Simplicity Is the Key to Effective Articles

simple writingEffective and successful article writing techniques can really help you in writing the best articles in the shortest time possible. There are some minor details that ought to be considered while writing and if these details are polished and refined a bit you can have the  article written very quickly. One of the biggest keys, not just when writing articles but in many forms of writing, is simplicity. [Read more...]

What Is Your Point?

Before you put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, ask yourself: What is your point? This blog looks at what to do if you don’t know, and why it is so important to be clear about the point you are trying to make. [Read more...]

Great Writing Tip: Write the Beginning Last!

People often ask me: “How do I get started?” or “How do I write the introduction?”

Well, although it may sound counter-intuitive, it often pays to write your introduction after you have written your main body and ending. Once they have been written, it’s easier to then write the introduction, especially if it will contain a quick overview of what follows. It’s easier to write that overview if you already know what you’ve written!

If you are going to do this, have a piece of paper alongside you as a reminder of your objective.

This mainly applies to business writing in general and longer report writing in particular. It can however be used by writers of fiction. You don’t have to write your chapters in sequence. If you can’t think of a punchy opening, write the second, or even third chapter first if you’ve got some great ideas for it. This will then give you confidence and may spark some ideas for that opening!

Great Writing Tip: Be Careful With Your Buts!

The little conjunction, “but”, can get you into a lot of trouble. Why? Because at best it marginalises, at worse it totaly negates what has come before it. If that is your intention, great. If not, find a different way to write what you mean.

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12 Great Writing Tips for Writing Articles


Someone asked me the other day what is the difference between writing for blogs and writing letters. e-mails etc. Thinking about it for a bit, I came to the conclusion that there is little difference between the mechanics of writing a good blog article and other forms of writing. The following points immediately came to mind: [Read more...]

Tips for Writing when Faced with Writers’ Block

Have you ever sat down and been faced with “The White Screen of Death” – an empty screen and the words just won’t come?

I’m going to ask Tom Evans, author of “Blocks” to write a longer guest post on the subject, but here are some tips for writing through those blocks. They are all various ways of changing the angle you are taking on your subject; I’ve found that making the change often helps me break through a block. [Read more...]

You, me, I, we… and more!

For a long time, psychologists have known that the way that individuals talk and write provides an accurate insight into their mental and emotional worlds. This has been confirmed by modern research that has shown that there is a direct correlation between the words people use and their health.

I wrote an article here , analysing the writing of some of the Social Media greats. The article you are reading now looks further at some of the issues involved and announces a service for all writers. [Read more...]

Ten Top Tips to Remember

A brief post today, just looking at a simple checklist you can use to improve the quality of your writing:

  • Keep to the principle of one idea per sentence to produce simple sentences, not complex ones with subordinate clauses.
  • Write short sentences of about 20 words. However, you can vary the length for interest.
  • Sentences should be linked – use “signpost language”, (suitable connecting words which link the sentences together in a logical way) …
  • Check pronouns. It should be clear to which noun the pronoun relates.
  • Do not overuse the passive.
  • Rewrite sentences you are not happy with rather than try to modify them.
  • Check that the sentences have the meaning you intended. Remove any ambiguities.
  • Identify and avoid wordiness, jargon, circumlocution, cliches and slang.
  • Check the word order.
  • Check tenses, prepositions, subject/verb agreements, spelling and punctuation.

Writing Tip: Proximity

In theory, English is a simple language; subject-verb-object with adjectives before the noun and adverbs wherever they make most sense! English does not have all of the complexity of genders of many languages, or of tenses.

Then we complicate it with all sorts of nuances, that sometimes confuse even the native speaker – what hope for those communicating in English when it is not their mother tongue

Part of the purpose of this site is to help people avoid inadvertently causing offense by either using the wrong words, or getting the word sequence wrong.

And don’t worry – native speakers make some very interesting mistakes. The Civil Service in the UK once sent out a memo to all staff about the potential health threat to women’s fertility emanating from the radiation from VDU screens. The memo read ” This memo will be of interest to those women who are pregnant, or who wish to become pregnant whilst at work.” We know what they meant, but that wasn’t quite it!

Another recent extract from a National Newspaper in the UK reported that “Yesterday, a meeting took place about the harassment of sheep in the secretary of state’s office” The keyword here is “proximity”. Make sure that if you have a sub clause that qualifies the subject of the sentence, that you place it by the subject and not the object!

Writing Tip: Avoid Redundancy

Here’s a writing tip to help you to prune unwanted words; avoid redundancy! There are two major categories of redundant words to look out for: redundant pairs and redundant categories. In both cases, they are usually superfluous and it is best to leave them out. [Read more...]