You can almost always make your writing instantly stronger by chopping out the first paragraph or so. Andrew Gordon reminded me of this powerful and simple editing step when he reviewed an ETR article I’d written.
Take a look at the beginning of the original article:
How to Defeat a Sneaky Enemy of Good Writing
Strong writing can instruct, persuade, and inspire. Weak writing bores your reader into falling asleep or – worse – looking elsewhere. So you want to make your writing as powerful as possible.
One of the biggest enemies to fine writing? The verb “to be.” In all its tenses, this verb can leach the impact out of almost any sentence. It sometimes seems impossible to avoid, but you need to seek it out and destroy it with a vengeance.
Andrew said, “Drop the first paragraph. It’s strictly a warm-up act.”
The revised article gets to the point much more quickly:
How to Defeat a Sneaky Enemy of Good Writing
One of the biggest enemies to fine writing? The verb “to be.” In all its tenses, this verb can leach the impact out of almost any sentence. It sometimes seems impossible to avoid, but you need to seek it out and destroy it with a vengeance.
There’s nothing wrong with easing into your subject when you sit down to write an article, report, or business memo. In fact, I highly recommend doing the warm-up… in your first drafts. It can help you get started – which is often the hardest part of writing. Plus, it can build momentum so that, once you reach the “main act,” you are in top writing form.
But listen up: The warm-up is solely for you. Your readers shouldn’t see it.
As novelist Robert Heinlein said, “The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.”
Cut the warm-up. Begin with the meat. Your readers will thank you for it.
Similar Articles:
- Worth Quoting: William Safires Rules for Writing – Do not put statements in the negative form. Remember to never split an infinitive. It is incumbent …
- The Language Perfectionist: Use These Words Effectively – In a major business publication, I found this sentence: "Is the slowing economy effecting how b…
- Make Life Easier: Find One Thing You Have in Common With Your Foes – We all have “enemies” — unpleasant individuals we can’t avoid because of work or social obligations…
- Let’s Split this Scene – A contentious issue among language enthusiasts is the use of the split infinitive. Before reviewing …
- The Language Perfectionist: Fragmentation Grenades – Our grade-school teachers instructed us to write complete sentences – "complete" meaning t…
- A Plethora of Errors – As a writer on language, I’m especially sensitive to mistakes I encounter while reading. They seem t…
- ETR Insider Report: From Michael… to Charlie… to Me – I e-mailed an article I’d just written for ETR to Charlie – and he sent it straight to his trash bin…