Want to Write Well? Dive In!

"Writing is as simple as falling off a log," says guest columnist Daniel Passamaneck in the Editorial Emergency newsletter. "[W]riting well is as challenging as the 10-meter diving platform." His advice for avoiding a high-dive belly-flop includes:

Writing with care. "It seems like a fairly straightforward proposition to think of what you want to say and then to say it," he notes. "But the devil is in the details: modifiers that fit so neatly you overlook that they're inapt; dependent phrases that misdirect the reader's focus; getting the clauses in just the right order." Once you've finished a draft, set it aside—when you return, you're more likely to see problems you didn't notice while writing.

Writing for your audience. You might enjoy esoteric word choice or complicated sentence structure, but you don't want to lose your readers or send them reaching for a dictionary. Likewise, consider their perspective—what they value and what will interest them.

Writing for context. "By visualizing where and how your writing will be seen," he says, "you can improve the odds that the message will get through." If someone will have only a few seconds to read your copy, for instance, you'll want something quick and punchy, not bursting with information.

The Po!nt: "When writing is muddy or ineffective," says Passamaneck, "it's often because the author lost track of what needed to be said, who was going to read it or where it was going to be seen."

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