The big mistake you don’t want to make when applying for a job or pitching to a client

Imagine that you’re a hiring manager and you’re sifting through a stack of resumes to find your next great hire. One application, in particular, catches your eye: the candidate has a pretty decent skill set for the job and worked at a few major brands in the past. But then you look at the opening line of the candidate’s cover letter and cringe; it’s clear that he copied and pasted from a previous letter and forgot to change the name of the brand he was applying to work for. Getting an employer’s or client’s name right may seem like a small detail, but making a mistake can be costly when you’re applying for a job or pitching to a client. Here’s why.

Why this mistake makes you look bad when applying for a job or pitching to a client

The chances are high that you’ll find at least one error in a one-page cover letter or multipage project proposal. After all, people are only human, and employers and clients understand this, right? Sort of, but put yourself in their shoes. If you’re hiring someone to represent your brand or provide an important service that you need, who do you want: someone who seems conscientious and focused on you or someone who sees you as just another cog on the assembly line? We’re willing to bet that you’d go with the first person.

Misspelling a name or forgetting to change it following a copy-and-paste job may not seem like a big deal, but it signals something important to the person you’re trying to impress. In particular, it tells them how much attention you’ve paid to them. It also says something about how much care you put into the work you do.

If you misspell or forget to update an employer’s or client’s name in a document, what does that say about the amount of time you put into learning about the brand and taking the time to respond to them thoughtfully? And what does it say about the amount of care you’ll put into your work on a regular day on the job or after you land the project (when you’re no longer trying to impress someone)?

Maybe the mistake really was just an honest error and you’re not normally the type to produce sloppy work. But your potential employer or client doesn’t necessarily know this, and a seemingly careless mistake may be enough to take you out of the running for a dream job or project.

Is it really a common mistake?

Getting an employer’s or client’s name right seems like a pretty straightforward task. So you may be wondering how many people could possibly end up making a mistake that seems so, well, stupid. In reality, it’s much more common than you would expect. We can’t tell you how many times in our former professional roles we received job cover letters or vendor proposals that butchered our employers’ names or missed them altogether.

Tips to avoid making the mistake in the first place

When you’re responding to several job applications or quickly drafting a proposal for a potential client, it’s easy for your fingers to move a bit too quickly over your keyboard. And without realizing it, you end up mistyping the employer’s name or forgetting to update the client name field. Don’t let a small slip of the finger keep you from getting your dream job or landing a client you’ve always wanted to work with.

To save yourself from making a deal-breaking mistake when you’re applying for a job or pitching to a client, never (and we mean NEVER) skimp on proofreading. Snuff out that voice in your head that’s telling you that you’ve already looked over the information in your cover letter or proposal. Would you roll out of bed and head to a networking event without fixing your hair or brushing your teeth? You wouldn’t, right? So don’t do the writing equivalent. Saving five minutes of your time isn’t worth making a costly mistake.

Your job application or proposal may be the only information decision makers get about you when you’re applying for a job or pitching to a client. Make your writing as polished as you’d want to be in person if you were attending an in-person interview or meeting.

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Need some tips to help your proofread like a pro? Check out our post on the top 7 proofreading strategies.
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Inpression Editing helps businesses, professionals, and students make the best impression possible on customers, investors, hiring managers, and admissions committees. We do this by providing copywriting, editing, and writing coaching services for website copy, blog posts, marketing materials, personal statements, and much more.

Located in Toronto, Canada, we provide all of our services in both Canadian and US English. Get an instant quote here.

7 words that make you sound less confident in emails

If you’re like a lot of people, and especially a lot of women, you may have a tendency to be overly accommodating in emails. And this comes from a good place. You know that your thoughts can get lost in translation over email, and you want to make sure you don’t offend or anger anyone. But by being so careful and accommodating, are you holding yourself back from being seen as competent and credible? Before you push the “send” button on your next message, check out these 7 words that make you sound less confident in emails.

1. Just

You may be surprised to see this at the top of our list of words that make you sound less confident in emails. But if you take a look at the emails you’ve sent over the past week, you’ll probably see it popping up everywhere. For example, you may have used it to say something along these lines:

• “I just wanted to check in about the status of the report.”
• “I just wanted to ask you a quick question.”

The way “just” is used in these sentences may seem benign. But “just” is one of the key words that make you sound less confident in emails. Why? Because it minimizes the importance of your requests. Someone isn’t doing you a favour by letting you check in on the status of their work. You’re taking the appropriate steps to make sure that a key task gets completed. Own your requests like a boss instead of undermining them.

Alternatives you can use:

• “Can you tell me the status of the report?”
• “I have a quick question for you.”

2. Sorry

“Sorry” is also one of those words that make you sound less confident in emails. If “sorry” is one of your linguistic weapons of choice, you might use it like this:

• “Sorry to bother you, but I wanted to check in about the status of the report.”
• “Sorry, I have a meeting at 10 a.m. Can we do 11 a.m. instead?”

What’s the deal with “sorry”? “Sorry” is like “just” on steroids – it minimizes the importance of your requests and suggests that you’re inconveniencing someone by asking for something you need or by doing the very tasks you’re responsible for doing.

If you’re asking someone about the status of a report, it’s probably because it’s your job to make sure it gets done or to know when it will be done. And if you can’t attend a meeting because you already have one scheduled at the same time, it’s a legitimate reason to decline an invitation. You aren’t doing anything wrong, so don’t apologize.

And as The Muse writer Lily Herman says, “if you really did do something wrong, you should pick up the phone and say sorry like you mean it.”

Alternatives you can use:

• “Can you tell me the status of the report?”
• “I have a meeting at 10 a.m. Could we do 11 a.m. instead?”

3. Probably

You may use “probably” if you’re worried about committing to a request and then not being able to fulfill it. For example, you might use it like this:

• “I can probably finish the graphics by noon.”
• “We can probably send the final version to you by next Wednesday.”

Why is “probably” on this list of words that make you sound less confident in emails? Because it makes you seem unsure of your ability to get something done. If you’re a manager or client, do you want to know that someone can probably finish your new website on time or that someone can (without qualification) finish it on time? We’re betting you’d want the latter.

If you really are unsure of when you can have something done, confidently provide a timeline that’s more realistic. Don’t leave people hanging about when they’ll actually get what they need from you. Delete words that make you sound less confident in emails to show people that you have a handle on things.

