Getting Your Point Across

Writing effectively is more important than ever. In this unprecedented information age, it’s essential to convey your message clearly and powerfully.

Here are six tips that will help your writing shine like a finely-cut diamond. While they’re especially pertinent to expository non-fiction, they’re also indispensable to creative non-fiction and fiction writers.

Plain language is an essential tool in your writing workbox. If your primary goal is to inform your reader, it’s best to keep it simple by using short and familiar words and phrases instead of long and unfamiliar ones. For instance, if you replace “We will endeavour to assist you” with “We will try to help you,” you’re more likely to get your message across.

Short, clearly-structured sentences are also foundational to effective communication. Avoid run-on sentences such as “I love to eat Pizza, I would eat it every day if I could because it’s so delicious,” which will throw your reader for a loop. Use proper punctuation to easily fix them: “I love to eat Pizza. I would eat it every day if I could because it’s so delicious.”

Long, convoluted, structurally defective sentences are another obstacle to clear writing. Informationally-overloaded, topsy-turvy sentences like this one will give your reader whiplash:

“A longitudinal research study, one that's been validated by several other research studies over the course of the last several decades, demonstrates that when you spend half of your free time or more studying for a test, which can be up to five to seven hours a day, this can create various problems, including but not limited to poor sleep, loss of appetite, stomach aches, burnout, and excessive worrying.”

It’s virtually impossible to make heads or tails of this sentence due to its numerous, loosely connected dependent clauses. The solution is obvious: carve it up. By dividing it into two or three shorter sentences, your meaning will become clear.

Simplicity is essential to informative writing. Using straightforward sentence structures and shorter sentences and words will help ensure your readers grasp your point.

Take advantage of the latest technology to simplify your writing. Microsoft Word 365, for instance, displays your readability statistics: i.e., your word, sentence, and paragraph count as well as your average sentences per paragraph, words per sentence, and characters per word. You can use this data to ensure your prose is clear, concise, and comprehensible.

Several online tools can also help you gauge and improve the lucidity of your writing. The Flesch-Kincaid readability calculator, for instance, tests both the readability and grade level of your writing based on the average length of your sentences and the average number of syllables of your words. You just enter your text and it rates it along these dimensions. Give it a try.

Keep your writing lean and crisp. If your main goal is to inform your readers, it’s best to get to your point as quickly as possible and stick to it. This means avoiding wordiness, billowy descriptions, and repetition.

Pare down your writing to what’s essential. Remove anything you don’t need or that doesn’t serve a clear purpose. This includes redundancies, unnecessary adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions, inflated language, and over-description.

Bloated passages like this one require surgical belt-tightening: “To complete this task will take an extremely elongated period of time. So, we can’t do it.” By replacing it with “This task will take too long for us to complete,” you express your point more succinctly and effectively and you do so without loss of meaning, nuance, or connotation. The result is a clear sentence that’s easy to grasp and less likely to confuse your readers.

To achieve optimal fluency, self-edit with razor-sharp ruthlessness. “Omit needless words,” as Strunk and White say in The Elements of Style, but also eliminate unnecessary syllables, phrases, and sentences. Cutting the fat from your writing will help your readers grasp your meaning, focus on what’s important, and smoothly sail through your prose word by word and sentence by sentence.

Infuse your writing with lots of details. The more specific you get, the better. Focusing on the particular immerses your readers in what you’re saying and conveys your meaning with lucidity and force.

Instead of “I tried on a piece of clothing,” say “I tried on a medium-sized, aqua blue button-down dress shirt.” By providing specific details, you’ll paint a vivid and rich picture in your readers’ minds and activate their imaginations. This makes it more likely they’ll connect with your message and remember it.

Don’t tell your readers what you mean. “My neighbour’s dog is playful” is a dull and forgettable description. “I played fetch with Maxie, my neighbour’s three-year-old blond Jack Russell Terrier,” on the other hand, brings your meaning to life. By showing your readers how playful Maxie is, you capture their attention and leave them wanting more. Writing teacher Roy Peter Clark’s advice in Language Rules is especially apt here: “Always get the name of the dog.”

It’s fine to use general terms as long as you do so judiciously and only for clear-cut purposes. For instance, if you’re discussing trends, speaking to a wide audience, using idioms, or making a rhetorical point, general words and phrases can help you make your point. Otherwise, try to avoid them.

Using plenty of concrete words and phrases will make your writing clear, powerful, and engaging. It will anchor your readers in the sensory and enable them to connect with your meaning at a visceral level.

Good fiction writers are masters of the concrete. They know how to use tangible details to captivate their readers. But this is just as important in non-fiction writing, whether it’s more on the creative or informative side.

Using phrases like “100 degrees Fahrenheit,” “obese Siamese cat,” and “deep spruce green tree” gives your readers the power to see, hear, smell, and touch what you’re saying. By imbuing your writing with sensory details, you help your readers picture what you’re saying and focus on the here and now.

If you use abstract terms, make sure you define them. Since concepts like truth, justice, happiness, loyalty, and dictatorship can be interpreted in so many ways, you can’t just assume your reader will understand them. You’ll need to explain how you’re using these terms, and, often, you’ll need to do this with specific and concrete examples.

Writing in an active voice will make you more direct, engaging, and easier to understand. Using a clear subject and verb will help your reader identify who performs what action. For instance, in the active sentence “the dog chases the ball,” the subject performs the action of the verb—chasing the ball.

Passive sentences, on the other hand, are often vague, indirect, and impersonal. In “The ball is being chased,” for instance, it’s impossible to identify who’s chasing the ball.

Using the active voice enables you to get your point across clearly and efficiently. “Writers write articles,” for instance, is more direct than “Articles are written by writers.” By making your point clearly and directly, you engage your readers, arrest their attention, and compel them to keep reading.

Passive language should only be used when the agent performing the action is obvious, unimportant, or unknown, or when you wish to postpone or avoid mentioning the agent. For instance, if you don’t know who stole your car, “My car was stolen yesterday” works. Or “Mistakes were made” serves your purpose if you don’t want to reveal what the mistakes were or single out anyone as culpable.

Powerful writing is action-packed. It’s filled with strong verbs that hook your readers in, hold their attention, and propel them forward.

Use strong verbs that are specific to the action performed. “Jaden ripped the document to shreds” is far more engaging, dynamic, and informative than “Jaden disposed of the document.”

Using supercharged verbs like explode, deposit, craft, and eviscerate will animate your writing. It will activate your readers’ imagination, help them picture what you’re saying, and follow your train of thought. Verbs that lack specificity and vigour, on the other hand, like stand, watch, tell, and keep, can fall flat and, often, lose your reader.

Permeate your writing with transitive verbs, which convey action by transmitting power from the subject to the direct object. “He struck the ball.” “She pounded the bed.” “They ignored the audience.” These verbs convey your message more clearly, directly, and powerfully than intransitive verbs, which don’t require direct objects. “He fell,” “They swam,” and “It tightened,” just don’t pack the same kind of punch. Use intransitive verbs infrequently and only for specific purposes, such as when you want to be intentionally vague.