1. Cut long sentences in two
Though long sentences may be grammatically correct, they often contain several ideas. Thus, they can easily lose the reader’s focus. Because they do not provide a break, they lead readers to get stuck or lose interest. So, the reader can get bored and stops reading.
Solution: Proofread your comma-heavy sentence and give each idea its own sentence.
2. Avoid Adverbs
Adverbs weaken your writing, because excess words are not truly descriptive. For instance, rather than saying, “The girl runs quickly”, say, “The girl sprints”. Instead of describing the cat as “walking slowly”, say “s/he creeps or tiptoes”. The screen door didn’t “shut noisily”, it “banged shut”.
Solution: Find a more powerful verb to replace the “verb + -ly” Adverb combo.
3. Stick to one person
Sometimes it is necessary to use both first and second persons (I , you), but that can be jarring for readers. For example, you may start your introduction by talking about yourself, then switch halfway through the piece and start addressing the reader.
Solution: Stick to “I” or “you” throughout one piece of writing.
(If you must switch, start with one and finish with the other. Do not move back and forth between the two. Readers will get lost.)
4. Remove extra punctuation
A powerful Hyphen here and a thought-provoking semicolon there can be effective. However, a piece of writing littered with all sorts of punctuation — parentheses, colons, ellipses, etc. — does not flow well.
Solution: Oftentimes, one can eliminate these extra pieces of punctuation with commas or by ending a sentence and starting a new one. That makes writing much stronger.
5. Replace negative with positive
Instead of saying what something is not, it is better to say what it is. Example: “You don’t want to make these mistakes in your writing” could be better stated as, “You want to avoid these mistakes in your writing.” It is also more straightforward.
Solution: If you find negative statements in your writing that contain “do not”, “should not”, “cannot” or some such expression, find a way to rewrite them without using “not”. This often means you may need to find a more powerful verb.
6. Replace stuffy words with simple ones
Some people think jargon makes their writing sound smart, but that is an illusion. Good writing should not confuse readers. If they need a dictionary to finish a sentence, your writing has room for improvement.
Solution: To get your point across, use words with which people are familiar. The English language has thousands of words. You can certainly find a shorter or more common word in your thesaurus than obscure vocabulary.
7. Remove redundancies
One does not need to express the same thing with two words. For example: Brand new, advance planning, basic necessities, etc. Sometimes these redundancies are separated by “and”.
Solution: Use straightforward language and to the point. Redundancies are silly.
8. Reduce Prepositions
Though Prepositions (of, in, to, for, etc.) are helpful little words, they make sentences lengthier, because they obviously cannot stand alone. Prepositions need lots of friends, so to speak. Sometimes even a prepositional phrase can be replaced with just one more direct word or cut completely. Example: “The car of your neighbor” is really just “your neighbor’s car”.
Solution: An easy way to cut Prepositions is to look for opportunities to make something possessive.
9. Limit “in order to”
If you’re going to the kitchen “in order” to make a sandwich, your sentence could be tighter, because you’re really going to the kitchen “to make” a sandwich.
Often the “in order to” phrase makes writing unnecessarily longer to arrive at the point of the sentence, which means your story is dragging more than it needs to. Choose wisely.
Solution: Use it only, if it sounds awkward otherwise.
10. Do not use “start to”
Did you start to walk the dog, or did you walk the dog? Is the car starting to roll down the hill, or is it rolling down the hill? – “Start to” is a more difficult phrase to deal with than “in order to”, because sometimes you do need it. But more likely than not, you do not.
Solution: Rather than making “start” the active verb, use the verb that is actually more active — like walking or rolling — to tell your story.
11. Nix “that”
In only about five percent of our sentences the Pronoun “that” makes our idea easier to understand. In the other 95%, get rid of it! Example: “I decided journalism was a good career for me” is less complicated than, “I decided that journalism was a good career for me”.
12. Replace “thing” with a better word
Usually when we write “thing” or “things”, it is because of a lack in creativity. In every day life, we may ask for “that thing over there”, but in writing, calling anything a “thing” shows poor penmanship.
Solution: Replace “thing” or “things” with a more descriptive word.
13. Avoid “very” and “really”
In a sentence like “This is a very difficult one to remember” ask, how much is the word “very” helping to get the point across? It does not make the matter sound more difficult. The same applies to “really”. It is not a “really” difficult tip to remember. It is simply “a difficult” tip to remember.
14. Make your verbs stronger
The word “make” is sometimes used in the same way as “start to” in place of what could be a stronger verb. For example, “25 ways to make your copy stronger”.
Solution: The verb “make” doesn’t tell the reader much at all. Better: “25 ways to strengthen your copy”.
15. Avoid Passive Voice
Whenever we have the opportunity to make writing clearer and more personal, we should avoid using Passive Voice most instances.
16. Refer to people as “who” not “that”
Use “John is the guy who always forgets his shoes”, not “… that always forgets his shoes”. It’s easy to make this mistake, because the word “that” has become acceptable in everyday American English conversation. However, the error is more noticeable when written down.
17. Avoid “currently”
“Currently” is virtually always redundant. Avoid: “Tom Jones is currently a communications director”. Unless Tom Jones is communications director at that very moment, we do not need “currently” to clarify his position.
18. Eliminate “there is” or “there are” at the beginning of sentences
This is often a symptom of lazy writing.
Solution: Instead of starting a sentence with “there is”, try turning the phrase around to include a verb, or start with a verb. Instead of “There are lots of better, more interesting ways ”, replace the sentence with “Start your sentences in a more interesting way”. If your style includes a lot of phrases that begin with “there is” or “there are”, put some time into at least rewriting most of them.
19. No contractions
Good English: “I am heading to the market that is close to my house”.
Poor: “I’m heading to the market that’s close to my house?”
Contractions may make your writing sound colloquial and perhaps more personal (some claim), but it is not professional and makes your writing sound like a hillbilly talking.
Solution: Avoid contractions in writing.
20. Avoid the Continuous Form (-ing) in the Past Tense (Imperfect)
“We were starting to …” or “She was running toward …”: Replace this form in the Past Tense with “We started to …” or “She ran toward …”
Solution: Use the Continuous Form in the Past Tense more sparingly makes writing clearer and easier to read.
21. Replace “over” with “more than” for numbers
Poor: “Over 200 people did not like your Facebook page.”
Correct: “More than 200 people …” Of course, everyone will know what you mean when you use “over”. The Preposition ”over” is used for locations and “more” for quantities. Hence, using “more than” in this case is proper English, especially when it comes to writing.
22. Hyphenate modifiers
When modifying a noun with more than one word we need a Hyphen. Though the less erudite do not follow this rule, it is a great way to show that you actually understand the use of Hyphens.
Example: Write about full-time work. No Hyphen however when saying, “one is working full time”.
23. Colloquial Duplication
While we say "all the time", avoid the combination of "all the", unless you say "all of the ...". For example: "All the people in the work are afraid" should be "All people in the world.." (unless you write "All of the people in the world ...).