School teachers never hesitate to underline the importance of good grammar. While good grammar is important indeed, many students are often sadly misled into thinking that they can impress their professor with the excessive use of “fancier” grammatic constructions, such as complex sentences. So, they overflood writing with too long sentences.
As a result, it takes the reader more time and effort to read the sentence, than it should. The reader – the professor – gets irritated, and the student gets a lower grade. This is why the habit of overusing complex sentences is considered erratic, even when those sentences are grammatically correct.
In other words, this is the time to take the things into your own hands! Below, we've created a quick list of the most common errors in student collection, hoping that this knowledge will help you develop your writing skills. Never make the same mistake again!
1
10 Simple Rules for Good Writing
Anyone can write, but only a handful of individuals can write well. And the question that we ask ourselves is what does it take to be a good writer? Being a good writer isn’t something that just happens overnight. It takes years to master the art of writing. Don’t be discouraged though, practice coupled with constant extensive learning should make the process faster and easier. I am here to help you with writing by giving you tips that will come in handy. I have identified ten simple rules of writing to guide you in your journey to attaining the status of an excellent writer.
Here are 10 rules to unleashing your writing potential:
1. Be Simple
“Why are you writing?”
It’s important, as a writer, to be familiar with your goal of writing. Understand why and for what purpose you want to communicate with your audience or pass certain information to them. It can be quite frustrating when your audience has difficulties relating to you and the ideas you’re trying to pass across. Therefore, as a writer, it’s a rule to maintain simplicity at all times. Simplicity helps to avoid a scenario where your audience misinterprets your message or fails to understand you.
2. Use Simple Sentences
Simple sentences drive the point home with so much ease and are quickly understood. Having long and overly wordy sentences tends to bore the audience. Therefore, as a writer, make it a rule to keep your sentences short and straight to the point.
3. Who Is Your Audience?
“Do you know who your audience is?”
When you know your audience well, communicating with them will be easy. Your audience determines the kind of material that you write. Therefore, when writing, ensure that you’re familiar with your audience before posting any article.
4. Use Simple Words
Using of complicated words may distort the information you’re trying to pass across to your audience. The worst that can happen is your audience having no clue what you are talking about. It’s wise to use words understood by the laymen. Use of complex words doesn’t appeal to audiences and instead, makes your article a bit boring. What matters is being able to communicate with your audience rather than having a fancy article.
5. Your Topic Is Just as Important
What many writers tend to take for granted is the topic of the article. This is a terrible and costly mistake! Remember that the first impression is what draws the audience. Making your topic catchy is likely to attract more readers as compared to if it is less impressive. Therefore, set some time aside to identify the best and the most appropriate topic.
6. Do Extensive Research before Writing
Before you get down to writing, take some time to do extensive research. The research will make you more confident in your writing and you will articulate your points more clearly and concisely. Ultimately, you will be more informative.
7. Have an Introduction
This is your chance to wow your readers. How you introduce your work to your readers will determine if they proceed to read it or not. Your introduction should make your audience eager to know more.
8. Maintain a Positive Tone
Often, you’ve heard people advising against hanging around negative people. The same applies to writing. A good writer will use a positive rather than negative tone for their articles. An audience prefers an article written in a positive tone.
9. Avoid Getting into Much Detail
Describing places, characters, things, etc. should not take up a big portion of your writing. A good writer will work at keeping descriptions to a minimum.
10. Reread Your Article
Good writers understand the value of checking their articles. We all tend to make grammatical errors that can be corrected in the process. Also, reading your article out loud helps you determine whether your sentences are comprehensible or not.
Conclusion
Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, good writers are not made overnight. It will take sheer discipline to make you one. As a writer, applying the ten simple rules of writing will be of value to you as you strive to perfect your writing. It doesn’t take much effort but the burning desire and the passion for becoming a good writer.
