10 ways to improve your writing and editing
10 ways to improve your writing and editing
By Jessica Mills
Warning! “I will offend every one of you.”
Doug Ward, University of Kansas, started with this warning as he explained that he spent a lot of time on the TOCA website to find examples to use in his presentation. He stated that he did not mean to put anyone down or make fun of anyone with the examples he used. The work we produce is truly top quality. The examples in his presentation came from where he thinks we could improve. Through his teaching, he explained that it’s good to see things done poorly to raise awareness of what you should look for when writing.
Although Ward could provide hundreds of tips, he suggested 10 ways we can improve our writing and editing skills.
1. Double entendre
Watch out for words or phrases that are open to two interpretations. One of these interpretations is usually risqué or indecent. Also, beware of kerning headlines. Things can happen if you take the space out between certain letters or words.
Example: “Going Green In The Bathroom–Look What I Produced”
Example: “Thompson’s PenIs A Sword!”
2. Look it up
Recognize your areas of weakness and do your research. You immediately lose credibility if you include a mislabeled map of the state you’re writing about. Always check your spelling. For example, the term “prima donna” does not have the same meaning as “pre-Madonna.” When interviewing someone, take the time to look up where they are from and make sure it is accurate if used in an article. Someone may try and get away with “pulling your leg” and it could get printed – like the person who claimed to be from Tartarus. Tartarus is the nether region below Hell and cannot be found in the state of Kansas. A quick Google search can solve most issues if you aren’t positive about the information you’re writing.
Example: Labeling Minnesota where the state of Wisconsin is on a map
Example: “Pre-Madonna” vs. “prima donna”
Example: Tartarus, KS
3. Look again
Train your brain to look for homophones. Your brain will tell you something is wrong, but you may not know without looking at it again. You need to see what’s there, not what you think is there. Spell check will not flag these types of things. After production, you should reanalyze designs as well. Code can go missing, color waves may look different online or additional design development may change packaging, which could corrupt your original design. When cropping a photo, what you see when you look at the picture may be different than what your audience sees at a glance.
Example: TOCA ethics code: “…a serious breech of professional ethics.” (This has been changed to “breach.”)
Example: Letters missing if a flap covers the original design on the packaging
4. Beware of cliches and truisms
Cliches are not bad and Ward doesn’t forbid them. But be aware of how many you are using and how frequently you are using them. If you use them all of the time, it can become meaningless text. Move away from empty language and be specific enough that you are informing people. Truisms fall into this same category. People do not have a lot of time, so don’t waste their time by making continuous statements that are obviously true and state nothing new or interesting. Your audience will become bored and continue to swipe if you use them continuously.
Example: “We’re going to take it to the next level.” What is the next level?
Example: “The best defense is a good offense.” or “Not all fertilizers are created equal.”
Example: “Every industry is filled with challenge and opportunity, and the green industry is certainly no exception.” (Anything could replace “green industry” in this sentence.)
5. Clarity counts
You don’t want others to look at what you produce and read it wrong. Some things can make your mind race, like a sign saying to cough into your elbow. You know what it means, but it could be clearer. Coughing into your arm is much more achievable. Be sure to say what you mean and your audience will understand. Another note Ward made about clarity – be careful with too many rhyming words in a row, as they can be hard to understand when read quickly.
Example: “Never drive faster than you can see.” Well, how fast can you see?
Example: “They aren’t shy about what they think of them.” When was the last time you were shy about thinking?
Example: “Cross tine line is a tine line that…”
6. Acronyms
These can be a necessary evil. But often, we use acronyms when we don’t actually need to. Try asking yourself if you really need the acronym when writing it out. Sometimes they can be unnecessary. If you go to a website like toca.org, you probably know what TOCA stands for before going to the website. When writing a sentence that includes “Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA)” in the middle of it, you are causing an intentional interruption in the sentence when the reader pauses to read the acronym before reading the rest of the sentence. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but Ward brought up the example to ask if you actually need the acronym in the sentence. Another example was “Young Professionals (YP)” in an article. When was the last time you referred to this group as a “YP” in conversation? This thought process brings awareness to the argument of actually needing the acronym in your article. Also, when using acronyms, beware of them becoming something you don’t mean for them to stand for.
Example: Young Professionals = “YP”
Example: Wisconsin Tourism Foundation = “WTF” (This could cause problems.)
7. Legibility
Don’t let poor legibility spoil your work. There’s a trend of using a gray-colored type that’s hard to read because it’s too light. Patterned backgrounds can make text hard to read because it can get lost in the background. Hyperlinks in different colors can fade away depending on the background color. You should check for all of these things before publishing. Be careful when trying to make graphics sexy because it can detract from the information. Chunk things, bold things, bullet things and use subheads online. These practices help your readers follow along better and not bypass the information you want them to read.
Example: Blue text on a black background or white text over a light-colored image
Example: A circle graph with a golf ball in the middle of a pie chart can make the reader just look at the golf ball and not the statistics around the golf ball.
8. Double check your numbers
Be careful not to miscalculate numbers when writing. An example is the headline, “Five decades and 39 years as a head wrestling coach.” Quick math would make you assume this guy has been a head coach for 89 years! The writer was probably trying to state that he’s been a head wrestling coach for 39 years over the span of five decades. When using dates in a story and then referencing the time between the dates, make sure that the amount of time is accurate. Another rule of thumb is that when you multiply, you’re increasing. If you say something is twenty-five times less likely, now your head is spinning because “times” is “more,” but you’re talking about something that’s “less” likely.
Example: “Teen pregnancy drops significantly after the age of 25.”
Example: “Twenty-five times less likely to do the math”
9. Mind your punctuation
The headline “Hospital offers classes for spanking new grandparents” needs a hyphen, but it’s dangerous either way. Ward generally recommends using more periods. If you’re struggling with a sentence, try putting in less information. Your sentence will make more sense to your reader. Ultimately, make sure your sentence is clear and makes sense. If it doesn’t, then try using a period. They are your friend!
Example: “Hospital offers classes for spanking new grandparents.” (This should have a hyphen in “spanking-new.” A different word would also be a good choice.)
10. Look at your job as a form of golf
Ward ended his presentation with a worksheet, “Golfing with TOCA: An exercise in grammar and usage.” This worksheet provided examples Ward found in our writing. The front nine can be condensed while still maintaining the meaning and flow of the writing. Sometimes shorter isn’t always better, though. Number nine on the exercise actually added a word to make it clearer. The back nine each contained at least one punctuation, grammar, usage or phrasing problem. Can you identify how to improve these examples found here?