We all spend a lot of time communicating in writing.
Whether it’s through briefs and reports or emails, tweets and Facebook posts, good writing skills help us communicate effectively both at work and in our private lives.
Here are five ideas to spice up your writing so it is appetising no matter what you’re serving up.
Some grammar rules can be broken.
You can start a sentence with ‘and’. And depending on the product and audience, you can even start a sentence with ‘but’.
It is also acceptable to split the infinitive. Sometimes you just have to boldly go…
About a month ago, a little wattlebird started making a nest in the tree outside our lounge room window. From the moment we first noticed her, that mother bird was 100% clear about her purpose. No dithering, no distractions, no dilly-dallying. Watching her, I realised there’s a lesson in that: If you need to write something, know your purpose before your fingers hit the keyboard.
A friend recently told me she had just decluttered her whole house in two weeks. I’m in awe. It would take me two weeks just to clear a path to the back of our garage. My friend was inspired by author Marie Kondo, who says a decluttered environment becomes ‘a place where there are no unnecessary things, and our thoughts become clear’. Sounds good. But instead of tackling the garage (have to work up to that daunting task) I thought about how well this theory applies to writing.
Have you heard about parallel construction and bullet points? It’s not as hard as it sounds. First, you just need to pick the bullet points that don’t match.
How frustrating is it trying to follow poorly written guides? Sort of like trying to understand the illustrations that come with flat pack furniture. So how can you avoid ‘flat pack syndrome’? Here are some suggestions for writing clear, useful guides, instructions or explanations that are easier for people to understand and follow.