Documenting the Coming Singularity

Thursday, December 14, 2006

How to Write More Effectively

By 1:19 PM
One has only to look at popular culture to understand that the written word is taking a battering. Schools are failing to teach kids to read and write effectively, not because the teachers are bad (my wife is a teacher, so I am biased), but because of the glamorization of stupidity and the failure of many parents to do their part. Take a closer look, if you need some convincing, at some of the writing coming out of major newspapers. If you really want to be frightened, read any discussion forum on the Internet. Take a gander at Lindsey Lohan's open letter describing her reaction to the death of director Robert Altman (samples: "Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourselves' (12st book) -everytime (sic) there's a triumph in the world a million souls hafta (sic) be trampled on.-altman Its true. But treasure each triumph as they come." And "Life comes once, doesn't 'keep coming back' and we all take such advantage of what we have." And "I learned so much from Altman and he was the closest thing to my father and grandfather that I really do believe I've had in several years." And finally, her closing words, "Be Adequite."(sic)).Then peruse the sad excuse-making efforts of her publicist (sample: "She quickly put something together on her Blackberry. It was written very quickly, and it was from the heart."). How sweet. But this introduction is not meant to be a "Fall of the American Empire" tirade. It is intended, instead, to point out the need for us to take writing seriously. Lohan's little malformed missive is an example of how ineffective writing can be when the writer becomes the brunt of ridicule. Poor writing will not always face open mockery, but it will fail to earn the respect of the thoughtful reader, and thus constrained, probably fail to convince anyone of anything.

Effective writing is writing that has the power to convince. It is, in many circumstances, a more potent method of communication than is oral, sometimes to the chagrin of an author who makes a permanent record of his regrettable remarks. There should be no argument about the fact that a facility with the written word is an extremely valuable asset for anyone to have at his or her disposal. This article is therefore written for those who want to improve and expand on their writing skills, for whatever reason and in whatever context. There are differences, to be sure, between academic, business, fiction, and informal writing. I have written hundreds, if not thousands, of sermons over the course of my former vocation as a pastor. I write for weblogs, some formal and substantive, others more irreverent and pithy. I also write formal academic papers in my graduate work. However, while the appropriate styles of writing vary in each of these dissimilar contexts, there are some principles that apply across all of them. It is this set of principles that I will pass on in this article.

Logical Flow: Quite often, someone who is trying to explain a difficult concept to you will use the phrase: "Do you follow me?" Or "Do you know what I mean?" They are unsure whether or not their thoughts are travelling successfully from their brain to yours through spoken language. When you're writing, you don't have that the means to seek that comfort. You can't check to make sure the reader has the smallest suspicion about what you want to say. So you are left to the only alternative: Make it as clear as you possibly can. And clarity is created through logical flow. Logical flow happens when one thought follows directly from another. There's no muddled maze to navigate. The road my be windy and transport you from hither to yon, but if you stay on it, you'll get to where the author intends to take you.

I absolutely despise novels that switch characters and locations and plot lines every few pages. Just when I'm deeply interested in what's going on, I turn the page to the next chapter, and I find that I've been rudely beamed without notice to an entirely different planet! Or so it seems. I just don't have the patience for it. The same thing happens when you skip from one undeveloped thought to the next, with nothing joining them in between. Readers become frustrated and go elsewhere for their edification.

You can sometimes have logical flow from the get go, which is nice when you can manage it, but more often it demands quite a bit of strenuous effort, some rearranging of ideas and some bridging of gaps. The best way to achieve it is usually via an outline. If you need help with the keys to good outlining, there are very good resources available to you on the Internet. An outline is like a skeleton. It holds the flesh together in a sensible way. Whichever analogy you prefer, logical flow, rather than stream of consciousness, is the way to get your thoughts accurately to the reader. (Unless you have a very logical stream of consciousness.)

Avoid Clichés: Clichés are indicative of laziness. You can read them and hear them with alarming frequency every time you flip on the TV. The news media are replete with lemmings. A phrase is coined (thank you phrase coiners! At least you are not lazy!), and soon it becomes the absolute only way something is ever described from then on. Think about some of these words and phrases: "Gunboat diplomacy." "Drug kingpin." "Lost in translation." "Slippery slope." "At the end of the day." "Battle with cancer." "Every parent's worst nightmare." "Execution-style." "Gangland killing." "Mixed reviews." The list of these loathsome and insufferable chestnuts could fill the hole in the ozone layer.

If you've heard it before, uncountable times; if it's the very first thing that pops into your imagination; it may be a cliché. Find another way to say it that has originality. Your readers will appreciate it. And if you find what may be called a cliché in this article, simply assume I put it there on purpose to make my point more clearly.

Fewer Words are Better than Too Many: I almost said "less is more," but that would have been lazy. Writing can almost always be improved by trimming unneeded words. Think of your writing as a sculpture. Someone once described creating sculpture as the process of imagining the finished piece, and then chipping away the material covering it. Surplus words are like excess stone that blurs the beauty and clarity of your vision. Chip away until your vision is revealed. Look for redundancies, as in: "He thought to himself" (who else is he going to think to?), "close proximity," "biography of her life," "end result." Don't use five words when one will do the job, as in: "In view of the fact that…" rather than "since." In the words of William Strunk Jr., from Elements of Style, "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell." I think you get the picture. Get in the habit of sniffing out these odious interlopers.

Check Your Spelling & Grammar: Check it again. Ask someone else to check it. Certainly use a spellchecker, but remember that spellcheckers won't catch the wrong word spelled correctly. If you're unsure about a word, find out the correct spelling. If you're not sure it's the right word, look up the definition. Learn to spot grammatical errors like dangling participles and split infinitives, without being so rigorous as to be absurd. Try to "hear" your writing. Read it aloud. We can sometimes discover mistakes by ear more effectively than by sight.

Practice: People don't typically get good at something unless they do it a lot. (By the way, a frequent complaint of mine is the increasingly common joining of "a lot" into a single word. Yes, the dictionary has it that way, but only as a concession to the ill-read.) I recall one of the first experiences of employment I enjoyed as a teen. It was as a sub sandwich maker. I remember how difficult it was to cut the meats, cheeses and vegetables with that spinning slicer, and the dexterity required to cut the bread just so and fill it properly. But after a week or so, my hands seemed to know exactly how to do all these things without any mental effort whatsoever. I became very good at it. But only after doing it a lot. My advice: Find opportunities to write. Write and write and write. I'm not suggesting you let writing take over your life, unless you are or aspire to be a writer.

So, five essential concepts that will help you to write effectively. Now I must check my spelling and grammar. I sincerely hope that you benefit from spending this time with me. (Suggested further reading-see below):


Anonymous said...

8-) <........ CinnamongirlFla driving by, shouting "DRIVE BY MEDIA....or drive by anything!!!!" to add to your list of cliches.