Alternatives you can use:

• “I can finish the graphics by noon.”
• “We won’t be able to send you the final version next Wednesday, but we will send it to you by next Friday.”

4. I think

You may use “I think” to soften your suggestions and seem less “bossy.” For example, you might use it like this:

• “I think we should send the website copy to a copyeditor.”
• “I think we should retest the durability of the packaging.”

What’s the problem with “I think”? It’s one of the top words that make you sound less confident in emails because it undermines how valid your thoughts and ideas are. When you use “I think,” you’re giving people a chance to dismiss what you say. Remember, if someone really disagrees with you, they won’t need your help to tell you. Own your ideas by getting rid of one of the key words that make you sound less confident in emails.

Alternatives you can use:

• “Let’s send the website copy to a copyeditor.”
• “We should retest the durability of the packaging.”

5. I feel

“I feel” is the new “I think.” If you use it, you probably do so like this:

• “I feel that we should send the website copy to a copyeditor.”
• “I feel that we should retest the durability of the packaging.”

“I feel” falls into the category of words that make you sound less confident in emails because it undermines your thoughts and suggestions. When you use “I feel,” you’re allowing people to write off what you say as just a feeling you have.

Express your ideas with confidence by stripping your emails of “I feel” and saving these words for when you really are talking about your emotions. Avoid letting your need to be polite push you to use words that make you sound less confident in emails.

Alternatives you can use:

• “Let’s send the website copy to a copyeditor.”
• “We should retest the durability of the packaging.”

6. Does this make sense?

This is a bit of a tricky one, and one that you may use with good intentions. That’s why you may not see it as one of the words that make you sound less confident in emails. If you’re someone who likes to use this phrase, you may use it like this:

• After providing a detailed description of a service: “Does this make sense?”
• After explaining why a particular solution won’t work: “Does this make sense? Do you see the problem with this approach?”

Using “does this make sense” may seem like a good way to make sure that someone is following along. So why is this phrase on our list of words that make you sound less confident in emails? Because it can do one of two things. First, it can suggest that you don’t know how to explain things clearly. Second, it can imply that your reader isn’t smart enough to understand you. We’re betting you don’t want to convey either of these in your emails, so cut these words out.

Alternatives you can use:

• After providing a detailed description of a service:  “Do you have any questions about this?”
• After explaining why a particular solution won’t work: “Do you want additional info about this?”

7. I’m not an expert, but

If you’re discussing a topic that you’re not an expert on, it can be easy to start sentences with “I’m not an expert, but.” You may be especially likely to use it when you’re talking to someone who knows more about the topic than you do and you want to acknowledge the gaps in your knowledge. In a case like this, using words that make you sound less confident in emails may seem entirely appropriate.

For example, it may seem like a good idea to write sentences like these:

• “I’m not an expert in medical technology, but we could frame this as….”
• “I’m not an expert in using Twitter, but I’ve developed a strategy for us based on extensive research and the six-month course I took.”

Take a look at the second example in particular. The second part of the sentence (the words after “but”) make the writer sound like someone who has a good handle on how to use Twitter. After all, how many people on Twitter have taken a six-month course on it? But look at what happens once you tack “I’m not an expert, but” onto the beginning. It undermines everything that comes after it.

That’s why “I’m not an expert, but” are words that make you sound less confident in emails. Remove these words from your messages to make sure they don’t chip away at your credibility.

Alternatives you can use:

• “We could frame this as….What do others think?”
• “I’ve developed a strategy for us based on extensive research and the six-month course I took.”

Bringing It All Together

It may feel scary to remove these words from your emails. After all, they seem like the padding that softens the impact of your requests, suggestions, and idea.

But remember that your requests, suggestions, and ideas don’t need padding. You’re not doing anything wrong by expressing them, so don’t lead people to think that you are. Banish the words that make you sound less confident in emails, and position yourself as someone who has legitimate things to say. Because you do.

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Need some tips on boosting your confidence with clear writing? Download out our ebook “How to Write Clearly.”
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Inpression Editing helps businesses, professionals, and students make the best impression possible on customers, investors, hiring managers, and admissions committees. We do this by providing copywriting, editing, and writing coaching services for website copy, blog posts, marketing materials, personal statements, and much more.

Located in Toronto, Canada, we provide all of our services in both Canadian and US English. Get an instant quote here.

What “aggressive” means: Is being an aggressive brand or business professional a good thing?

In business, people seem to love the word “aggressive.” You’ll hear people talk about how they network aggressively or how their sales team is aggressive. And when they say these things, they mean them in a positive way. But what are you really saying when you say that a person or way of doing business is “aggressive”? Are you unknowingly saying something that you don’t want to say? In this post, we’ll talk about what “aggressive” means in professional settings and why you may want to avoid using it in most cases.

What “aggressive” means

The most traditional way to use the word “aggressive” is to use it to describe someone who is ready to fight or is displaying aggression.

For example, the Merriam-Webster dictionary primarily defines “aggressive” like this: “ready and willing to fight, argue, etc; feeling or showing aggression.”

Similarly, the Oxford Dictionaries defines “aggressive” like this: “ready or likely to attack or confront; characterized by or resulting from aggression.”

Based on these definitions, you would usually use “aggressive” in sentences like these:

• “Anik is an aggressive hockey player; he tends to have a lot of physical contact with other players.”
• “Cynthia used to be quite aggressive as a child. We were always getting phone calls from her teachers.”
• “Tom is an aggressive man. He’s been charged with committing armed robberies several times.”

As you can see, what “aggressive” means is something negative in each of these cases. After all, unless you’re getting ready to take part in an epic Game-of-Thrones-style battle, being ready to fight usually isn’t a good thing.

What “aggressive” means in business

Although we tend to think of “aggressive” as a negative trait, you don’t have to look far to see it used in the business world in a way that’s supposed to be positive. Just take a look at the headlines of these articles published by popular and respected brands:

“3 Aggressive Sales Closing Tactics That Make Prospects Say “Yes” & When to Use Them” on HubSpot

“Increased Aggressive Selling = Increased Sales” on Evan Carmichael

“When Soft Selling Fails, Consider Using These 5 Aggressive Sales Strategies” on Business 2 Community

In these headlines, the authors use “aggressive” as a synonym for “rigorous.” And so, to some extent, we’re used to seeing “aggressive” used to describe someone who is driven and results-oriented (which are positive traits).

