Writing Techniques

By Nicolas Clancy
What you will learn

In this guide you will learn the following techniques, tips, and tricks to
enhance your writing skills:

“Points” system for your sentences

Eliminating redundant or unnecessary words to clean up writing

Positive writing over negative

  The answer may seem obvious to
college students but not everyone feels
the same way
 Writing is crucial to everyone’s life we
perform it practically daily and is vital
to many vocations like:
Teaching
Why is this


 Scientific studies

important?  Cooking (writing and explaining recipes)

 Politics
 Even outside of jobs people write in
general even on a microscopic level
like texting, emailing, or simply writing
a letter
The ‘Points’ system

 One way to better your writing is to look at each sentence as having 10 points
to distribute amongst each word, for example:
 Mary has 10 points for a sentence and writes the following: “The blue bird sings a
melody as beautiful as the tree she is perched upon.” The previous sentence
contained 15 words, so each word is worth .66 points (10 total points divided
amongst 15 words).
The ‘Points’ system cont.

 The points system isn’t always viable

 Sometimes a shorter sentence is as qualitative as a longer one
 So why is this a good trick to learn?
 People who often write run on sentences can use this to cutback on their word
count per sentence
 If you need to write something that is direct and concise, this trick places your
writings into perspective
Eliminating redundant or wasteful words

 This is a very simple trick that will make your writing sound better and
enhanced
 Elimination of unnecessary or wasteful words that will make your writing
cohesive and more enjoyable to read
 Examples of wasteful words:
 Very
 Really
 Words that have the same meaning
Eliminating redundant or wasteful words
cont.
 Sentence examples:
 This is a very simple trick that will make your writing sound better and
cleaner
 Keeping wasteful words in mind this sentence can be cleaned up:
 This is a very simple trick that will make your writing sound better and cleaner
 This new sentence is direct whilst also sounding more cohesive than the previous sentence
You try

 A pretty and beautiful duck was sitting very quietly on a gorgeous lake
amongst a plethora of glamorous trees.
 A beautiful duck sat quietly on a crystal-clear lake amongst a plethora of
colorful trees.
 Why its better:
 Concise, it gets to the point with less words
 More detailed. The first sentences gives an ambiguous description of things using words
synonymous to beautiful. Describing the lake as crystal clear and the trees as colorful
guides your readers’ mental imagery
Eliminating redundant or wasteful words
cont.
 Why is this helpful?
 This tool has very little drawbacks, in nearly every situation it is used it will only
provide benefits ro your writing.
 Your writing will sound more mature and professional
 It becomes easier to use the more you use it
 Sometimes you may want to reach a word limit and ‘filler’ words are helpful. The more
you write and write without using filler words the easier it becomes.
‘Positive’ wording

 Writing in the positive does not mean its virtuous but uses direct words over
what words or subjects are not
 For example: My teacher did not show up early to class, nor did she ever have a
teaching plan
 Change to: My teacher was late to class and always seemed to forget a teaching
plan
 In the changed sentence ‘not’ was removed and the teacher was directly
described. Rather than focusing on what she wasn’t the author described
directly what she was.
 This tends to make sentences less ‘wordy’ and much clearer to the reader
What did we learn?

 The points system

 A simple trick to restrict worthless word usage, making sentences clear and concise
 Not always beneficial but helps those who have difficulty with run on sentences
 Eliminating redundant or filler words
 Similar to the ‘points’ system but clearly define what the writer should be
eliminating
 Makes writing sound much more mature
 A technique that improves over time
 Positive writing
 Helps author be more descriptive whilst having a smaller chance of confusing the
reader
Questions?