More Quick Tips to Improve Your Writing

A few months back we offered Five Quick Tips to Improve Your Writing. In the finest tradition of Hollywood, here's the sequel.

1. Lead with your main idea.
   As a general rule, state the main idea of a paragraph in the first sentence--the topic sentence. Don't keep your readers guessing.
   See Practice in Composing Topic Sentences.



2. Vary sentence types and structures.
   Vary sentence types by including occasional questions and commands. Vary sentence structures by blending simple, compound, and complex sentences.
   See Basic Sentence Structures.



3. Use specific nouns and verbs.
   To convey your message clearly and keep your readers engaged, use concrete and specific words that show what you mean.
   See Descriptive Details in Wallace Stegner's "Town Dump."



4. Actively edit and proofread.
   It's easy to overlook errors when merely looking over your work. So be on the lookout for common trouble spots when studying your final draft.
   See Revision Checklist and Editing Checklist.



5. Use a dictionary.
   When proofreading, don't trust your spell checker: it can tell you only if a word is a word, not if it's the right word.
   See Commonly Confused Words and Fifteen Common Errors.

More Writing Tips

• Ten Quick Tips to Improve Your Writing
• Tips to Cut the Clutter
• Tips for Using Commas Effectively