Be Brief And Specific

When you’re battling against clutter, vagueness and unnecessary jargon as a writer, there are certain rules that come into focus.  These are not new ideas and they were thought up long ago by writers looking to say just what they mean in their prose and nothing more.

There are several ideas here that you can use as a potent charm against the kind of bad writing the muddles prose.

You should always prefer the short word to the long. In most cases when you stop and think about it or even consult a thesaurus or dictionary you can find the word that says exactly what you wanted to without needing to use a whole phrase or even a longer word. For example, in the end there is really no need to use:

accommodations for rooms

purchase for buy

utilize for use.

Of course the list goes on but as the old saying goes, why use a $10 word when a five cent one will do?

Prefer the familiar word to the fancy one. Showing off your vocabulary doesn’t really impress anyone in the end and this rule ties in nicely with the first one.

Prefer a specific word to the abstract. Remember that is usually the job of the blogger or anyone writing for the Internet is to make complicated ideas clear and to funnel meanings down so that the largest group of people will understand them.

Use the minimum amount of words possible to make your point. Being clear and concise means that you should be frugal with your writing.

The Elegant Variation

You’ll also want to watch out for what’s called The Elegant Variation. Some writers think that reaching for big words to avoid repetition is a good way to make the text flow smoothly, but there are better ways.  Rather than using some elegant synonyms, it’s a good idea to try and use a few pronouns in their place.

For example,

the mayor’s task force was asked to meet with the owners of the structures, discuss whether they wanted their buildings preserved, and recommend ways to adapt older edifices to new uses.

works better as,

….to meet with the owners of the buildings, discuss whether they wanted them preserved, and recommend ways to adapt the older ones to new uses.

It’s important to write in the active voice as well. Police arrested John Smith is shorter and much more to the point than John Smith was arrested by police.

One of the helpful hints that can get you started off on the right foot is to try to select details the reader can ‘see.’ When you’re writing about anything in your blog make sure to ask your self how you can incorporate into the first two sentences the very thing that separates the subject and makes it unique.

There is an old rule in journalism that states a good lead should rarely exceed 25 to 30 words. If you try and sort through the information available to you and use that rule in blogging you’ll always have an effective start.

Written by Rob Starr from Rob Starr
Posted on June 6th, 2010 and filed under Blogging
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