17 Small Changes That Will Make Your

Writing Irresistible, According to an NYU

Writing Professor
Get right to the point, be specific, and make sure to find your own voice.



By Minda Zetlin, Author of 'Career Self-Care: Find Your Happiness, Success, and Fulfillment at
Work'@MindaZetlin
Photo: Getty Images
Would you like your writing to be lively, persuasive, and compelling, and impossible to ignore?
Whether you're writing an email, a blog post, or a report on a technical subject, some simple
changes can make what you write more appealing to readers, even if you've never taken a writing
course.
To learn how to make any kind of writing sparkle, I talked with Estelle Erasmus, a prolific writer
and former magazine editor, writing professor at New York University, and author of the new
book Writing That Gets Noticed (New World Library, 2023). Erasmus shared some of the tips
she gives to her students, which include both new writers and published authors, to make their
writing stand out from the crowd. Here's some of her best advice.
1. Get straight to the point.
Whether you're trying to write a compelling essay or a legal or financial report, "you want to get
to the hook of what you're writing about," Erasmus says. "You don't want to do 'throat-clearing,'
which is putting a lot of unnecessary information in there before you get to the meat."
"Everyone's busy these days," she adds. "The attention span is so much shorter than it was when
I started in this business. So you want to be concise and get to the point very quickly."
2. Consider using bullet points.
Bullet points aren't appropriate for every type of writing--for example, they generally aren't used
in personal essays or most news articles. But in the right situation, they can be a powerful tool.
"If you're trying to convey a lot of information, bullet points are a very good and concise way to
do it," Erasmus says.
3. Make sure you have a compelling title.
It's easy for even seasoned writers to pay little attention to the title (or headline) of what they
write. But titles and headlines are incredibly important, because that's how some people will
decide whether or not to read what you wrote.
So put some careful thought into your title. "It should be compelling and it should evoke emotion
in some way, because the science shows that, the more you evoke emotion in a reader, the more
the message will resonate with them."
4. Use numbers.
One way to make your title more compelling is to use a number in it (something we often do at
Inc.com). "'50 ways to make an impact" is an example of this approach, Erasmus says. Using
relevant statistics, either in your title or within the piece, is another way numbers can make what
you're writing more persuasive.
5. Reference someone or something in the news.
"You can make a provocative statement," Erasmus says. "A therapist wrote a piece called 'How
John Mayer helped me become a better therapist.' There are ways of bringing more attention to
your pieces by connecting them to something provocative."
6. Consider starting with an anecdote or a quote.
"Start your piece with a dramatic or compelling anecdote," Erasmus says. If you're writing about
a medical topic, consider starting with the story of someone who had the condition. Or perhaps
with a surprising or compelling quote from an expert in what you're writing about. These can
both be good ways to grab the reader's attention right from the start.
7. Make every sentence count.
"Make sure that every sentence has a point and moves the piece forward," she advises. "So
you're not just writing a sentence that doesn't have a point." With readers so busy these days, and
so many other things (YouTube! Netflix! Social media!) pulling at their attention, you don't want
that attention to wane, even for a moment.
So make sure every sentence has a purpose. That purpose could be to set a scene for the reader
by describing a place or a person, depending on what you're writing, or it could be to convey
information or tell what happened next.
8. Use active language.
It's way too easy, even for experienced writers, to fall into the trap of using passive language.
"Our new product is beneficial to customers in various ways" is an example of passive writing.
"Our new product benefits customers..." is active, and more compelling.
"Often, passive writing does not really resonate with the reader because it doesn't feel like you're
involved in it," Erasmus explains. It's way too easy to fall into using passive language without
realizing it, so she recommends you go back over a piece of writing once you've completed a
draft, to look for passive language and replace it with active language.
While you're doing that, you should also eliminate jargon, she says--unless it's within context
and you know it will be familiar to the specific audience you're writing for. When in doubt, if
