Avoid expletive phrases It is There is There are Avoid unnecessary articles a an the She hated to wash the dishes Collapse unnecessary prepositional phrases She lived in the house on the corner ID: 486913
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Slide1
Editing to Improve Your WritingSlide2
Avoid expletive phrases.
It is, There is, There are, . . Slide3
Avoid unnecessary articles (a, an, the ).
She hated to wash [the] dishes.Slide4
Collapse unnecessary prepositional phrases.
She lived in the house on the corner.
She lived in the corner house.
The hero of the book failed.
The book's hero failed.
Slide5
Avoid doublets (useless repetition).
neglected and discarded benches
the honest truth
red in color
Slide6
Employ active, precise verbs (avoid crutch verbs
all forms of to have, take, make, seem, give, get, show, use, state, be, do.
Slide7
Collapse unnecessary relative clauses.
The child who is abused performs poorly in school.
The abused child performs poorly in school.
He told us that he used to enjoy playing sports.
He told us he used to enjoy playing sports.
Slide8
Use plural nouns when number is insignificant.
Singular) The abused child performs poorly in school.
(Plural) Abused children perform poorly in school.
Slide9
State the negative positively.
He did not enjoy the novel.
He disliked the novel.
She cannot arrive late.
She must arrive on time.
Slide10
Prefer the concrete noun to the abstract, the specific to the general.
The idea of completing a degree motivated her.
Graduation motivated her.Slide11
Where possible, substitute
verbals
and verbs for nouns.
The loss of a friend hurts.
Losing a friend hurts.Slide12
Utilize the finite tenses when the progressive is not essential.
He had been studying all night.
He studied all night.
We were trying to avoid problems.
We tried to avoid problems.
Slide13
Avoid verbs that require a preposition or two to complete their meaning.
He headed up the committee.
He headed the committee.Slide14
Employ signals to lead your readers.
first, second, next, finally, in addition to, also. . Slide15
More Tips…
Prefer active voice to passive.
Avoid jargon,
federalese
, triteness, trendy words, the off- beat, journalese.
Write in the first, second, or third person as appropriate.
Remember that most adjectives and adverbs are unnecessary.Slide16
More Tips…
Prefer the breathable sentence, clause, and phrase to the
unbreathable
.
Edit your writing for style, punctuation, grammar, spelling, flow, and coherence.
Vary your sentence pattern.
Fight clutter.
Do not commit the deadliest sin: writing a boring essay.Slide17
More Tips…
Consider your audience. When you write, think specifically of readers, as if one or two of them were sitting across from you or looking over your shoulder and wanted to know what you meant in this phrase, sentence, paragraph, article.
Work hard on your writing. Hard writing means easy reading.
Read other writing for the writing. Notice how good writers build their paragraphs and essays.
When editing, always read your papers aloud. Listen for smooth flow of ideas, appropriate transitions, and comfortable sentence variety.