How to Write and Speak Better - Reader Digest
The hall mark of good writing
- Accuracy
- appropriateness
- attentive to your audience
- avoidance of ambiguity
- Brevity or Conciseness
- brightness or buoyancy
- Correctness
- of usage and grammar
- clarity
- consistency
- concreteness
- Be mindful of the reader
- Be logical in one's thinking
Remember your Readers
- Order your thoughts in the most methodical and logical sequence
- Use the most lucid language
Be Attentive and Logical
Be vigilant in using the correct grammar.
Incorrect The result of all these lengthy legal actions, counterclaims and appeals stretching over several months, were simply huge bills from the lawyers and nothing else.
Correct The result of all these lengthy legal actions, counterclaims, and appeals was simply huge bills from the lawyers and nothing else.
Incorrect The result of all these lengthy legal actions, counterclaims, and appeals simply produced huge bills from the lawyers and nothing else.
Correct All these lengthy legal actions, counterclaims, and appeals simply produced huge bills from the lawyers and nothing else.
Logical Lapses
False contrast and logic leaps.
Incorrect He defrauded his employers ingeniously over the years, but they never found out.
Correct Since the front was ingenious, it is hotly surprising that the employers never found out about it.
Incorrect I'm sorry I'm late: it's St. Patrick's Day.
Correct I'm sorry I'm late. I was held up by a traffic jam near Hyde Park, caused by a big parade there. I hadn't realized that it's St. Patrick's Day today, and that almost every Irish person in London would be flocking to the park to join the match.
