Blog writing — and, increasingly,
any informative writing — comes with a unique challenge: Share quality information in a casual, entertaining and approachable voice.
Be authoritative…but also, like, totally cool.
While many people think the conversational tone of a blog means writing it will be easy, good writers know the careful calculation that goes into making something read like it took no effort at all.
Unfortunately, too many writers try to achieve the tone by actually putting no effort into it. They write the way they speak — but forget one important thing: Writing can be edited. Sure, write like you speak…but better, because writing gives you the chance.
13 conversational tropes that weaken your writing
Some phrases common to conversational writing always make me cringe.
They’re not grammatically incorrect, and they don’t even break persnickety rules of syntax (think:
never ending a sentence with a preposition). They just annoy me.
Setting aside my own feelings, though, these phrases make writing feel sloppy, confusing and long-winded.
Watch out for these 13 chatty sentence structures to
tighten your copy and make your writing shine.
1. Just because…doesn’t mean
“Just because you don’t have kids doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the luxury of the family bathroom at the airport.”
How many negatives do you have to dance through to decipher that sentence? The “just because…doesn’t mean” construction
adds unnecessary words to your sentence and puts readers through an obstacle course to understand it.
Read the entire article
13 Common, Clunky Sentence Structures That Weaken Your Writing on
The Write Life.
Informative writing, such as writing a blog, comes with its own set of challenges. Being able to get your information across to a reader in a way that is easy-going yet still informative may seem simple, but can quickly prove itself anything but easy. Sentence structure plays an important part of writing in a clear, concise manner. Avoid these 13 common sentence structures that can weaken your writing.