This “positive” way of using “aggressive” has even made its way into established dictionaries. Specifically, in addition to the definition we showed you above, the Merriam-Webster dictionary also defines “aggressive” like this: “using forceful methods to succeed or to do something.”

Similarly, the Oxford Dictionaries also defines “aggressive” like this: “behaving or done in a determined and forceful way.”

“Forceful” usually means something negative, but “succeed” and “determined” are usually positive words. And dictionaries are often dinosaurs when it comes to change, so doesn’t it mean something if even they now define “aggressive” as something that can be positive?

Do you really want to be an “aggressive” brand or professional?

Although “aggressive” may not be as unquestionably negative as it used to be, it still doesn’t have the best rap. Just think about the last time you had to interact with an “aggressive,” pushy salesperson, the kind who makes you feel like you’re the one who’s being rude when you resist his or her tactics. We’re shuddering just thinking about it.

And it’s not just some sort of vague thought in the back of our minds or a bad feeling in our stomachs that makes us think that what “aggressive” means is still pretty negative. Just as there are several articles and blog posts out there that frame “aggressive” as something positive, there are also lots that frame it as something negative. Here are just some examples:

“Are You Assertive–or Aggressive?” on Inc.com

“The Difference Between Strong Leaders And Aggressive Leaders” on Fast Company

“Aggressive Marketing Won’t Win Customer Loyalty” on Entrepreneur

As these posts note, people still see a fine line between being “aggressive” and being “assertive” or “rigorous.”  Which side of the line do you want people to see you on?

At first, it may sound impressive to say that you’re the most aggressive company in your market, but is this really a good thing? Even if it’s not what you mean, will people wonder if you’re a ruthless dictator or a brand  that’s willing to do whatever it takes (no matter how shady) to succeed? The last thing you want to do is to make people run the other way.

Instead of describing your team or brand as “aggressive” think about whether “hardworking,” “enthusiastic,” “rigorous,” or “passionate” would do the trick instead. Don’t leave the door open for people to question your motives or integrity.

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Looking for some tips on finding the right language for your brand? Check out our post on brand voice.

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Need to make a good impression with your website copy, blog posts, or reports? We can help. Get an instant quote here.

Inpression Editing | Online editing, copywriting, and coaching | www.inpression.io

16 Tips on How to Reduce Word Counts and Write Concisely

Have you ever finished drafting a one-pager, report, or social media profile only to find out that you’re hundreds of words or characters over your limit? Or maybe you’re not working with a word limit, but you get the sense that the long sentences in your blog post or website copy are going to make your visitors drop like flies. Instead of breaking out into a happy dance to celebrate the fact that you finally managed to sit still long enough to pull together a full draft, you’re left to figure out how you’re going to trim your sentences and meet your word or character limit. To help you out, we’ve created a list of our top 16 on how to reduce word counts and write concisely.

Note that these tips work best when you’ve already cut out the full sentences and paragraphs that you just don’t need. They’ll help you write clear and crisp sentences, sentences that show that you know what you’re talking about and don’t need to beat around the bush to say it. Use these tips to keep your writing short and simple and knock that word count or character count down.

Tip #1: Remove redundant words

Redundant words are words that repeat information that’s conveyed by other words in a sentence. These words are like an appendix – they take up space, but they don’t really do anything useful. In fact, if anything, they just cause problems. (And you don’t need more of those, do you?)

Redundant words don’t add any unique information to a sentence. As a result, you can remove them without losing any information.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“She prepared a (brief) summary for the project team.” (9 words; 42 characters)
“She prepared a summary for the project team.” (8 words; 37 characters)

“The store is open to the (general) public.” (8 words; 33 characters)
“The store is open to the public.” (7 words; 26 characters)

“When Obama (first) became president, he moved into the White House.” (11 words; 57 characters)
“When Obama became president, he moved into the White House.” (10 words; 50 characters)

Tip #2: Remove unnecessary words

Unnecessary words are a lot like redundant words. They get added to sentences but often don’t need to be there. (Are you starting to see a theme?)

Unlike redundant words, unnecessary words don’t necessarily repeat information that’s expressed by another word in the same sentence. Instead, unnecessary words are often the words that make up wordy phrases. In most cases, you can replace these wordy phrases with shorter phrases to get rid of the unnecessary words. Remember, less is more.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“People who violate the terms of use may experience a number of consequences.” (13 words; 64 characters)
“People who violate the terms of use may experience several consequences.” (11 words; 62 characters)

“We need the approved mockups in order to start developing the website.” (12 words; 59 characters)
“We need the approved mockups to start developing the website.” (10 words; 52 characters)

Want some examples of common wordy phrases and their shorter equivalents? Check these out:

1. A number of: several, many (3 words vs. 1 word)
2. As a means of: to (4 words vs. 1 word)
3. At the present time: now (4 words vs. 1 word)
4. Due to the fact that: because, since (5 words vs. 1 word)
5. In an effort to: to (4 words vs. 1 word)
6. In close proximity to: near (4 words vs. 1 word)
7. In order to: to (3 words vs. 1 word)
8. In the near future: soon, shortly (4 words vs. 1 word)
9. It is requested that you: please (5 words vs. 1 word)
10. With the exception of: except (4 words vs. 1 word)

In some cases, you can get rid of an entire set of unnecessary words without having to replace them with a shorter set of words. Take a look at this example:

“There are no previous studies that investigated the relationship between protein X and protein Y.” (15 words; 83 characters)
“No previous studies investigated the relationship between protein X and protein Y.” (12 words; 71 characters)

Here are some other words and sets of words that you can often banish from your sentences without having to replace them with anything. The numbers in parentheses show the number of words you’ll save by getting rid of these words.

1. The fact that (-3 words)
2. It has been reported that (-5 words)
3. It was observed/found that (-4 words)
4. There is/there are (-2 words)
5. Very (-1 word)
6. Really (-1 word)

And finally, some words become unnecessary words in a certain context. Let’s take a look at these examples:

“The most important ingredient in this recipe…” (7 words; 38 characters)
“The most important ingredient…”(4 words; 26 characters)

As you can see, we can remove “in this recipe” from the sentence. Why? Because we know that ingredients are usually part of recipes. So if we’re talking about ingredients, we can assume our reader will know that we’re talking about ingredients in a recipe.

