Writing the English language is as much an art as a science. Without a doubt, your teachers have given you rules to follow in class. But in the real world, there's more leeway than you might have realized.
Don't worry. You don't need a master's degree in publishing to be a good writer. If you follow these four tips every time you write and edit, you will be able to get a quality email, report or article.
1. Be consistent
Some aspects of good writing are rules. Others are style choices. How do you know who's who?
The easiest way is to choose and follow a style guide.
There are many style guides for English: AP, APA, CMOS (aka Chicago), MLA, Orford if you write within a school or company, you may be asked to follow what is called a home style guide, that is, a guide created specifically for this entity. Some newspapers like The Economist or The Guardian also stick to their own.
Style guide name (short form): target audience: used in: Notes:
AP American journalists and journalists news, media, broadcasting, magazine publishing, marketing and public relations. The most popular style for casual writing and everything online. Most bloggers use this style.
APA students, academics, professionals in agriculture, biology, business, chemistry, education, language and linguistics, nursing, psychology, social and behavioral sciences. It emphasizes the clarity of communication and the "choice of words that best reduces prejudices in language".
CMOS academic publishers, book publishers and authors, fiction writers in the humanities, social, historical and political sciences. In particular, it focuses on American English. Turabian follows him.
MLA students and scholars pursue arts and humanities, especially English, writing, literature, and related subjects such as theater or film. It emphasizes conciseness and clarity.
Staff of the University of Ofordford, British students and writers. An inside guide that has become a general writing guide for students and editors. Also known as "Ne Hart Hart Rules".
1.1 which style guide to choose?
At best: the style that your readers consider correct.
Of course, this is not always possible. That's why it's important to get into the minds of your readers. For example, if the target audience of the text is teachers or professors, they will prefer the CMOS style to the AP style. However, for most other people, AP is more suitable. This is true not only for people who write in AP style every day, such as journalists and PR professionals, but also for people who don't care about stealing most of the online articles that the average person reads daily are AP style. If you stick to this, they will probably consider it "correct.”
1.2 evolution of the guidelines
In addition, some rules and guidelines change over time. For example, until 2019, "African American" took a sprint for the AP poll today, you would write it without the dash:"African American.”
That is why it is important to follow the updates of the Style Guide, which are sometimes published every year.
Don't worry too much if learning the details of a particular style seems complicated. Once you are familiar with your style guide, many aspects of the English language are unlikely to change. For example, sentences always end with one of the following three punctuation marks: a period, an exclamation mark, or a question mark.
By gaining a solid understanding of grammar rules and familiarizing yourself with style choices, you'll be on your way to writing rockstar in no time.
For a comparison of AP and Chicago, check out our article here.
1.3 Orford
Finally, you may be wondering if you should use a comma or a series
You can read more about it here.
2. Using the active voice
In English, sentences usually follow the subject-verb-object scheme ""Emilio got the ball."This phrase is written in the active voice, which means that the subject acts on the object.
However, you could also write: "the ball was caught by Emilio."This phrase brings the same idea, but it is written in a passive voice. The object became the subject.
Although there are cases when the passive voice can work well or even better than the active voice, the active voice is usually preferred. Why is that?
First of all, the active voice needs several words to say the same thing. If you want to strain the eyes of your readers or save space, active voice rules.
In addition, the passive voice may sound vague. Take, for example, the following sentence: "The vase was destroyed.”
Who destroyed the vase? We don't know. That is why the passive voice is used in some cases when the writer wants to eliminate the coding of a topic with responsibility. Examples include law and science.
3. Point to the right
Punctuation marks can make a huge difference in meaning when composing words in a sentence. But getting the punctuation right can be difficult.
Although you probably learned the basics of punctuation in elementary school, there is more to signs than you probably learned. Indeed, like most aspects of the English language, punctuation is both an art and a science.
Here is a list of the basics.
Apostrophes make contractions and show obsession.
No, you can't eat cake Sasha. (✗)
No, you can't eat Sasha's cake. (✓)
The large intestine introduces important information. They are a way of saying, "Feel this now!”
The menu at the reception includes: fish, chicken and a vegetarian dish. (✗)
The menu at the reception includes fish, chicken and a vegetarian dish. (✓)
I found the book he wanted: a dusty dinosaur bound in leather. (✓)
... avier gave me the news: The Zombies had taken over. (✓)
Keep in mind that the colon is used differently in American and British English, so again, check your style guide.
Commas indicate pauses between words, sentences and ideas. There is an ongoing debate among people who prefer serial commas, O. The main thing is to choose an approach and stick to it.
I need tape, paper and markers. (✓)
I need tape, paper and markers. (✓)
The president introduced his wife J (unless the president is a bigamist)
The president introduced his wife, Anita... )
Seo-unun was born in Seoul, Korea in 1999. (✗)
Search engine optimization (1)
We went out for dinner and watched a movie. (giunzione)
We went out to dinner. Then we saw a movie. (✓)
Dashes are of different styles to serve different purposes. They are different from dashes.
That pot in the corner needs more water. (✗)
This pot, the one in the corner, needs more water. (✓)
I found the book he wanted: a dusty dinosaur bound in leather. (✓)
Dashes are short lines that, among other things, turn two or more words into an idea.
My brother needs a conditioner for his pale blonde hair. (✗)
My brother needs a conditioner for his pale blonde hair. (✓)
It wasn't your ride to the mill. (✗)
It wasn't your way. (✓)
The semicolon is usually used to join two related sentences. But the fashion is to avoid them and just write two separate sentences.
Do not eat it because it will make you sick. (✗)
Don't eat it, it will make you sick. (✗)
Don't eat it, it will make you sick. (✓)
Don't eat. It makes you sick. (✓)
4. Separate Sound Halikes
The English language contains many words that are similar to other words, but mean something completely different. These words are called homophones, and even today's spell checkers do not always know the difference. Therefore, you need to be aware of the most confusing words.
Here are some often confused pairs of words. If you dig deeper, you can find many more to watch out for.
You are yours:
Six is a contraction of six.”
"You are such an attentive student!”
Yours is the possessive form of you.
"Your reading speed depends on your ability to concentrate quickly and process information.”
A / Too much:
To is a preposition.
"He went to the gym.”
Too much means pure.”
"He also went to the gym.”
Effect / Effect:
"Influence" means to influence or change to some extent.
"Your mood can affect your relationship.”
An effect is a result, a consequence or a result.
"Looga"
Then / from:
Then it is used as an adverb, noun or adjective to describe the order in which things happened.
He turned on the microphone and started singing.”
This is a subordinate conjunction for comparisons.
"He is taller than you.”
Accept / Exclude:
Accept is a verb that means "to take" or "to receive".”
"He accepted the painting as a gift.”
Ex CEPT is used as a preposition or conjunction to mean only or to form an exception:
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