Category Archives: writing

Expletive deleted: making your writing stronger

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on by  

During the Watergate scandal, newspapers printed transcripts of some of President Nixon’s secret tapes. “Expletive deleted” became a standing joke for the number of times they used it to omit the unprintable language. But “expletive” doesn’t necessarily mean foul language. It means filler, language that takes up space but adds no meaning. Why weaken your writing by overusing expletives? You can easily recognize an expletive: a clause starts with “it,” “there,” or “here,” without any antecedent. Usually the verb is some form of “to be.” We use expletives and other meaningless words all the time in speech. They give us time to think what to say. Nowadays, at least, readers don’t want to read a bunch of padding.  Especially in the first sentence of a paragraph, they don’t want to wade through unnecessary words to understand what the writer wants to convey.

Continue reading →

How to make your writing more powerful with sentence variety

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on by 3

If you write something, don’t you want someone to read it? And wouldn’t you prefer that your reader enjoy what you write? One way to make your writing more interesting and more powerful is to consider the different varieties of sentence structure. And not use any one structure too much.

Continue reading →

Should passive voice be used or banned?

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on by  

I submitted an article to a magazine, and the editing came back with this awkward passive voice construction: “Shopping bags are just one type of plastic film used regularly by Americans.” Ouch. Someone submitted an article to me that had one particularly awkward paragraph with too many sentences in passive voice. I have trimmed it to bare bones, but it contained all these passives: It is not forbidden to want to look beautiful, but living an ethical lifestyle is encouraged. Buying clothes is permitted, but you shouldn’t buy clothes you don’t need from a retailer known to oppress its workers. And I finally had my camera with me when I saw the sign ubiquitous in North Carolina restaurants. It has always made me wonder: if I were an employee there, how would I get my hands washed? Whom should I get to wash them? So I thought it would be fun to write a post about avoiding passive voice. Upon further investigation, I can’t do that. Too many other authors over more than a century have devoted really bad writing to that task. 

Continue reading →

To be or not to be? Use it as little as possible

Reading, Writing, Research Posted on by  

Hamlet wondered whether to keep living or kill himself. Writers ought to wonder whether the sentence they’re writing needs some form of “to be,” or if they should kill that verb and find a better one. Take a look at the first paragraph of an article someone submitted to one of my other blogs: Healthy, sustainable living might not be a new concept, but it is now shifting the face of the residential realm. Sustainable design is not just some fad, but a solution to some of the most sinister challenges that we face as a global society. The good news is that the green ecosystem is growing ever larger in the heart of our concrete jungles. When superior knowledge and technology meets the care for the environment and human well-being, great things are bound to happen. Does that introduction make you eager to read on? No? Amazingly, it contains hardly any finite verbs except “is” and “are.” It has a couple of present participles. “We face” appears in a relative clause and “meets” in a dependent clause, where the plural form belongs, by the way. The author also chose a couple of stilted noun phrases and relies on adjectives … Continue reading →