Note, though, that “in this recipe” isn’t always redundant. For example, you wouldn’t be able to remove it from this sentence:

“There are peanuts in this recipe.”

Peanut allergies are pretty serious business, so you’d want to keep “in this recipe” in the sentence so that your reader knows what the peanuts are in. After all, EpiPens aren’t exactly cheap these days, so you probably want to avoid having to use one.

Bonus tip: Use the “find” function in your word processor to search for the most common unnecessary words in your writing.

 Tip #3: Remove the word “that”

It’s common to pepper sentences with the word “that,” but this word often doesn’t add much to the meaning of a sentence. It’s yet another appendix.

Because “that” usually doesn’t convey important information in a sentence, you can often make your sentences shorter by removing it.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The car that Michael just bought broke down.” (8 words; 37 characters)
“The car Michael just bought broke down.” (7 words; 33 characters)

“Being blamed for something that you didn’t do is frustrating.” (10 words; 52 characters)
“Being blamed for something you didn’t do is frustrating.” (9 words; 48 characters)

“The report that we’ve been working on is almost complete.” (10 words; 48 characters)
“The report we’ve been working on is almost complete.” (9 words; 44 characters)

Tip #4: Get rid of unnecessary helping verbs

Do you have a relative or friend who always tries to be helpful but often isn’t? Ironically, helping verbs can sometimes be like this.

But what are helping verbs anyway? Helping verbs are words like “be,” “do,” and “have.” They’re called helping verbs because they help the main verb in a sentence (imagine that!).

In some cases, we need to include a helping verb in a sentence to modify the meaning of the main verb in the sentence. In many cases, though, we end up including them in sentences when they aren’t needed.

So what do you do in these situations? Take that helping verb out.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“First, you have to enter your password into the scanner.” (10 words; 47 characters)
“First, enter your password into the scanner.” (7 words; 38 characters)

“Airlines are always trying to charge more.” (7 words; 36 characters)
“Airlines always try to charge more.” (6 words; 30 characters)

“I do need to go to the mall.” (8 words; 21 characters)
“I need to go to the mall.” (7 words; 19 characters)

Tip #5: Replace nouns with verbs

Some people have a thing for nouns. Really, they do. Many words can be expressed as either nouns (e.g., “It is our recommendation that”) or as verbs (“We recommend that”). And people who have a thing for nouns think that the noun versions of these words sound much sexier.

The problem with the noun forms of words is that they’re often longer than the verb forms. They also usually force us to add other extra words to a sentence to make it grammatically correct. Instead of being seduced by wordy nouns, put them in their place by using their verb counterparts instead.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The implementation of the social media strategy will boost engagement.” (10 words; 61 characters)
“Implementing the social media strategy will boost engagement.” (8 words; 54 characters)

“The categorization of children by swimming ability rather than by age will make lessons more productive.” (16 words; 89 characters)
“Categorizing children by swimming ability rather than by age will make lessons more productive.” (14 words; 82 characters)

“The addition of crystals to the dress will make it too heavy.” (12 words; 50 characters)
“Adding crystals to the dress will make it too heavy.” (10 words; 43 characters)

Tip # 6: Shorten long words

Sometimes you end up with a long noun that can’t be swapped for a verb. And in other cases, you end up with a long word that’s already a verb. This may worry you because you know that sentences with long words are more cumbersome to read. Just take a look at this sentence:

“The utilization of the social media automation tool will allow us to ensure the completion of the sharing of our images with our followers.”

Long? Yes. Confusing? Just a bit.

Never fear, though. There’s still something you can do when you realize that you’ve written a monster of a sentence like this: you can replace the long noun or verb with a shorter word that means the same thing.

Although this won’t help you reduce word counts, it’ll help if you’re working with a character or page limit. It’ll also help you write sleeker and more powerful sentences.(Wouldn’t that be awesome?)

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The utilization of the social media automation tool will allow us to ensure the completion of the sharing of our images with our followers.” (24 words; 116 characters)

“The use of the social media automation tool will allow us to finish sharing our images with our followers.” (19 words; 88 characters)

“Using the social media automation tool will allow us to finish sharing our images with our followers.” (17 words; 85 characters)

Want some more examples of long words that you can swap for shorter ones? Here you go:

1. Notification: notice (12 characters vs. 6 characters)
2. Portion: part (7 characters vs. 4 characters)
3. Remainder: rest (9 characters vs. 4 characters)
4. Upon: on (4 characters vs. 2 characters)
5. Usage: use (5 characters vs. 3 characters)

Tip #7: Replace multiple weak words with a powerful word

In some cases, we create emphasis in sentences by stringing together verbs (words that describe actions), adjectives (words that describe nouns or pronouns), and adverbs (words that describe adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs). This makes sentences longer than they need to be because we end up using more words to convey the same information.

By replacing a set of weak words with a single strong word, you can shorten your sentences and make them more punchy. You’re not weak, so why make yourself sound weak through your writing?

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“She looked incredibly nervous while she was presenting.” (8 words; 48 characters)
“She looked terrified while she was presenting.” (7 words; 40 characters)

“He was very tired after staying up all night to finish his essay.” (13 words; 53 characters)
“He was exhausted after staying up all night to finish his essay.” (12 words; 53 characters)

“She looked absolutely stunning in her mother’s wedding dress.” (9 words; 52 characters)
“She rocked her mother’s wedding dress.” (6 words; 33 characters)

Tip #8: Replace prepositional phrases with adverbs

Another way that we make our sentences weak is by using prepositional phases (i.e., phrases built around words like “with,” “of,” and “in”) to describe an action. To streamline sentences and reduce word counts, we can often replace the prepositional phrase with a single word. Why make your readers do more work than they need to do to read your one-pager or blog post?

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The cyclist pedalled with fury.” (5 words; 27 characters)
“The cyclist pedalled furiously.” (4 words; 28 characters)

“The athlete raced through the obstacle course with agility.” (9 words; 51 characters)
“The athlete raced through the obstacle course agilely. (8 words; 47 characters)

Tip #9: Make words plural

Yup. You read the heading for this tip correctly. You can reduce word counts and write concisely just by making singular words plural.

