People have asked me over the years how they can get better at writing, so a few years back I wrote up a list of advice. If you want to fine-tune how you communicate professionally, take a look! https://lnkd.in/gB2a_i8S Some guidance I still pay attention to in my own writing: - Prefer the more precise word — use "after" instead of "once", or "because" instead of "since". - Avoid unclear antecedents — learning German helped me value relative pronouns, but I'll never look at the word "this" the same way after I learned about unclear antecedents... - May, might, and can have different definitions — use may for permission, might for possibility, and can for ability. What writing guidance has stuck with you in your career?
Valuable writing reminders, precision and clarity truly make a difference in professional communication. The distinction between similar words and the note on antecedents are especially practical for writers aiming to improve accuracy and tone.
Read good writers! Reading comprehension will help you be a better writer. Also, you can never go wrong having a copy of Strunk & White.
Sarah Moir A question: how do we know if a piece of writing is "good" though? What differentiates something that is truly sub par from something that is good enough? Something that is perfect and cannot be improved upon? Has such a piece of writing ever been created? Not trying to be contrarian, just something that popped into my head. Case in point: my posts on here. Something I banged out with little care in under ten minutes could gain traction. Something I crafted with care and thought genuinely worthwhile might fall flat. Writing *I* find to be "good" may seem anything but to a reader - beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that )
"Write trustworthy content by thinking about the future" This is so real, because sometimes you read what you wrote three years and cringe, because its completely inaccurate now
Treat attention like a scarce resource that you might lose at any moment. Put the conclusion of a section at the beginning. Put the theme of a paragraph in the first sentence. Put the key point of a sentence at the start. Now that you moved the most important info up to the first paragraph, and the first sentence, and the beginning of the sentence... boost it up another level and echo the key detail in the heading.
Thank you Sarah, found the tips helpful
I am going to read this. Thank you for sharing. This is really helpful
|| Technical Writing | Content Strategy | Community || I write product documentation, API references, and technical marketing content for growing teams and businesses.
1moThe tips and resources in the post are really helpful Sarah