Tag Archives: style

8 Tips to Improve Your Writing Style

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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. Grammar is important, but it is not more important than keeping the readers interest. Writing to your audience means that you will write about nature and wildlife very differently compared to how you write about mobile broadband providers or furniture stores. You need to be flexible, and adapt your style accordingly.

Don’t go so far as to always write the same way as you speak — there are too many idiosyncrasies in speech for them to translate intelligibly to writing — but don’t worry so much about the little things like having a preposition at the end of the sentence.

Choose a title that is interesting and closely related to the main idea.

Constantly people claim that your first paragraph and your title need to be full of keywords. This is true to an extent, but even more importantly, you need to make it interesting. As more and more readers use RSS readers to keep track of a lot of blogs, this is even more important to stand out when they are scrolling down the list of titles.

Be Coherent!

Many times coherency is assumed to mean writing about only one topic but it isn’t. Coherency within a larger essay or post generally requires one main topic, but inside of each smaller block of text coherency means writing in a logical and aesthetically pleasing manner.

Keep your audience in mind.

This applies to both how you write and what you write. If you usually write about technical issues, don’t suddenly start a series of posts about toilet training cats. In general, people have a certain tolerance about how often a writer can go off-topic. Some websites I read are for the person, but most are for the topic. if a writer goes off topic too many times, or spends too much time posting things that aren’t useful — like a new contest every week — I unsubscribe from the feed without looking back.

Good grammar is a good thing.

You don’t have to write like a grammarian and obsess over each comma and independent clause, but too many mistakes in too small of an area will leave even the most profound prose twisted, convoluted and unreadable. Using good grammar does not make your text boring. For most people the purposeful use of bad grammar isn’t artistic or trendy, so there really isn’t a good reason to not put in the little extra effort to make sure your commas are in the right places.

Write what you know.

Too many times I’ve read posts by people who obviously have no actual idea what they are talking about, they just regurgitate information they found elsewhere or are trying to make money off of the latest hot topics.

Write real content not linkbait.

Linkbait is okay once and a while, but too much of it and your writing style can be corrupted and you will lose all those links you gained. Remember, you are writing for people not search engines. Writing convoluted posts just so you can stuff in a few more keywords is not helping anyone. it may make you a little more money, but it won’t gain you real readers.

For every “linkbait” should be balanced by several real posts about whatever interests you. This will keep your hard-earned voice from being corrupted by the lazy, keyword stuffing style of linkbait writing.

Grow an ego

Talk to any English professor and even they will tell you if you want to hear the most self-centered BS you should go to a gathering of English teachers. These people are some of the best writers in the world. Their control of language is supreme and they can cut to the core of a person without even trying. Why? Because they know their voice, and they allow themselves to trust in it.

Part of being a good writer is being sure of yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are write or wrong as long as you are sure of the words you are writing. I used to advise my students that if they want their essays to sound the best, they should start from the assumption they are right and everyone else is wrong. All they had to do then was to prove it.

Creative Commons License Image credit: margolove

Custom Category Templates on a Archive or Index page.

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On my home page and in my archives, I use a custom category template to display asides and news articles. This is very easy to do and it only takes a couple seconds of work to create custom category templates in any WordPress theme.

The first step is to add the following to your current theme’s index.php loop after the line that looks like <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>, but before any other code.

<?php $cat_temp = cat_loop();?>
	<?php if($cat_temp && is_numeric($cat_temp)){?>
		<?php include('loops/cat_'.$cat_temp.'.php');?>
	<?php }else{ ?>

Then add } just before the line endwhile.

The next step is to add the following to your theme’s functions.php file (you may have to create a file with the same name):

function cat_loop(){
	global $blog_id,$post, $wp_version;
		if($wp_version >= 2.3){
			global $object_term_cache;
			$array = $object_term_cache[$blog_id][$post->ID]['category'];
		}else{
			global $category_cache;
			$array = $category_cache[$blog_id][$post->ID];
		}
		while (list($cat) = each($array)) {
			if(file_exists(dirname(__FILE__).'/loops/cat_'.$cat.'.php')){
				return $cat;
			}
		}
	}

This can be modified to look at author’s also. Now the only thing you have to do is to create a folder named “loops” in your theme’s folder, and then create a new file with a new “loop” — excluding the while and endwhile parts — and name it cat_xxx.php where xxx is the id of the category the loops is for.

This can be repeated for single.php, archive.php, or anywhere else a custom loop is useful. You can even use something similar for individual posts or pages.

A post may be in multiple categories, but it will only use the first custom template it finds, so make sure the post is in only one specially styled category at a time.

8 Tips for Structuring Your Writing

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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. This not only makes your position clearer, but it makes it easier for the reader to decide if they are interested.

  3. Paragraphs should be arranged logically and effectively.

    Don’t put the cart before the horse…unless you are in Communist Russia, in which case, don’t put the horse before the cart.

    While there is a stylistic argument to presenting a dozen loosely related ideas and connecting them together in a final paragraph, this method does not give the reader a good reason to continue reading unless there is a strong introduction. However, even if this method is used, it must not be used too frequently nor should it be used carelessly because in the right hands this method is attractive and impressive, but it can also make the writer look unintelligent and call into question their ability to write.

  4. The paragraphs should flow together both internally and externally.

    An easy trick to determine if your paragraphs are connected well is to read only the first and last sentences of all paragraphs in your essay or post: a well-crafted essay will have transitions that flow seamlessly together and the topic and conclusion sentences of each paragraph will be closely related.

  5. Conclusions should conclude what was previously stated.

    Your conclusion is your opportunity to tie up loose ends and to resolve any dangling thoughts. Rather than treating your conclusion as a high and lofty examination of the topic overall, remember to connect it with what you already said. If it doesn’t make sense starting your conclusion with “In conclusion” then you may need to rework it.

  6. The conclusion should be strong and resolute.

    Assuming your readers got to the bottom of your post, don’t disappoint them by making the ending wishy washy. Make it firm and make them think. Yes, they read your entire post, but they will remember your conclusion best.

    Some writers habitually leave the conclusion open ended (or worse end with a question) just to solicit comments. However, it is far better to make a strong conclusion that allows for dissenting or even complimentary opinions than taking the easy way out. Most times this method does not work because it leaves the reader dissatisfied.

  7. When writing for the web, use appropriate formatting methods.

    By using the right HTML tags and styling then correctly, you can make your writing far easier and more attractive to read. It takes a little effort, but if you can, add CSS to your website so you can use tags like <blockquote>, <strong> and <em> to format your posts attractively. By styling these formatting marks correctly, your readers can quickly determine your main points and the different elements in your writing. It may help to add CSS to your website that will allow you to easily format your posts as you would if writing a formal essay.

    The same goes for writing in the real world. Structuring your writing correctly will make it far more attractive and easy-to-read. It is heavily suggested that you research the various formatting methods (MLA, CMA, APA) and incorporate some of their elements into your writing regardless of whether or not you are required to.

  8. Lists are great on the web, but not on paper.

    A list should be used when listing things and not when writing a paper. This post makes a perfect list be cause it contains 8 loosely connected ideas. However, in papers and essays never make it sound like it is just a list. (Although, you can get away with it in a paper about Walt Whitman. ((Okay, like three people just got that reference.)))

    A list on a piece of paper is bad, but on the web they are good. You can use lists two ways: to set off separate items as done her or to replace headings. For the latter, it would be better to use actual header tags, but for the former the list structure makes it easier for the average reader to pick out the information and decide if they want to read the explanations.