Singular words often need an article (e.g., “the” or “a”) in front of them whereas plural words often don’t. As a result, you can shrink your sentences by making singular words plural when possible.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“A good doctor is intelligent, knowledgeable, and experienced.” (8 words; 54 characters)
“Good doctors are intelligent, knowledgeable, and experienced.” (7 words; 55 characters)

“A pear contains more fibre than an apple does.” (9 words; 38 characters)
“Pears contain more fibre than apples do.” (7 words; 34 characters)

“A child learns most effectively when taught by a compassionate teacher.” (11 words; 61 characters)
“Children learn most effectively when taught by compassionate teachers.” (9 words; 62 characters)

Tip #10: Replace prepositional phrases with possessives

Those pesky prepositional phrases are back at it again. In this case, they’re making us use more words than we really need to indicate that something belongs to someone (i.e., to indicate possession). These sentences tend to look like this:

“The cover of the ebook needs more work.”

This sentence takes the form “the X of Y,” where X = “the cover” and Y = “the ebook.”

This may not seem that wordy, and it’s true that this particular sentence isn’t. But there’s still a way to make this sentence shorter and tighter: take “the X of the Y” and turn it into “Y’s X.” If we do this to the example sentence above, it would look like this:

“The ebook’s cover needs more work.”

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The complexity of the street map confused me.” (8 words; 38 characters)
“The street map’s complexity confused me.” (6 words; 35 characters)

“The title page of the report looks great!” (8 words; 34 characters)
“The report’s title page looks great!” (6 words; 31 characters)

“The invoice for the customer isn’t ready yet.” (8 words; 38 characters)
“The customer’s invoice isn’t ready yet.” (6 words; 34 characters)

Tip 11: Rewrite sentences to eliminate prepositions

We’ve talked about how phrases built around prepositions make sentences wordy. But prepositions can make sentences longer than they need to be even when they appear on their own. Those troublemakers!

In many cases, you can get rid of a preposition by rewriting the sentence.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“We will test customers’ preferences for winter coats.” (8 words; 46 characters)
“We will test customers’ winter coat preferences.” (7 words; 42 characters)

“The weather in Vancouver is typically better than the weather in Edmonton.” (12 words; 63 characters)
“Vancouver weather is typically better than Edmonton weather.” (8 words; 53 characters)

“The manager of the restaurant apologized for the undercooked meat.” (10 words; 57 characters)
“The restaurant manager apologized for the undercooked meat.” (8 words; 52 characters)

In some cases, you can use the “-ing” form of a verb to remove a preposition. You’ll just need to play around with the word order in the sentence. Here’s how this could look:

“We will use the results of Phase 1 to develop a tool in Phase 2.” (15 words; 50 characters)
“Using the results of Phase 1, we will develop a tool in Phase 2.” (14 words; 51 characters)

Tip #12: Eliminate conjunctions

Sometimes we take sets of words that could form their own sentence and instead join them together in one sentence using a coordinating conjunction (a word like “and,” “so,” or “but”). Here’s an example:

“Tom wrote the copy for the ebook, and Malika designed the graphics.”

The conjunction doesn’t take up that much space in a sentence. But if you’re pressed for space, replacing the conjunction and the comma before it with a period or a semicolon can help you reduce word counts.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“Tom wrote the copy for the ebook, and Malika designed the graphics.”(12 words; 56 characters)

“Tom wrote the copy for the ebook; Malika designed the graphics.”(11 words; 53 characters)

“Tom wrote the copy for the ebook. Malika designed the graphics.” (11 words; 53 characters)

Tip #13: Write in active voice instead of in passive voice

Writing in passive voice (e.g., “The soccer ball was kicked by Mia”) instead of active voice (e.g., “Mia kicked the soccer ball”) is a lot like using nouns in place of verbs – people think sentences sound more impressive when they’re written this way.

The problem with passive voice, though, is that it makes sentences longer and less powerful. Do you want your website copy, one-pager, or report to have a strong impact on your readers? If you do, reduce word counts and write more concisely by rewriting passive voice sentences in active voice.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The survey was conducted by the project team in January 2015.” (passive; 11 words; 51 characters)
“The project team conducted the survey in January 2015.” (active; 9 words; 46 characters)

“The lawsuit was filed by Mighty Media.” (passive; 7 words; 32 characters)
“Mighty Media filed the lawsuit.” (active; 5 words; 27 characters)

“The dance company’s performance was choreographed by Karen Kain.” (passive; 9 words; 56 characters)
“Karen Kain choreographed the dance company’s performance.” (active; 7 words; 51 characters)

Hint: Need help identifying passive sentences in your writing? If you can place “by zombies” after the main verb in a sentence, your sentence is probably in passive voice. Here’s an example:

“The lawsuit was filed (by zombies) by Mighty Media.”

 Tip #14: Combine sentences

Sometimes you can make paragraphs shorter by combining related sentences. Just make sure that your combined sentences don’t become too long or difficult to follow. Otherwise you’ll be back at square one when it comes to trimming your sentences.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“Six participants tested the product. They ranged in age from 19 to 56 years.” (14 words)
“Six participants aged 19–56 years tested the product.” (8 words)

“Sophia is a senior accountant at Mighty Media. She is responsible for overseeing the work of four junior accountants at the company.” (22 words)
“Sophia, a senior accountant at Mighty Media, oversees the work of four junior accountants.” (14 words)

“Anton is a hotel pastry chef. He works at a luxury hotel in Florida.” (14 words)
“Anton is a pastry chef at a luxury Florida hotel.” (10 words)

Tip #15: Describe data in one place only

This tip is helpful if you’re presenting tables or graphs along with text. Tables and graphs are a lot like PowerPoint slides – they’re meant to complement but not repeat everything you present in another format, whether that format is text in a paragraph or information that you’re presenting out loud. Some people make the mistake of providing the same information in a table or graph and in the text of a blog post, report, or one-pager.

Here’s what this looks like:

“A large proportion of customers reported seeing the web (90%), social media (80%), and in-store (60%) ads (see Figure 1).” (20 words; 102 characters)

Figure 1. Percentage of customers who saw store ads

You wouldn’t make your readers read the same paragraph twice, so why would you make them read a paragraph and either a table or graph that contain the same information? That’s why many style guides recommend describing information in one place only – in a paragraph or in a table or figure.

