After you’re done writing, look for clichés. Take a phrase out if it is vogue (bottom-line), frequently used (finding ones’ self), predictable (cry like a baby), or ill-defined (few and far between). To eliminate clichés in your writing, identify them, and think about what you really wanted to say. Then say it in your own way, without relying on ready-made expressions.

An example:

I crawled up in the fetal position and cried like a baby.

Two clichés here: “crawling up in the fetal position ” and “crying like a baby.”

Ask yourself what you really want to say: “I felt hurt, lonely, and sad.

Replace the ready-made expression with your own way of saying things. From Vancouver author Billie Livingston: “Tears scratched at my eyes like a wet dog at the door.” Another by her: “Resentment sat in my stomach like a cold slab of meat.”

Eliminate clichés and instead, create your own unique ways of saying what you want to say. It’ll make your writer’s voice stronger and your writing more engaging.

Qualifiers

In Strunk, White, and Kalman’s words (2000), “the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words” (p. 106). Qualifiers such as little, very, pretty, best, worst, I guess, rather, I think, sometimes, indicate uncertainty and willingness to concede. They weaken your argument. We tend to use qualifiers unintentionally; bring them to the fore of your mind and remove them from your prose.

For example: “Qualifiers can be pretty irritating, but I guess it will be rather tough to be very aware of using them. We are all a little guilty of using them sometimes.”

Anyhoo…

This word is one of the new words entered into the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in September 2009. Its increased popularity in North America to indicate a change of subject in the conversation has earned it a special and distinct entry. Certainly, some simplified words eventually take hold and replace the orthodox spelled version (thruway for example, and another recent one, blankie, added in December 2007 in the OED). Use simplified spelling with caution though. Being a lover of words, the aesthetic value of the word is, among other arguments such as the historic value and meaning of orthodox spelling, enough to warrant caution against toe curlers like anyhoo. Words like anyhoo, boyz, bratz, nite, and wassup are, even in informal writing, jarring, inhospitable, and just plain ugly.

Anyhoo, as Masha Bell points out in a BBC interview (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6250184.stm), “if u hav a por memmory yor chances of becumming a good speller ar lo. But wors stil, yor chances of lerning to read ar not good either, because of phonnic nonsense…”

U mite think simple spelling is butiful, but reading this onely slos me down. Plus, it’s ugly.

Writer’s block, while a cure for writer’s cramp as Inigon DeLeon so aptly pointed out, can be a real pain, especially for those of us who are facing tight deadlines. If you are struggling to get going, try focused free writing to collect your initial thoughts and ideas:

Turn your computer screen off, or if you work from a laptop, turn the light off (just so that your inner editor does not get distracted by the red lines under misspelled words). Put a timer, watch, or clock beside your keyboard and give yourself five or 10 minutes. Once the clock starts ticking, write. Have your topic/question in the fore of your mind, and write, write, write whatever comes to mind on that subject matter. Do not take your fingers off the screen. Write for 10 minutes straight. Don’t worry about it if your mind goes blank for a minute and you end up writing, “I really have no clue what to write next.” Just keep on writing, fingers on keyboard.  After 10 minutes, you can turn the screen/light back on, and you will find that there are sections you can use, ideas you like and can work with, or further develop.

Focused free writing is similar to a warm-up you might do before exercising and a great way to cure for writer’s block.

Good writing is clear. If a word, a phrase, or a sentence does not have a purpose, take it out. Make each word count. A simple exercise can help you do this: Once you are done with a draft, reduce the word count by 30% without changing the content or meaning.

Some examples of unnecessary words that clutter from page 39 of Strunk, White & Kalman (2000). Elements of Style (4th ed.). N.Y: Penguin (This, by the way, is how to properly reference a certain edition according to APA style guidelines.)

* the question as to whether- whether (or the question whether)

* that story is a strange one- that story is strange

* he is a man who- he

* used for fuel purposes-used for fuel

* the reason why is that- the reason why

Some writers are so familiar with their own topic area that they tend to jump from A to C, assuming that the reader will be able to follow. Don’t assume! Take your reader by the hand and lead him or her from A to B then C.

