Four Steps To Increase The Quality Of Your Writing

Writing, like any other activity, always lies somewhere on a scale of quality. The scale for writing runs from meaningless at the bottom to sublime at the top.

Most writing is average. After all, that is what "average" means. Maybe a little better than average, maybe a little worse, but basically, hovering around average. Average writing does not get read twice, and usually does not get published. Average writing does not impress.

People write in order to communicate a message, whether that message is in the form of a story, an essay, a business report, or a poem. Poor writing not only fails to communicate the message, but serves to degrade the message. The quality of writing itself signals the amount of thought the writer has put into the message. Your ideas and conclusions might be brilliant, but lost in mangled or rambling language.

If you want your writing to be above average, and command attention, you had better follow four simple rules. You might not like them, but they are the price of admission to the respected writers club.

First, realize that your first draft is only a first draft, not a finished piece of writing.

The act of writing itself tends to clarify one's thoughts and message, so by the time you have finished a piece, you know more than when you started. Generally, the beginning of the piece will be less clearly focused than the end, in this first draft stage.

You must, must, must re-read anything you write, and rewrite it to bring it into focus from beginning to end. Many of your opening words can probably be condensed into shorter sentences that make specific points, now that you are more clear on the points you are trying to make. Or, in the case of a story, now that you know where it is going, the opening words can lead the reader there more directly.

Second, search out and destroy repetitive words, phrases, and constructions.

One mark of an average writer is that he overuses certain words or devices. He might use the word "actually" over and over. He might interject a short italicized sentence every few paragraphs. He might use dashes all the time instead of colons, semicolons, parentheses, and ellipses. Repetition at first is boring, then irritating. Find another way to say what you want to say when you find a repetition.

Third, pay attention to grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

If you are not good at one or more of these, ask someone who is good to read and repair your piece. No one is impressed by bad spelling or sentences that aren't sentences. Editors will throw away your work after reading a single page, and readers will wish they weren't reading. Even when you are writing a letter or an e-mail, try to make it as readable as possible.

Fourth, re-read your piece as if you were a reader who had never seen it before.

Reading your own work from a different viewpoint takes practice, but is worth learning. See what message the writing carries, and how well. Notice if your eyes stop moving because of an awkward sentence that demands a second reading to understand. Look for points that someone else could disagree with, because you will want to go back and make them stronger. In other words, see if you have impressed yourself.

Anyone can write better than they do. The best writers know this; the average writer often does not. Every single one of those best writers was an average writer first. No one is born a very good writer. Can anyone become one of the best? Probably, with enough work and passion. But being the best isn't necessary; being very good will take you a long way.

Starting from wherever your writing presently falls on the scale of quality, you can raise it up the scale. Every notch you raise it will bring you more admiration and more positive response from whoever reads your writing.

Other writers have written many books and articles on ways to improve one's writing, which are worth reading if you want to excel as a writer. But for your normal, everyday writing needs, the above rules will serve you well to raise the quality of your writing.

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By: Don Dewsnap

Don Dewsnap has spent years studying quality and its principles and applications. Now he has put his knowledge into a readable, useable book: Anyone Can Improve His or Her Life: The Principles of Quality. Find out more about this book at Principles-of-Quality.com. Quality is the ultimate yardstick of value, and the best guarantee of happiness. The only people who will not benefit from knowing the underlying principles of quality are those who have already given up on life.

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