See how this looks:

“Figure 1 displays the number of customers who saw the online, social media, and in-store ads.” (16 words; 78 characters)

Figure 1. Percentage of customers who saw store ads

Tip #16: Use abbreviations consistently

Abbreviations are like candy – some people can’t get enough of them when they write. In our ebook “How to Write Clearly,” we talk about why you should limit your use of abbreviations.

If you’re going to use them, and there are appropriate times to use them, don’t make the mistake that most people make. That is, don’t use an abbreviation inconsistently throughout a document or piece of copy. Here’s what this inconsistency looks like:

“The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) oversees the health care system in Ontario, Canada. One of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s key goals is to build a sustainable and patient-centered public health system.” (37 words; 196 characters)

You probably introduced the abbreviation to avoid writing out a long name over and over again. So when you don’t use the abbreviation consistently, it defeats the purpose of using it. This inconsistency also increases your word and character counts.

To make your abbreviations worth the cost of using them (see our ebook for more on this), use them consistently throughout a document or piece of copy.

Here’s how you can use this tip to reduce word counts and write concisely:

“The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) oversees the health care system in Ontario, Canada. One of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s key goals is to build a sustainable and patient-centered public health system.” (37 words; 196 characters)

“The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) oversees the health care system in Ontario, Canada. One of MOHLTC’s key goals is to build a sustainable and patient-centered public health system.” (31 words; 167 characters)

Summary

You may be looking at these tips and noticing that they don’t reduce word counts or character counts by a huge amount. So why bother using them?

It’s true that if you use just one of these tips in one sentence of your report or blog post, you won’t see much of a difference. However, if you use even just a few of these strategies across an entire document or piece of writing, the savings will add up. We promise. You’ll be surprised by just how much shorter and tighter you can make your sentences by giving these tips a try.

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Looking for more tips on how to reduce word counts and write concisely? Check out our post on the 3 wordy phrases you should ban from your writing.

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How to write cohesively and improve the flow of your writing

Have you ever written website copy, a blog post, or a report and felt like your sentences just didn’t hang well together? Maybe you had all of the right words and ideas on the page but your sentences seemed more like a laundry list of statements than a cohesive description, explanation, or narrative.

Well, you’re in luck – today we’re going to show you a simple strategy that you can use to make your writing cohesive and improve the flow of your paragraphs. This trick will also make your content and reports easier for others to read (which is one of the best things you can do when you write). And when your paragraphs feel tight, cohesive, and logical, your readers get the feeling that you really know what you’re talking about (which is what you want, isn’t it?).

What do cohesive paragraphs look like?

To start off, take a look at this paragraph and keep track of any thoughts you have while reading it:

Paragraph A

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants. Molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing are called antioxidants. People can reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, by eating foods rich in antioxidants, which limit oxidation.

What did you think of this paragraph? Was it easy to read? Was it clear how the sentences are related to one another?

Now, keep these thoughts in your head and take a look at this paragraph. (We know – we’re asking for a lot from your memory right now, but bear with us.)

Paragraph B

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants. Antioxidants are molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing. Because they limit oxidation, foods rich in antioxidants can help people reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease.

What did you think of this paragraph?

If you have even a basic understanding of science or nutrition, you may have found that Paragraph A wasn’t too hard to read. After all, we’re constantly bombarded with information about healthy eating and nutrition these days, so words like “antioxidants” aren’t the most foreign terms anymore.

But did your thoughts about Paragraph A change once you read Paragraph B? If they did, it may have been because Paragraph B was easier to read and seemed to flow better. Even if you picked up on this, though, you might not know why Paragraph B has better flow and seems to be the stronger paragraph all around.

What disrupts cohesion and flow in a paragraph?

So what is it that makes Paragraph B sound better? The beginning of each sentence picks up on the same topic that the previous sentence left off on.

What do we mean by this? Let’s take a look at Paragraph A again. In particular, let’s take a look at the words at the end of the first sentence and the beginning of the second sentence.

Paragraph A

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants. Molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing are called antioxidants. People can reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, by eating foods rich in antioxidants, which limit oxidation.

As you can see, the word at the end of the first sentence is “antioxidants” whereas the word at the beginning of the next sentence is “molecules.” At least at first, these words don’t seem to refer to the same thing. When you get close to the end of the second sentence, you realize that in this case, “molecules” actually does refer to “antioxidants,” but this isn’t clear until you’re well into the second sentence.

If you’re the one who wrote this paragraph, you know that “antioxidants” and “molecules” refer to the same thing. But guess what – your readers can’t read your mind. At least we hope they can’t!

Because your readers can’t read your mind, there’s a good chance that they’ll start reading the second sentence and not understand how you switched from talking about “antioxidants” to talking about “molecules.” In fact, you might have had this exact experience while reading the paragraphs.

Now let’s look at the end of the second sentence and the beginning of the third one.

Paragraph A

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants. Molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing are called antioxidants. People can reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, by eating foods rich in antioxidants, which limit oxidation.

Just like what we saw with the first and second sentences, the words are different. The second sentence ends with the word “antioxidants” whereas the third one begins with “people.” In this case, it’s clear that these words don’t refer to the same thing.

Because the third sentence picks up on a different topic than the second sentence left off on, it’s easy for readers to get confused. Why? Because it’s not clear why the writer seems to have switched topics between the sentences.

As you may have experienced when reading these paragraphs, when it feels like sentences in a paragraph are jumping from one thought to another, the paragraph just doesn’t seem to flow well. It can also make it more difficult to understand what the writer is trying to get at, which can make you question whether this person actually knows what he or she is talking about.

How to make paragraphs cohesive and flow better

Whereas the sentences in Paragraph A at least initially seem to jump from one topic to another, this isn’t an issue in Paragraph B. Let’s take a look at Paragraph B again to understand why. And as we did in Paragraph A, let’s pay attention to the beginning and end of the sentences.

Paragraph B

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants. Antioxidants are molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing. Because they limit oxidation, foods rich in antioxidants can help people reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease.

As you can see, the first sentence ends with the same word that the second sentence starts with (i.e., “antioxidants”). This makes it really easy for readers to see how the two sentences are related.

