer) to lose clarity. If you have lost it, then certainly your reader will.
    
5. Keep your sentences focused on one thought.  Again, by focusing your sentences on one thought, you are helping your reader to stay focused.
    
6. Keep your paragraphs short.  A one-sentence-paragraph gets the point across, but use those one-liners sparingly.  Any paragraph that is 5-6 sentences long, turn into two paragraphs.
    
7. Find your most compelling paragraph and move it to the beginning.  Then, reorganize your other paragraphs around it. You’ll grip people’s attention.

If you liked this post or have other tips for turbo-charging your writing, please leave me a comment.

Welcome to www.dawncomber.com – my new website. After many rewrites and redesigns, I am now the resident blogger for my writing and editing website.

I’m Dawn Comber – an experienced, professional writer. I provide creative, affordable writing and editing services for clients – for print and for the web.  I always begin by conversing with you to understand your needs, and then I help you to converse, communicate and connect with your customers.

Most of my clients are in Toronto, Mississauga and Oakville, but the beauty of technology and the Internet allows me to work with small businesses, non-profits and people just about anywhere.