LivSimpl

7 Ways to Simplify Your Writing

This is a guest post by Loren Blinde of Writing Power. Loren teaches college English, and she launched Writing Power to help people enrich their lives by improving their writing. Feel free to contact her at loren@writingpower.net

Many people begin to pursue simplicity in part to make their lives easier. They resolve to pare down their possessions because 1) less “stuff” is easier to manage, and 2) with less clutter, they can find the items they need with less trouble.

But as an individual continues to practice simple living, intangible benefits begin to surface. Simplicity is a lifestyle choice. Simplifying helps a person to clarify his or her values and priorities: by not keeping a lot of other junk, a person can emphasize that which is truly important to him or her. Achieving simplicity also indicates that a person is at peace with his or her life rather than holding on to the past. Moreover, achieving simplicity requires deliberate action and effective decision-making, two signs of a strong character.

Simple truly is beautiful. So, why stop at simplifying our homes, our schedules, and our finances? Why not simplify our writing as well?

I propose that simplifying your writing can have a dramatic effect on the level of happiness and meaning in your life. Simple writing is deliberate and clear-headed. Simple writing emphasizes the important. Most of all, because readers have to do less mental work to extract meaning from a simply-written piece, simple writing is productive, efficient, and powerful.

To achieve simplicity, a writer must pay attention to two things: 1) removing clutter from his or her writing, and 2) presenting the essential material clearly and effectively. The following seven tips will help you simplify and enliven your prose, whether you’re writing in an academic, personal, or professional context.

1. Toss Wordy Phrases: certain phrases are like clutter. They add little to your writing, but they always seem to find their way into it. The good news is that you can usually cut them right out of the sentence or replace them with one word. For example:

It is evident that wordy phrases deaden writing.
Wordy phrases deaden writing.

What happened was I slipped.
I slipped.

In each case, the second sentence is punchier, more direct and forceful. To help you recognize this verbal clutter, I have compiled some examples. For more, check out Strunk and White’s famous guide, The Elements of Style.

The question as to whether = whether
Due to the fact that = because
In a haphazard way = haphazardly
Liberty is a thing which = liberty is

2. Don’t Overuse Prepositions: sometimes, these little words are indispensible. The problem occurs when too many prepositional phrases latch onto a sentence. It becomes difficult to wade through them. For example:

The reason for the weather is the moisture of the air from a low pressure system that started over the ocean.

An oceanic low pressure system caused this humidity.

To help you in your weeding, here is a partial list of prepositions: at, around, over, under, through, to, of, for, by, from, on, out, in, between, among

3. Trash Passive Voice: in active voice, the sentence’s subject does something. (“The boy hit the ball.”) In passive voice, the sentence’s subject has something done to it. (“The ball was hit.”) Passive voice is generally undesirable because it is less precise, and often it obscures the doer of the verb’s action altogether. (For a detailed explanation of what passive voice is, what’s wrong with it, how to spot it, and how to fix it, check out this post.)

4. Prefer Vivid Verbs to Adverbs: adverbs are generally unnecessary. As writers, we often think that our prose may not have the same ring without a good adverb. I certainly understand this perception: even though I know they aren’t as cool as they sound, adverbs are one of my worst writing habits. But compare these two sentences:

She was very upset by her performance at Friday’s game.
She was devastated by her performance at Friday’s game.

Which one sounds stronger to you? Or take this example:

We could understand her because she spoke clearly.
We could understand her because she enunciated.

Which one sounds more specific?

The first four tips focused on what to remove to simplify your writing. Now that we have gotten rid of the junk, we can move on to stage two of simplification: organizing. The next five tips will help writers enhance readability by arranging sentences in the clearest, most reader-friendly manner possible.

5. Keep related words together: modifiers (both words and phrases) belong next to the words they modify. Check out this example:

I broke my shoe’s heel on the curb, which was really expensive.

What was really expensive? The shoe, the heel, or the curb? Common sense may tell us one, but the sentence’s construction tells us another. Moving the modifying phrase will clear it up:

I broke the heel of my shoe, which was really expensive, on the curb.

Or, an even better modification:

I broke the heel of my expensive shoes on the curb.

Likewise, sentences are easier for readers to decipher if the subject and the verb are together. Because readers process sentences in short term memory first, a long interjecting phrase between subject and verb increases the chance of misunderstanding. For example:

A writer, despite many demands on his or her time that tend to sap creative juices rather than amplify inspiration, must worship clarity.

Chances are good that by the time they get to “creative juices,” most readers will have forgotten the subject of this sentence altogether. Moving the subject and verb together will greatly increase this sentence’s readability (although this writer might do well to put the thesaurus down and use plain words once in a while):

A writer must worship clarity despite many demands on his or her time…

6. Combine Short Sentences for Clearer Meaning: At first glance, this direction seems at odds with simplicity’s mandates. Wouldn’t a short sentence be better than a long one? After all, they’re called simple sentences for a reason.

True. Short, single-clause sentences can be gorgeous. But often, a string of simple sentences may be redundant. I mean, a plain white tee-shirt could be the height of simplicity, but twenty-five plain white tees? Not so much. Consider this example:

Writers choose to write simple sentences for many reasons. One of these reasons is that they’re afraid of making a mistake in punctuation. As a result, their sentences sound monotonous.

Why not put this material in one complex sentence instead:

Because they’re afraid of making a punctuation mistake, writers often choose to write monotonous-sounding simple sentences.

7. Vary Your Paragraph Length: Too many short paragraphs may suggest a lack of development; overly long paragraphs may cause readers’ eyes to glaze over. If every paragraph is the same length as every other, it can feel mechanical. The simple rule? Let content be your guide: each paragraph should have a clearly articulated point. Secondarily, remember all of the adages that praise variety? They’re adages for a reason.

The simplest rule of all is this: think of your reader when you’re writing. Don’t let your reader get overwhelmed by verbal clutter, and don’t let passive or misleading sentences confuse him or her. Give your reader your best, most vivid, most interesting work.

Thanks to Loren for her excellent post! Please take some time to read and subscribe to her site Writing Power.

If you’d like to contribute a post - or even an idea for a post - please e-mail me at LivSimpl at gmail. I’d also welcome the opportunity to write for your site!

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Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 10:12 am and is filed under The Finer Things, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.