And if you take a look at the end of the second sentence and the beginning of the third one, you’ll see a similar pattern. In this case, the word that comes at the end of the second sentence (i.e., “oxidizing”) isn’t the very first word of the third sentence, but “oxidation” is part of the initial set of words in this third sentence. Because the third sentence picks up on the same thought that the second sentence left off on, the second and third sentences feel like they hang together well.

So what can you learn from these examples? If you feel like a paragraph in your blog post or report just doesn’t flow well, try structuring your sentences so that each sentence picks up on the same topic that the previous sentence ended on.

For example, take a paragraph that looks like this:

If you’re thinking about using social media as a lead generation tool for your ecommerce business, you’ve got to check out Twitter. People post bite-size updates about what they’re doing, what they’ve read, and what’s on their mind on Twitter. You can figure out how to tailor your messaging to prospects based on this information about what’s important to your prospects right now.

And turn it into something that looks like this:

If you’re thinking about using social media as a lead generation tool for your ecommerce business, you’ve got to check out Twitter. On Twitter, people post bite-size updates about what they’re doing, what they’ve read, and what’s on their mind. This information about what’s important to your prospects right now can help you tailor your messaging to them.

In this set of examples, we were able to improve the flow of the paragraphs by restructuring the second and third sentences so that they picked up on the same topics that the previous sentences left off on. Notice how we didn’t need to change the content or wording of the paragraph to make it more cohesive or to make it flow better; most of the words in the two paragraphs are the same.

When you structure your sentences so that each sentence starts on the same topic that the last sentence left off on, it’s easy for readers to see that there’s a logical thought process behind your points. After all, when readers can understand how your sentences are related, it’s easy for them to see how your ideas are related and make logical sense. And when you come across as logical to your readers (and possible future customers!), it helps them see you as a credible expert on the topic you’re writing on.

Summary

If you feel that a paragraph in your web copy, blog post, or report is “all over the place,” keep calm and edit on. Take a look at the end of each sentence and the beginning of the next one, and try to get them to converge on the same topic.

Of course, this isn’t the only way to make a paragraph cohesive. Even if you don’t end up using this technique every time you right, you won’t necessarily end up with paragraphs that aren’t cohesive and have bad flow. However, if you’re struggling to write a tight paragraph (or if you want to be extra sure that your writing sounds polished), you really don’t have much to lose by giving this trick a try. After all, when you use it, you can end up with paragraphs that are cohesive, have good flow, and are easy to read. You can’t really argue with that, and we’re guessing your readers won’t either.

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Craving other tips on how to write clear content and reports? Download our free eguide “How to Write Clearly.”

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3 wordy descriptive phrases to ban from your writing

Have you ever read one your draft blog posts 10 times and realized only on that tenth round of review that there was a glaring typo in the post? If you have, you may remember wondering how on Earth you overlooked the mistake the first nine times you read the post. After all, you have a decent grasp of English spelling and grammar, so why didn’t you catch that you accidentally used “comprise” when you should have used “compose”?

The reason why it’s hard to spot our own typos is because our brains try to make our lives easier for us by simplifying the reading process as much as possible (imagine that!). Instead of processing every single detail about our writing (e.g., how letters look on a page), our brain takes high-level information from what we see on our computer screen and combines it with our understanding of what our document is supposed to say. The version on the screen competes with the version we have of the document in our head, and this can make us miss typos.

We don’t just miss typos

However, typos aren’t the only things we tend to overlook. We also end up overlooking descriptive words and phrases that make our writing wordy and weak. At a time when storytelling is a popular technique for communicating and producing content, it can be easy to stuff our sentences with wordy descriptive phrases. Three of these wordy descriptive phrases are “in nature,” “in a ____ manner,” and “in a way that is ____.”

1. “In nature”

You may find that you use the phrase “in nature” when you describe the characteristics of a person or thing. For example, you may tend to use “in nature” in sentences like these:

• “The iPhone 6s is large in nature.”
• “This app is complex in nature.”
• “The box that the mattress comes in is small in nature.”

Although there isn’t anything grammatically wrong with using “in nature” in these sentences, it makes the sentences wordy. Why? Because “in nature” doesn’t add anything to these sentences that isn’t already conveyed by other words in the sentence.

For example, in the iPhone sentence, “in nature” doesn’t provide us with any new information that we don’t already have from reading “The iPhone 6s is large.” If Paul Silvia, the author of How to Write a Lot, was looking at this sentence, he would say this: “if the iPhone 6s is large in nature, what is it like in captivity?” As he explains, you don’t need to use “in nature” in your writing unless you’re actually talking about being outside in nature (literally).

When you remove “in nature” from your sentences, you end up with leaner sentences like these:

• “The iPhone 6s is large.”
• “This app is complex.”
• “The box that the mattress comes in is small.”

2. “In a ______ manner”

“In nature” isn’t the only wordy phrase that we use when we try to describe the characteristics of something. When we describe actions, we have a bad habit of using the phrase “in a ____ manner.” For example, we tend to use this phrase in sentences like these:

• “He wrote the report in an efficient manner.”
• “They walked up and down the hallway in a frenetic manner.”
• “She stared at me in a cold manner.”

Just like the phrase “in nature,” there’s nothing grammatically wrong with using “in a ____ manner” in your writing. You can throw it into an ebook or white paper, and no one’s going to call you out for having grammar errors in your sentences. However, you do end up making your sentences wordy and stilted when you use this phrase. So unless you’re writing some Downton Abbey fan fiction, you can write in a simpler way. For example, let’s see how we can rephrase the example sentences above:

• “He wrote the report efficiently.”
• “They walked up and down the hallway frenetically.”
• “She stared at me coldly.”

As you can see, you can often make your sentences leaner by adding an “-ly” to the key word in “in a ____ manner” and getting rid of the rest of the phrase. The sentence you end up with isn’t only shorter; it’s also livelier because it includes more powerful words (e.g., “efficiently” instead of “in an efficient manner”).

Note: everything we’ve talked about in this section applies to the phrase “in a ____ way,” which means that same thing as “in a _____ manner.”

