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How to write tight sentences

This is a guest article by Drusilla Richards. If you want to submit a guest article of your own be sure to read the guest article guidelines.

Many bloggers and writers today have trouble writing tight sentences. So, what really is a tight sentence? It’s a sentence(s) that is clear, concise, and written in a manner that makes every word count.

So, if I’m going on and on giving “background information” such as where, what, why, who, and you know all that stuff, before I get to the point, then clearly — my sentences are not “tight”… similar to this sentence. Yikes!

Loose sentences cause a number of problems for the readers.

First of all, readers fail to understand the real topic of discussion for a long period of time. The author takes so long to get to the point, that meaning is lost within the details. A reader might have to re-read the piece just to look for the main point.

Secondly, loose sentences make a writing piece boring. Readers are yawning, stretching, and daydreaming before they get to the main idea.

Here are a few tips on what you should be doing to avoid “loose sentences” and make your sentences look as fit and “tight” as they can be.

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Six habits of more effective writers

This is a guest article by Michael McPherson. If you want to submit a guest article of your own be sure to read the guest article guidelines.

Effective writers are writers who are proficient with effective writing. And the goal of each and every piece of writing is to make it effective. So who are these writers? And what do they do? Well, they have some habits – which are easy to learn. Which are easy to understand. Which can make you an effective writer as well. Which you need to learn if you want to be a full-time writer. They are…

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Magnetic writing enemy: boredom

The epidemic of boredom has attacked nearly everything.

All the new things are boring these days. Innovation in all fields is now at record low levels. New scientific and technological devices may be impressive on a technical perspective, but for the average unimpressed consumer, they’re just more marketing nonsense.

They’ve even managed to make smartphones boring these days. The latest phones from Samsung, HTC, Apple, Nokia, LG, etc. may have new features and sky-high prices, but they offer astonishingly little in terms of actual benefits over older, cheaper handsets.

But what does this have to with magnetic writing, you ask? It’s because writing, by default, is boring. It’s not interactive like a video. It’s not even as interactive as audio. It’s the oldest and safest method of communication, but writing isn’t enough these days.

You could end up writing something which is useful for your readers, but most of them won’t even bother to fully read it.

Why? They’re bored. They need help to turn the page even because there is so much they can do, so many things demanding their attention. Market saturation? Yes. But we can still defeat boredom.

We can still make our writing magnetic by ensuring it isn’t boring first. To change the default condition of a piece of writing from boring to compelling, here are the things you should keep in mind for transformation:

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What is good writing?

Good writing. More precisely, a piece of writing or multiple pieces of writing which have been labelled with the quality of goodness. Everyone strives to have their writing become, through hard work, good writing. Good writing is a great thing, a thing to strive for.

But what is it, really?

Why is that we don’t have a single complete definition of what exactly good writing means?

Is it because good writing is subjective? After all, for one person, a piece of writing may be good. But that same piece of writing could be pathetic for a different reader. There lies the problem. Any definition of good writing won’t hold water for a second if it’s based on the writer’s own opinion. One could say, “good writing is writing which contains so-and-so”, and then a reader with different likes / dislikes will say: “What? Those qualities worsen a piece of writing instead of the other way around…”

How can anyone define good writing when people are not really thinking of good writing as such but good writing for them (a substantial difference) and when people are thinking of effective writing and not good writing?

Takeaway: let’s forget “good writing” for a moment. Consider a different concept, effective writing. Why? Because that can be measured. And the measurement leads to comparison in terms of degrees. The most effective writing turns out to be irresistible writing. Irresistible writing, in the proper context, leads to magnetic, award-winning, profit-making and productive writing.

With that in mind, let’s move on to the qualities of good writing — ahem, I mean effective writing…

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Warning: Do You Know that Your Paragraphs are Not Good Enough?

Have you ever wondered why your writing was not good enough?

We’ve all done it.

You write and you write. You stress over your choice of words and your sentence structure. You’ve got the headlines and the subheads perfected. Your content is fantastic, something that deserves to get viral, deserves to be read by people. It’s helpful, informative and funny as well. It’s brilliant according to you, and yet no one bothers to read it (even if you market it like crazy).

So where’s the problem here? If there were one more sentence before the 2nd and 3rd sentences in the last paragraph, a sentence like this… “You write superb paragraphs.” Then it would explain the problem. Why, though?

It’s like this: a bricklayer can do his work brilliantly, but if his fundamental blocks – the bricks – are of poor quality, then how is his work and the result going to be perfect?

If the fundamental building blocks are of low quality, then how can the overall result be a masterpiece?

And what are the fundamental building blocks in writing? … Paragraphs.

So how do we get these paragraphs right so that we can speed on our way to other important things that matter? In short, how can we master the art of writing awesome paragraphs?

That’s what we’re here for. So let’s begin, class is in session!
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How to Master Clarity in Writing

Hey everyone, I’m back. At least, for some time. I’m sorry for not writing for so long, but the thing is, these examinations never really leave you in peace. I have to study for the SSC (Secondary School Certificate) Examinations which are going to happen in March 2012; and as you might imagine, there is a lot to study, which is why I couldn’t update this site up till now. In an ideal world, I would update it every week, now even every month isn’t looking too sure.

Still, I will definitely update whenever I get some time. And after all, quality is more important than quantity, right? So therefore you can still await those superb articles filled to the brim with writing tips (all right, all right, enough bragging).

I actually lost the draft of this post before, due to Human Error and a false trust on Windows Live Writer (seriously, Microsoft). And everyone knows it’s quite difficult to write again once you’ve lost your writing, and the flair is not there. Still I will be trying my best. (Windows Live Writer was deprecated with the launch of Windows 8, a year after this article was originally published).

Now, on with the show!

Clarity is a hot topic in writing. As you can imagine, nearly every writer and blogger out there is saying his piece on what is, and what isn’t clarity. How to attain it, how to use it. And why it’s just so important.

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