Posts Tagged ‘writing skills’

03
Feb

How To Improve Your Writing

Whether you’re pursuing a career as an entrepreneur, an academic writer, a marketer, or a blogger, few things are more important to your future than polishing your skills as a writer. A verbal pitch can go a long way, but at some point you’re going to have to put your ideas onto paper, or word document, and that’s when a project can get cumbersome. Even the process of corresponding with businesses or corporate financial entities becomes more fluid when you possess solid writing skills. If you’re applying for a Discover student loan, for instance, and you craft a compelling letter to the Executive Account Manager, your chances of success rise significantly higher. With that said, here are few time-weathered strategies for improving your written content:

Organize and outline. Do not start writing until you have a solid outline. This doesn’t just mean a few phrases scribbled in haste. Your outline should act as a guide to every section of your missive. Not only do you want a beginning, middle, and end to the content as a whole, you should work to build in beginnings, middles, and ends, to each individual section as well. This will keep your post feeling organized and on-point. Many papers, blogs and marketing copy go awry because they are disorganized, and because the author didn’t work off of a solid outline. You wouldn’t start building a tower without a blueprint, would you?

Have a thesis, and several sub-theses. Your paper, blog, pitch, or story should have an overall thesis that you are working toward illustrating. All of your points and examples should be supporting this central thesis. You should also have several smaller theses that back up the main one in different ways. If you’re writing a blog post or marketing pitch, your ‘headers’ would be your sub-theses. They are their own points, but work to affirm aspects of your overall point.

Write clearly, concisely, and powerfully. These are three characteristics that are hard to combine. Many people would think that if you write clearly and concisely, you can’t also write powerfully. But writing powerfully doesn’t mean using obtuse metaphors or stringing together Faulkner-like sentences that leave your readers feeling bewildered. Writing powerfully requires that you be clear and concise. Use adjectives sparingly. Be economical with page space. Don’t compare patently human endeavors with poetic cosmic cycles too often.

Being a good writer doesn’t require that you memorize the dictionary or try in vain to imitate classic authors. Being a good writer means scribing in an organized, concise, purpose-driven manner. You must treat the act of writing as craft, with structural components that you constantly work to improve upon.

By Jennifer Smith

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17
Oct

Education Essay Grants

To be successful in applying for education essay grants, you need to have a clear strategy of how to tackle the entire process. Writing such essays requires an in-depth understanding of the provided instructions, astute brainstorming, a proper articulation and outlining of ideas, and comprehensive editing and revision. Writing the winning essay will take time but the rewards will be fulfilling.

Overview of Education Grants

Education essay grants are made available to students from varied backgrounds and in equally varied fields of study. Some of these grants are judged based on the quality of the written matter while others have extra requirements including a description of one’s financial need or perhaps one’s GPA. Regardless of the type of essay scholarship, applying for education essay grants is an opportunity to allow your writing prowess and skills to help you pay for school.

Important Writing Aspects

In applying for education essay grants, you must ensure that the essay that is submitted to the judging panel is impressive. An essay will sway the judges’ award decision toward a certain applicant if it combines well-outlined thoughts and notable writing skills.

Most applying candidates wrongly suppose that the final decision has more to do with the fine quality of their grades. Education essays are assessed on the basis of the quality of analytical and coherent thoughts expressed therein, the writer’s articulation of ideas, and the resourcefulness of the writing style.

Best Writing Tips

A winning essay has the unique twin ability of being able to answer the required question or topic coherently and to give a vivid account of the candidate’s academic achievements. The essay provides details about the applicant’s assorted experiences that he feels make him qualified for the grant. Wherever applicable, therefore, candidates must provide clear descriptions about the projects they have been involved in and the impacts that these have had on them and the society affected by these projects. Further, applicants for education essay grants need to describe how they plan to contribute to society if they are awarded the grant.

Applicants should incorporate personalization when writing essays to give proper insights into themselves. They should provide the judges with their anticipated 1- to 5-year goals and plans and do so with measured conviction and passion to avoid giving the essay judges a feeling that they are bragging or forcing issues.

Points to Avoid

In writing for education essay grants, you must be careful to avoid the following:

  •  Beginning with a feeble paragraph that more or less dissuades the judges from continuing with the rest of the essay content.
  • Including indistinct descriptions that communicate nothing unique or new.
  • Straying in the course of writing–be careful to remain on the intended topic or subject. This will prevent you from giving or describing details that are not only vague but irrelevant.
  •  Using acronyms and failing to expound on their meaning.
  •  Incorrectly using jargon and slang; it is better to use conventional language rather than words and phrases that will result in miscommunication.
  • Negative talk about colleagues and an excessive emphasis on personal achievements.
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07
Aug

7 Ways to Improve Writing

Communication is becoming an increasingly important aspect of life in the 21st century. To be an effective communicator, writing skills are a must, whether you are writing an email, a text message or preparing a corporate presentation. However, it takes time to become an effective communicator and writer. Fortunately, you can improve your writing now, without spending days or even weeks on laborious writing drills.

Brevity and Simplicity

Brevity and simplicity are the two basic qualities of clear writing, according to Paula LaRocque, the author of “Championship Writing: 50 Ways to Improve Your Writing.” Accordingly, write in simple and easy-to-read sentences. To improve clarity, focus on the most interesting aspect of your subject matter. Also, begin your writing with general statements, providing further details in later paragraphs.

“That” or “Which”

A common problem with many sloppy sentences is the abuse of the “which” conjunction, according to an article by Jody Gilbert published on TechRepublic.com. To improve the “flow” of your writing, use conjunction “that” instead of “which” if the clause — the information following the conjunction — is essential and without it the sentence would not convey the intended meaning. For example, “The plane, which was to take off at 2 p.m., was delayed” would better read as “The plane that was to take off at 2 p.m. was delayed.” Always use commas to separate a non-essential clause beginning with “which.”

Wordiness

Wordiness is one of the chief enemies of a well-written text because it makes the writing appear unprofessional and distracts the reader. Common examples of wordy phrases include “make an effort” instead of “try,” “located at” instead of “at,” nodded his head” instead of “nodded” and “equally as good” instead of “equally good.”

Active Writing

Active writing means giving preference to active voice over passive voice. It requires the writer to eliminate “weak” words like “can,” “may” and “should,” going straight to the point instead. For example, “You should write in active voice,” reads better as, “Write in active voice.”

Referring to Organizations

While a company or an organization may consist of many people, referring to it as “they” is incorrect. To most people a collective group is still a single entity. Refer to a company as “they” when you are explicitly writing about the company’s employees.

“That” or “Who”

Use “who” when referring to people. For example, “Mr. Jones is the manager that promoted me” should read “Mr. Jones is the manager who promoted me.”

Cliches

Cliches come in three forms, according to Paula LaRocque. The first group includes indispensable cliches, or phrases, that are difficult to replace with conventional words with the same level of eloquence. An example would be “slept like a log.” Acceptable cliches are those that are easily recognizable yet are not easily predictable — for example, opening “a Pandora’s briefcase” when writing about lawyers. Avoid “fad-speak” and unoriginal cliches such as “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist” and “He is history.”

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