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Another suggestion is removing waste words. "If you look for them, you can find millions of occasion to write. Join almost any active online community and you
by SlyShy 16y ago
Another suggestion is removing waste words.
"If you look for them, you can find millions of occasion to write. Join almost any active online community and you will have many chances a day to write about whatever it is you have an opinion about. An active business will generate countless emails, each of which is an opportunity to write. And, of course, there are more traditional options, like blogging or otherwise writing for an audience."
"You can find a million occasions to write. Join an active community and you can write about anything. An active business generates countless emails, each an opportunity to write. There are also traditional options, like blogging or otherwise writing for an audience."
Phrases like "almost any" only work to weaken your claim. I know that this weakening is purposeful (I used to shy away from overly strong statements too), but the reader is already automatically weakening any statements you make, and doesn't need any help.
- swombat 16y agoIt's not really another suggestion, since it is really the essential point of "Does it have a point? Is the point clear? Could it be more concise? Could it be cut entirely?", but yes, absolutely right. I'll hasten to add that I am by no means a perfect writer. As I said, writing can always be improved. That said, I do take exception to getting rid of, for example, "of which is". You might call those waste words, and that's your right, but I think that without them the phrase's rhythm is dry and unfriendly.
- InclinedPlane 16y agoA particular pet peeve of mine is the use of "really", which is often extraneous and just as often dulls the writing. Consider: "It's not another suggestion, since it is the essential point of..."
- swombat 16y agoSure. And, like "to be honest" and other expressions of that kind, the "really" serves a purpose: it softens the sentence, making it less confrontational.The surest way to dull, boring writing is to take out every bit of warmth and replace it with rigid application of pseudo-grammatical rules. Sentences should be as concise as possible - but not more.