Professional Development
How to improve your writing
“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard, and put one word after another until
it’s done. It’s that easy, and that hard.” said Neil Gaiman. Writing is a task that is second
nature to some and the equivalent to extracting teeth to others. Never fear though. No
matter how good or bad your writing, there is always room for improvement. Improvement
is really as simple as one, two, and three or as simple as one, two, three, four, five, six,
and seven according to New York Times best-selling author Michael Hyatt. Michael has
composed a list of seven quick tricks that can help improve any writer no matter what
level, experience, gender, or age.
Tip #1: Know your reader
Once you discover who your readers
are past the basic surface level of
information, you will know a better
angle to write from. Placing yourself
in their shoes can dramatically
change your pieces.
Tip #2: Know your objective
Knowing what result or objective
you hope your audience will gain
allows you to write with focus and
eliminate “fluffing” or putting in
information that has no relevance
to your piece.
Tip #3: Use short words
Tip #4: Use short sentences
Tip #5: Use short paragraphs
When you see a large page of just
text, it can be overwhelming and
sometimes boring. When you use
short paragraphs with breaks, it
allows your readers to pause and
gather themselves. So keep it short,
skimmable, and sweet.
Just like using short words,
short sentences can have the
same effect on readers. Shorter
sentences prevent confusion
among your readers.
Tip #6: Use active language
12
Active language is language that is exciting
and interesting. Passive language, on the other
hand, is dull and boring. Passive language in
a sentence is where the target of the action
becomes the subject, and can feel backwards
and harder to understand. For Example:
“Michael fixes computers” is a passive sentence
where as “The computers are fixed by Michael”
is more active and engaging. Remember to write
with muscle and activeness.
Persuading an audience is so much
easier when you are understood,
so using smaller words makes the
audience think less and become more
willing to discover more.
Tip #7: Write recklessly, re-write
ruthlessly.
Your first draft is just that, it’s the first
not the last. This means you can write
whatever you feel necessary. It’s okay
to not be “correct” in your first draft.
After your first draft is done, this is the
time to go back and clean up anything
that may not be correct.
Hyatt, M. (2013, June 28). 7 “Tricks” to
Improve Your Writing Overnight. Retrieved
April 3, 2015, from MichaelHyatt.com: http://
michaelhyatt.com/improve-writing.html