Perhaps you already practice correct grammar and punctuation. You want to escalate your verbal skills. May I suggest you enlarge your active vocabulary of verbs?
We all tend to re-use the words that we read or used recently; thus our vocabulary narrows.
If we multiply nouns and adjectives, we risk confusing readers. (For example, if I mention a “system,” I might be tempted to call it a “network.”) Multiplying adjectives may be useful. After all, my writing benefits if I know the nuances that separate thrifty, economical, frugal, sparing, and cheap. But each adjective entails a noun, and noun-heavy writing burdens the reader. (I explain noun-heavy burdens in my Clear Sentence workshop.)
I myself try to enrich my vocabulary by adding verbs. I don’t add them randomly. Rather, in what I must read anyway, I notice verbs I would not readily use. I jot them down. By learning them in context, I absorb their usage and nuances.
Recent examples:
Employee Ann Dann violated the policy that prohibits X. Manager Tania Jones reprimanded Ms. Dann. Ms. Dann redeemed herself: later that same day, she resolved a customer’s problem creatively, and the customer commended her to Ms. Jones.
The most precise verb is the best:
Not great: Joe Bloggs will focus on late arrival policy.
Better: Joe Bloggs will specify how the new policy will penalize employees who arrive late.
Words that Impress
Perhaps you want a vocabulary that will impress academics, such as SAT essay-scorers. May I suggest that you purchase the Jeeves and Wooster series?
These British comedies, produced by Granada for ITV, are marketed in the US by A&E. Each boxed set costs about $25 used and offers five hours of entertainment. Much of the dialogue showcases the speech of the polymath butler, Mr. Jeeves. Repeat after Jeeves, and you will practice impeccable usage of impecunious, mitigate, and Thespian.
Education was never more fun.
Flesch Reading Ease: 59.2 Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.6
Friday, March 31, 2006
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
We Confuse Young Writers
This year, for the first time, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) takers will write an essay. These students are being advised to write ornately: write as much as possible and use long words. Actually, the advisers acknowledge that such ornate writing generally erodes quality. But it will earn high scores from the hurried graders.
This advice sends a message to our children. “We value writing, but not enough to score the essays carefully. We may have taught you the standards for careful writing. But ignore them when they would require our careful thinking."
What if we advised students to answer math questions this way? Yes, your math teacher taught you how to solve this problem. But the graders will approve answers that are easy to grade, so compromise quality to save them time.
“We don’t have time to judge your writing carefully. But remember, writing is very important.”
Flesch Reading Ease: 70.0 Fesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 6.3
This advice sends a message to our children. “We value writing, but not enough to score the essays carefully. We may have taught you the standards for careful writing. But ignore them when they would require our careful thinking."
What if we advised students to answer math questions this way? Yes, your math teacher taught you how to solve this problem. But the graders will approve answers that are easy to grade, so compromise quality to save them time.
“We don’t have time to judge your writing carefully. But remember, writing is very important.”
Flesch Reading Ease: 70.0 Fesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 6.3
Thursday, March 09, 2006
The Road to Good Writing
Below I've distilled what I know from 40+ years as a writer, mostly in business.
1: Warm up your writing skills. Summarize ten big ideas, each in a single sentence of less than 30 words. See if your mother understands them.
2: You are writing to whom? Know what your readers want and speak their language. Learn the verbs they value and loathe.
3: Writing is thinking. Ask questions. Try out your ideas on yourself and on others.
4: Just write. Until you complete a first draft, do not obsess about details.
For example, misspelling is rarely deadly unless it accompanies rambling, vague sentences. But some errors are deadly and must be edited out: long paragraphs, sentence fragments and run-ons, puzzling clumps of nouns, and ambiguous or missing "referents" (aka old information). The deadliest source of error? Writing sentences that you *hope* will impress readers.
5: Use the four editing algorithms:
1. Give each chunk a main-idea sentence.
2. Put old information in each sentence’s beginning, new in the end.
3. Put all first-time actions into active verbs (the DAD Rule).
4. Design (format) each page to please readers.
That’s it. Those are the basics. From here on, we explore the fine points.
Flesch Reading Ease 75. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.8
1: Warm up your writing skills. Summarize ten big ideas, each in a single sentence of less than 30 words. See if your mother understands them.
2: You are writing to whom? Know what your readers want and speak their language. Learn the verbs they value and loathe.
3: Writing is thinking. Ask questions. Try out your ideas on yourself and on others.
4: Just write. Until you complete a first draft, do not obsess about details.
For example, misspelling is rarely deadly unless it accompanies rambling, vague sentences. But some errors are deadly and must be edited out: long paragraphs, sentence fragments and run-ons, puzzling clumps of nouns, and ambiguous or missing "referents" (aka old information). The deadliest source of error? Writing sentences that you *hope* will impress readers.
5: Use the four editing algorithms:
1. Give each chunk a main-idea sentence.
2. Put old information in each sentence’s beginning, new in the end.
3. Put all first-time actions into active verbs (the DAD Rule).
4. Design (format) each page to please readers.
That’s it. Those are the basics. From here on, we explore the fine points.
Flesch Reading Ease 75. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.8
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