Anthology of Ideas

Your writing style is your voice on the internet. Do you speak like James Earl Jones or Napoleon Dynamite? Remember that your words on the page are all that stand between you and your reader. They should catch the reader’s eye and draw them in. The following tips will help you improve your writing style.

Find your voice.

While styles grow and mature over time, there should always be some continuity in your writing. The way you set up your ideas and interact with them as well as the words you choose to use all make up your “voice.”

Write to your audience.

Not only does what you write matter but also how you write matters. You may a write a fabulous technical brief, but if it informal and uses too much slang it will not be given the attention it deserves. This applies to everything, if you write about informal things, be informal.

The structure of writing matters as much as the content because an overly loose structure is just as difficult to read and enjoy as badly written content. The following eight tips will help you to find your own specific writing style while providing a few “best practice” tips. These tips will apply to anything you write be it a blog post or dissertation.

1. The introduction should be helpful and interesting.

   The first thing people will see in any type of writing is the introduction, and most people won’t read any further if the first couple sentences don’t interest them. Think about your first sentence this way: you just searched Google for something and this sentence is the first thing you read about a website. Would you click to read more?

2. The main point, or thesis, should be stated in the introduction or at least clearly implied.

   This hearkens back to what your teachers told you in school: have a thesis because it makes it easier for the reader to figure out what you are trying to say, and if you are writing anything even close to an essay, it is polite to let people know what your 1000 word post is going to be about.

The content of writing is separate from style and structure because content is what you write not how you write. The following tips apply just as well to academic essays as to blog posts, so feel free to cherry pick the suggestions that apply best to your writing.

1. Pick an an interesting, significant topic.

   Too many times posts are done on something insignificant or unoriginal. It doesn’t really matter if you write a gorgeous tutorial or a powerful, inspiring and riveting essay if it just explains something most people already know about. Similarly, it doesn’t help to write about issues that very few people have an interest in unless you are writing it solely for your pleasure.

   The biggest problem though is when people write about general topics that they have no real knowledge of and don’t say anything new about.

The comma has the most uses of any single punctuation mark making it one of the hardest for people to use properly.

The Basics:

1. They join sentences and ideas.
   • I am going on vacation for the summer, and I hope it doesn’t end up like last year.
   • If you are happy person, life seems much better.
   • However, it is best to just do it.
2. They aid reading and offset less important information.
   • Members, welcome! — If this does not have the comma then literally it is a command to the members to welcome.
   • However, no matter what your excuse is, it doesn’t change the fact that you were late.
3. They separate adjectives and list items.
   • I was attacked by a big, angry dog.
   • Tom, Fredrick, Negussie and Andy play football every day.
   • I am going to the grocer, butcher and florist.
4. They format numbers, dates, titles, and places.
   • 39,552,923
   • I was born on August, 22 1967 in Columbus, Ohio.
   • James Pratt, M.D., won the Nobel prize in medicine.

The apostrophe is one of the easiest punctuation marks to use–assuming that is, that people care enough about their feelings as to not misuse and abuse them.

The Basics:

The apostrophe has three valid uses:

1. They show possession or ownership
   • John’s apple
   • Class’s books
2. They indicate omitted letters and words.
   • It’s (it is)
   • Ya’ll (You all)
3. They indicate the plurals of numbers, abbreviations, letters and words.
   • 1990’s
   • Ph.D’s
   • f’s

Beyond the basics
Below are sentences that one may find in normal writing, and not all of the apostrophes are used correctly. Try to find these errors before reading the explanations.