One way to be hospitable to your reader is to avoid initials for the names of organizations or movements, unless you are sure that your reader is familiar with it. For example, not everyone may know what AA stands for, or BCAA. We all, at one time or another, come across these initials for the first time. A good rule of thumb: Write names in full the first time they appear in your work followed by the initial between parentheses. After that (once the reader knows it), use the initial.

Good writing is hospitable to the reader. Keep your reader and the need to be kind to him or her in the fore of your mind as you write!

Good writing is clear and concise. Incomplete and incorrect comparisons take away from clarity, and should therefore be avoided. Yet many of the authors I work with have a tendency to use incomplete comparisons.

For example:

Incomplete: This technique will give students a more positive view of homework. More than what?

Wrong: A chicken egg is smaller than an emu.

Complete: Upon learning this technique, students will have a more positive outlook of homework than they had prior to learning it.

Correct but a bit wordy: An egg of a chicken is smaller than an egg of an emu.

Clear and concise: An egg of a chicken is smaller than that of an emu.

Ditto. Clear and concise: An egg of a chicken is smaller than an emu’s.

Debates about the serial comma are fierce and ongoing. I myself am a fan of the serial comma, the comma that is used right before a conjunction (i.e. and/or) before the last item in a list. I believe that good writing is clear and concise and the serial comma adds to clarity.

A much cited example, the book dedication: “This book is dedicated to my parents, Sam and Nicole.” It seems as if the author acknowledges four people, the parents and Sam and Nicole, but it is also possible that the author is naming the parents (my dad Sam and my mom Nicole).  This is confusing. If the author meant to dedicate the book to four people, the serial comma can avoid ambiguity: “This book is dedicated to my parents, Sam, and Nicole.”

Another example: “My favorite dresses are blue and green, silver and black, red and white and blue.”  Do I have three  (i.e. one blue and green, one silver and black, and one that is red white and blue), or four (one blue and green, one silver and black, one read and white, and one blue)? The serial comma clarifies: “My favorite dresses are blue and green, silver and black, read and white, and blue.”

What’s the difference? Well, there’s none. Further and farther are interchangeable. This was not always so. Farther used to be used to refer to distance, as in Let’s walk a little farther, leaving further for sentences such as Let’s think about this a little further. But contemporary consensus has it that these words are now both right in both instances.

Use fewer with countable nouns, less with uncountable nouns. For example, There were fewer students in class today and I ate less than she did. Even though hours are countable, you generally use less with time and money. For example, I have less than 10 minutes left to finish this post. However, if you refer to specific units of time or money, you can use fewer. For example, I have fewer than ten silver coins.

“That” is restrictive; it is used to draw the reader’s attention to a specific aspect of the information you are giving. Because the information is essential, the clause is not set off with a comma. “Which” is non-restrictive, it is used to add information. This information is not essential to the meaning of the sentence, and therefore set off with a comma.

For example:

I will wear the dress that is in the laundry.

I have more than one dress, but I want to wear that one.

As a writer, you only have a short moment to impress the reader. A good opening line draws the reader’s attention and make a teacher, publisher or editor pay a little closer attention to your article or story. It draws them in and tells them that you know what you are doing.

For some, writing a hook comes naturally. My 12-year old son for example, writes amazing hooks. For writing assignments in school, he writes hooks like  ”Guess why I had to go to the principle this time?” or “Guess why I argued with the lunch monitor again?” Reading it I wonder, why did he get sent to the office again? I read on. The hook has done its job.

Hooks don’t have to come in the form of a question, although questions make powerful hooks. You can also offer an interesting fact, an analogy, a quote, an observation, or a strong statement about the theme of the story.

Some examples:

Do you know what the birds and animals say? (from Paul Goble, Her Seven Brothers)

When I was fifteen, I got hepatitis. (Bernard Schlink, The Reader)

I am home for my daughter’s first birthday. (Joan Didion, On Going Home)

In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people—the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me. (George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant)

They’re out there. (Ken Kesey, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest)