How (And Why) To Tighten Up Your Writing - The Grammar-Us Blog - Grammar-Us

It’s a cacophonous world out there! Everyone has something to say and wants his or her voice to be heard above all others. The best way to do this is to make your communications as effective as possible. This includes not only using correct grammar and spelling, but also writing clearly and concisely. My motto is “WRITE TIGHT” – grammatically incorrect, I know (should be “write tightly”), but easy to remember.

SO MANY WORDS, SO LITTLE TIME: No one has time for long, drawn-out explanations; “quick and dirty” are the key words of the day. Just as readers are likely to put down a book that doesn’t grab their attention in the first few paragraphs, they may abandon your communication and seek information elsewhere, if you don’t get to the point and get there quickly. Most writers do not have the luxury of time, either. That’s why you need to get to the meat of the matter sooner, not later! Here are some tips on how to do this:

1. ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHTS. Know what you want to say and how you’re going to say it. Even though they require a bit of time up front, I believe that OUTLINES merit the effort. If it’s worth saying, it’s worth planning. By availing yourself of an outline, you have the opportunity to list the various points you want to make, arrange them in a logical sequence, and consider the relevance of each point before committing it to your project.

Think of an outline as a road map. It’s like planning a business trip. I doubt that you would just hop on a plane with no clue about where you’re going or why, without luggage, or without at least an inkling of what you are going to do once you get there. Instead, you’re going to travel armed with business attire in your suitcase, an itinerary and meeting agenda in your briefcase, and PowerPoint or other presentations ready to deliver to your audience!

An outline of your communication is your creative roadmap. It helps you solidify your ideas and keeps you on track to reach your final destination. It does not have to be elaborate – or even typewritten. Often, just a quickly jotted list of key words is all that is necessary to prompt your mind when the real writing begins.

2. PARE DOWN YOUR PROSE. I must admit that this is the most difficult step in the process for me! Because I adore words, I tend to use too many in my writing. Deleting them can sometimes be as traumatic as amputating a limb!

Therefore, I have reached a kind of “compromise” with myself. Whenever I conceive of a particularly brilliant turn of phrase that, alas, is superfluous to my current communication but is just too good to trash, I will cut it from my project and paste it into a special document I have created, named “For Future Use.” That way, when a “jigsaw puzzle” comes along where my wonderful words may fit, I know where to find them.

To illustrate my point about paring down prose, here is my first draft of the first paragraph above:

It can be a cacophonous world out there! Virtually everyone has something to say, and he or she wants his or her voice to be heard above all of the others.  The best way to do this, in my opinion is to make your communications as effective as humanly possible. This includes not only using correct grammar and making sure that you spell your words correctly, but also using words sparingly and writing clearly, succinctly and concisely.  My motto has always been “WRITE TIGHT.”  I know that phrase is grammatically incorrect (it should be “write tightly”), but I find the incorrect version easier for me to remember.

Now, go back to the top of my post and read the first paragraph again, to see the final product. By taking out a lot of unnecessary words, I have reduced the size of the paragraph from 107 words to 70 and have made it easier to discern the message without wading through a bunch of unnecessary verbiage.

Don’t be afraid to play with words and rearrange them!  Make a game out of seeing just how much you can express with the fewest words possible.  If you make it fun, it won’t seem like work at all! Words are not perishable, like tomatoes. If a word does not complement a particular “recipe,” leave it out and find another use for it somewhere else.

3. USE THE ACTIVE VOICE. Using the active rather than the passive voice can draw your reader into your writing faster and more effectively. People want to become “involved” in what you write, and the active voice will achieve this. While not grammatically incorrect, the passive voice does dilute your prose and make it more difficult to understand.

What is the passive voice? It’s when the subject of a sentence is having something done to it, rather than doing the action itself, or when there is “distance” – in the form of unnecessary words – placed between the subject and the action. For example: I had walked to the store and had bought some milk for my cereal. In this sentence, the word “had” in both places puts distance between the subject (“I”) and the action. It adds unnecessary words that make deciphering the meaning of the sentence more difficult. A better, more concise way of writing this sentence would be: I walked to the store and bought some milk for my cereal.

Here’s another example: An ordinance has been passed to make outdoor markets against the law. While there is nothing grammatically incorrect about this example, it is much lengthier than it needs to be, and it also begs the question about WHO passed the ordinance. A better, more informative and more succinct sentence is: The City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting outdoor markets. The new sentence gives more information in fewer words.

When using the active voice, it also helps if the verbs you choose have some “zing” to them. For example, instead of saying, “Kathryn left the lecture hall and got to her next class just before the bell rang,” try saying, “Kathryn bolted from the lecture hall and raced to her next class, arriving just before the bell rang.” By using stronger verbs, you impart a sense of urgency. Your reader is more likely to empathize more with Kathryn and participate in her actions by FEELING them, thanks to stronger verb choices.

Try the three tips above on your next writing project. They may seem a bit awkward at first, but with practice, they will become second nature to you. And I am willing to bet that they will also improve your prose dramatically in the process!