{"id":108124,"date":"2016-03-26T15:31:23","date_gmt":"2016-03-26T15:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/03\/26\/5-editors-secrets-to-help-you-write-like-a-pro\/"},"modified":"2016-03-26T15:31:23","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T15:31:23","slug":"5-editors-secrets-to-help-you-write-like-a-pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/03\/26\/5-editors-secrets-to-help-you-write-like-a-pro\/","title":{"rendered":"5 editor\u2019s secrets to help you write like a pro"},"content":{"rendered":"

lady-feral<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

merkstreet<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

1. Sentences can only do one thing at a time.<\/b><\/p>\n

Have you ever heard a four-year-old run out of breath before she can finish her thought? I edit a lot of sentences that work the same way. You need a noun, you need a verb, you might need an object. Give some serious thought to stopping right there.<\/p>\n

Sentences are building blocks, not bungee cords; they\u2019re not meant to be stretched to the limit. I\u2019m not saying you necessarily want a Hemingway-esque series of clipped short sentences, but most writers benefit from dividing their longest sentences into shorter, more muscular ones.<\/p>\n

2. Paragraphs can only do one thing at a time.<\/b><\/p>\n

A paragraph supports a single idea. Construct complex arguments by combining simple ideas that follow logically. Every time you address a new idea, add a line break. Short paragraphs are the most readable; few should be more than three or four sentences long. This is more important if you\u2019re writing for the Web.<\/p>\n

3. Look closely at -ing<\/b><\/p>\n

Nouns ending in -ing are fine. (Strong writing, IT consulting, great fishing.) But constructions like \u201cI am running,\u201d \u201ca forum for building consensus,\u201d or \u201cThe new team will be managing\u201d are inherently weak. Rewrite them to \u201cI run,\u201d \u201ca forum to build consensus,\u201d and \u201cthe team will manage.\u201d You\u2019re on the right track when the rewrite has fewer words (see below).<\/p>\n

(If for some insane reason you want to get all geeky about this, you can read the Wikipedia article on gerunds and present participles<\/a>. But you don\u2019t have to know the underlying grammatical rules to make this work. Rewrite -ing when you can, and your writing will grow muscles you didn\u2019t know it had.)<\/p>\n

4. Omit unnecessary words.<\/b><\/p>\n

I know we all heard this in high school, but we weren\u2019t listening. (Mostly because it\u2019s hard.) It\u2019s doubly hard when you\u2019re editing your own writing\u2014we put all that work into getting words onto the page, and by god we need a damned good reason to get rid of them.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s your damned good reason: extra words drain life from your work. The fewer words used to express an idea, the more punch it has. Therefore:<\/p>\n

Summer months
Regional level
The entire country
On a daily basis (usually best rewritten to \u201cevery day\u201d)
She knew that it was good.
Very
(I just caught one above: four-year-old little girl)<\/p>\n

You can nearly always improve sentences by rewriting them in fewer words.<\/p>\n

5. Reframe 90% of the passive voice.<\/b><\/p>\n

French speakers consider an elegantly managed passive voice to be the height of refinement. But here in the good old U.S. (or Australia, Great Britain, etc.), we value action. We do things is inherently more interesting than Things are done by us. Passive voice<\/a>muddies your writing; when the actor is hidden, the action makes less sense.<\/p>\n

Bonus: Use spell-check<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no excuse for teh in anything more formal than a Twitter tweet.<\/p>\n

Also, \u201ca lot\u201d and \u201call right\u201d are always spelled as two words. You can trust me, I\u2019m an editor.<\/p>\n

Easy reading is damned hard writing.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Some generally good advice here. Just remember that none of this is set in stone and there is wiggle room for variation in style, tone, and voice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

lady-feral: merkstreet: 1. Sentences can only do one thing at a time. Have you ever heard a four-year-old run out of breath before she can finish her thought? I edit a lot of sentences that work the same way. You need a noun, you need a verb, you might need an object. Give some serious … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “5 editor\u2019s secrets to help you write like a pro”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1834,4,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}