What is effective writing

After you get your thoughts on paper , go back through your piece to see what you can cut. Many writers find areas to shorten their thoughts and make them more concise. Before you can write concisely, you must know what you wish to say.

Your outline will help with that. Our self-editing checklist can help. Good writers know their weak points. Learning to spot and fix common grammar errors will make you a better writer. Here are some to watch for:. A good grammar checker can help. Strong writing uses strong verbs. Write the most descriptive verb for the action. For instance, instead of saying:.

The verb drove tells more about the action than went. With went, the reader could picture walking or biking rather than driving. Read our guide to revising sentences. Trying to improve flat, boring words with modifiers falls short. Adverbs like very or somewhat have little power. Instead, look for a more precise or interesting noun or verb. To help, we've rounded up a list of common verbs. When you complete the first draft , the real fun begins: editing. To help catch errors and wordiness, consider reading your draft out loud.

When you hear your written work read out loud, you notice errors you glossed over when reading it silently. You catch places where the writing is unclear or overly wordy. If it's a longer piece, you can go one step further and record yourself reading it.

Then, listen back to passages that sound odd. It can take several passes before reaching a final draft. The Internet gives several tools to writers to help make a piece of writing stronger. The Hemingway App is one of these. Plugging your piece of writing into the Hemingway App shows you passive voice errors, wordy sentences and overall readability.

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We believe the temperature to be. A verb form needs a subject, either expressed or implied. When the verb is in a non-finite form, such as an infinitive to do or a participle doing , its subject is implied to be the subject of the clause, or sometimes the closest noun phrase. In such cases, construct your sentences carefully to avoid suggesting nonsense. Consider the following two examples. To dissect its brain, the affected fly was mounted on a.

To restore the intended meaning while keeping the infinitive to dissect or the participle aging , change the subject of each sentence as appropriate:.

To dissect its brain, we mounted the affected fly on a. Alternatively, you can change or remove the infinitive or participle to restore the intended meaning:. To have its brain dissected , the affected fly was mounted on a. In communication, every detail counts. Although your focus should be on conveying your message through an appropriate structure at all levels, you should also save some time to attend to the more mechanical aspects of writing in English, such as using abbreviations, writing numbers, capitalizing words, using hyphens when needed, and punctuating your text correctly.

Beware of overusing abbreviations, especially acronyms — such as GNP for gold nanoparticles. Abbreviations help keep a text concise, but they can also render it cryptic. Many acronyms also have several possible extensions GNP also stands for gross national product. Introduce acronyms systematically the first time they are used in a document. First write the full expression, then provide the acronym in parentheses. In the full expression, and unless the journal to which you submit your paper uses a different convention, capitalize the letters that form the acronym: "we prepared Gold NanoParticles GNP by.

In papers, consider the abstract as a stand-alone document. Therefore, if you use an acronym in both the abstract and the corresponding full paper, introduce that acronym twice: the first time you use it in the abstract and the first time you use it in the full paper. However, if you find that you use an acronym only once or twice after introducing it in your abstract, the benefit of it is limited — consider avoiding the acronym and using the full expression each time unless you think some readers know the acronym better than the full expression.

In general, write single-digit numbers zero to nine in words, as in three hours , and multidigit numbers 10 and above in numerals, as in 24 hours.

This rule has many exceptions, but most of them are reasonably intuitive, as shown hereafter. Use words for numbers above 10 if these numbers come at the beginning of a sentence or heading "Two thousand eight was a challenging year for.

As an alternative, rephrase the sentence to avoid this issue altogether "The year was challenging for. In contrast, do not use initial capitals for common nouns: Resist the temptation to glorify a concept, technique, or compound with capitals. For example, write finite-element method not Finite-Element Method , mass spectrometry not Mass Spectrometry , carbon dioxide not Carbon Dioxide , and so on, unless you are introducing an acronym see Mechanics: Using abbreviations.

Punctuation has many rules in English; here are three that are often a challenge for non-native speakers. As a rule, insert a comma between the subject of the main clause and whatever comes in front of it, no matter how short, as in "Surprisingly, the temperature did not increase. In series of three or more items, separate items with commas red, white, and blue ; yesterday, today, or tomorrow. Do not use a comma for a series of two items black and white.

In displayed lists, use the same punctuation as you would in normal text but consider dropping the and. This page appears in the following eBook. Aa Aa Aa. Effective Writing. It is a good idea to have someone else proofread your writing before you send it. If you cannot do that, then try reading it out loud. There are many types of written communication, including emails, memos, business letters, blogs and websites, press releases and more.

Practice writing a variety of documents to improve your written communication skills. Like anything else, becoming a great writer takes practice. All rights reserved. What Is Effective Written Communication? Importance of Effective Written Communication In some ways, effective written communication is even more important than spoken communication. The Five Cs of Effective Written Communication Good written communication depends on the audience, the topic, your purpose in communicating, and other factors.

However, all effective written communication has some characteristics in common: Connection - Good written communication forms a connection between the reader and the writer. Clarity - Effective written communication is clear and easy to understand.