you can't remove a technical or unfamiliar term, make sure to add a definition.
9. Get rid of clichés.
"I used to use clichés like they were going out of style, but now I wouldn't touch one with a ten-
foot pole," it says in one of my favorite Frank and Ernest cartoons. Erasmus recommends
removing clichés from all your writing, and there are two very good reasons to do so. The first is
that clichés are--by definition--very familiar, which means they're liable to bore your reader, and
you risk losing their attention. The second is that, while you may know what you mean when you
use a cliché, it could mean something completely different to someone else. Whenever possible,
find your own words to convey an idea, rather than defaulting to a tried-and-true phrase.
10. Remove "filler" words.
"You're trying to get noticed with your writing," Erasmus says. "So you want to get rid of 'filler'
words like 'it will be,' 'there will be,' 'it was,' 'it wasn't,' 'there are,' and so on. That will create
tighter sentences, which helps keep people's attention." She suggests trying an online grammar
checker--often the software will flag wordy sentences and make suggestions for improving them.
11. Vary sentence length.
If a piece of writing has nothing but long sentences (like this one), it can become confusing and
maybe even exhausting for a reader to get all the way through it, and you could lose them along
the way. Short sentences are great. They convey movement, Erasmus says. But not too many in a
row. That can make your writing feel choppy. (As the last five sentences do.) So to create writing
with a natural flow, try varying your sentence length, with some longer ones interspersed
with shorter ones.
12. Pay close attention to the last word of a sentence.
This is a bit of an advanced technique, and you don't need to do it all the time, but it can be very
effective: Use the last word of a sentence to draw the reader into the next sentence. Erasmus
refers to her book for an example: "Because Emily was arrested, she didn't come to work." To
make the writing stronger, Erasmus suggests a change to "Emily didn't come to work because
she was arrested." The next sentence is: "The cop booked her into the precinct for shoplifting."
"So 'arrested' is the ending of the first sentence, and 'the cop'--obviously the person doing the
arresting--is the beginning of the next," Erasmus explains. That can help you keep your reader's
attention and pull them along through the piece.
13. Be specific.
"The mark of an amateur is someone who writes very broadly and doesn't use specifics," she
says. So instead of writing "This is a beautiful and evocative painting," try saying exactly why
you see it that way. "With glistening sand and an endless turquoise ocean, this painting evokes a
summer day at the beach."
14. Use sensory language.
The example above uses visual description to engage the reader, but remember that they have
other senses as well. "Research has shown that if you use sensory language, which is touching,
tasting, smelling, feeling, it paints a picture for the reader and gets them involved," Erasmus
says. And sensory writing is not confined to narrative writing like fiction or essays. "Whatever it
is you're writing about, you can involve the senses."
15. Be authoritative.
Too often, people use qualifiers that make what they are writing seem less definite, Erasmus
says. "Don't vacillate. Don't say 'I think' or 'it could possibly be.' Especially if you are trying to
be a thought leader and build a platform. You want to be the authoritative presence that your
followers or your clients rely on."
16. Find your own voice.
You have your own unique speaking voice, not only in its sound quality, but in the choice of
words and phrases that you use. It's a great idea to have your own unique voice come out in your
writing as well, which will make it more personal, and recognizably yours. If, say, you're writing
about tips and tricks to help readers improve their lives, set your voice up at the beginning and
come back to it at the end, Erasmus advises.
How do you find your own voice? "Record yourself, listen to how you speak, and use that in
your writing," she says. "And you can read pieces by writers you admire and think of how they
showcase their voices. You can tweak that to showcase your voice."
17. Come full circle.
When appropriate, it's always great to end a piece by bringing the reader back to where they
began, what Erasmus calls "circling back." She explains: "Maybe you're writing from a
conference, and you give an example from the beginning of the conference. Then you share a lot
of tips and advice. Then you go back and at the end, offer one final tip from the conference."
At the start of this piece, I promised to make your writing livelier and more compelling. Making
even some of these changes will help make your writing sparkle, and engage your busy readers,
so that they keep on reading.