3. “In a way that is ______”

Another wordy phrase that we use to describe things is “in a way that is ____.” You might find that you use this phrase in sentences like these:

• “Try to write this in a way that is clear.”
• “Make sure you document the incident in a way that is accurate.”
• “Salima reviewed the document in a way that was meticulous.”

Like the two phrases we’ve talked about above, “in a way that is ____” is a grammatically correct but wordy sentence. When you use it, you end up taking up more space (and more of your reader’s time) to say what you want to say.

You can trim your sentences by using a trick similar to what we suggested for tackling “in a _____ manner”: add an “-ly” to the word in the blank and get rid of the rest of the phrase. You’ll end up with a tighter and punchier sentence. See how we transformed the examples above:

• “Try to write this clearly.”
• “Make sure you document the incident accurately.”
• “Salima reviewed the document meticulously.”

Even when you know that “in nature,” “in a ___manner,” and “in a way that is ____” don’t belong in strong writing, they can still creep into your blog posts and website copy. Why? Because we’re so used to using these phrases when we write and speak that our brain reads right over them. After all, if our brain doesn’t always pick up on basic spelling and grammar mistakes, how can we expect it to spot every wordy phrase we use?

A Tip

The good thing is that there’s a simple tool you can use to help you spot wordy phrases – your word processor’s “find” function. Have your computer search your document for “in nature,” “manner,” or “in a way that is” so that you don’t have to look for them manually. If you find any matches, you know exactly where you need to focus to trim your writing.

Fortunately, your computer doesn’t work the same way your brain does, so you can be sure that your computer will pick up on a specific wordy phrase that you’re looking for (as long as you type it in properly). So use that “find” function and trim away!

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Want to see more tips for writing killer blog posts, web copy, and reports? Check out our eguide “How to Write Clearly.” It contains 12 tips for writing awesome sentences. Download it here.

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We help businesses, students, and professionals make the best impression possible on customers, investors, admissions committees, and hiring managers. We do this by providing online copywriting, editing, and writing coaching services for brand content, website copy, marketing materials, personal statements, and much more.

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Writing about setbacks in your personal statement

If you’re preparing a personal statement for a med school, law school, grad school, or medical residency program, you may think that you should focus only on your successes. After all, if you’re trying to impress an admissions committee and show them why you’re a strong candidate for their program, why would you want to focus on times when things didn’t go well?

Although it may seem somewhat counterintuitive to talk about setbacks and failures in your personal statement, the truth is that they can reveal an important quality about you: your resilience.

Med school, law school, grad school, and medical residency are tough, so admissions committees want to know how well you handle situations when things don’t go your way (e.g., a setback while playing sports, a challenging interaction at a volunteer placement, or a research project that didn’t go as planned).

It may sound impressive to be able to say that you’ve never failed at anything in your life, but an admissions committee can take this a very different way. If you’ve never experienced failure, how can they be confident that you’ll be able to persevere through tough times in school and in your career?

Because admissions committee value resilience in applicants, you can make a strong case for yourself by describing a setback, demonstrating self-awareness, and explaining how the experience helped you grow.

For example, did you have a hard time interacting with a nursing home resident who had just lost his wife? Describe the experience and explain how it helped you develop stronger interpersonal skills. Did your honours thesis research project yield nonsignificant results? Explain what you learned about the research process from this experience. The key is to show the admissions committee how you were able to persevere through a challenging situation and become an even stronger candidate because of it.

Note that although people agree that admissions committees like hearing about how you’ve persevered through a challenge, there’s a lot of debate about whether you should use your statement to acknowledge major blemishes on your application (e.g., a low grade on your transcript or a low LSAT or USMLE score). According to some people, you should keep this information out of your statement, and if anything, you should ask your referees to address it in their reference letter. Others have a different opinion: they say that you should definitely use your statement to address major weaknesses in your application head on.

Our advice falls in the middle: address a weakness in your application if you can frame it as an experience that allowed you to learn something important. Most people agree that you should avoid making excuses for weaknesses, so don’t try to argue that you had a good reason for failing a course (e.g., you were working part time while in school). Instead, explain how this experience allowed you to learn something that you then used to improve your performance (e.g., you realized that you needed to change your time management approach if you were going to work while going to school).

As you can see, failures and setbacks aren’t necessarily out of place in personal statements. If you can use them as a springboard to demonstrate your resilience and self-awareness, they can make your application stronger.

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In our guide “How to Write a Medical School Personal Statement: A Step-By-Step Process,” we provide a detailed method for writing a personal statement and give tips and worksheets to help you complete each step. Although this guide is geared toward medical school applicants, many of the points in the guide are relevant to all types of personal statements for academic programs. Download a copy of the personal statement eguide.

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6 things that make people weak writers (and what you can do about them)

If you think you’re a weak writer, you may think that there isn’t much you can do about it. After all, when it comes to being a strong writer, you either have what it takes or you don’t. Right?

We don’t think so.

When you watch colleagues craft elegant emails or blog posts in what feels like the blink of an eye, it can be hard to believe that the difference between them and you isn’t a magical superpower that they got and you didn’t. In reality, though, what separates strong writers from weak writers isn’t a superpower, a writing gene, or a truckload of luck. Instead, it’s a set of beliefs and habits.

Here are the six beliefs and habits that may be holding you back from being a better writer:

1. You have distorted beliefs about what good writing is

If you’re like a lot of people, you may believe that good writing involves using long words that seem like they’ve been plucked straight from the verbal section of the SAT or the GRE. In our blog post on using long vs. short words in writing, we talked about how a lot of people think that using long, complex words (e.g., “visualization,” “calculation,” and “optimization”) makes them seem smarter.

People who believe that long words are better than short ones tend to do things like these:

• Turn verbs into nouns

• Use a long word when a shorter option exists

• Stuff their sentences with prepositions

• Use redundant and unnecessary phrases

• Write in passive voice instead of in active voice

Take a look at something you wrote recently. Do these habits characterize your writing? If they do, you may have a tendency to write sentences that are wordier than they need to be.

So why are wordy sentences bad? They make your reader’s job harder. When people read, they have to stitch together the information represented by each word on the fly. Sentences that contain long words have more complex pieces that need to be stitched together.

But won’t writing simple sentences make you look less intelligent? No. Experts in a field know that it’s much harder to explain a complex topic (e.g., quantum physics) using simple words than it is to explain that same topic using long, complex words. Why? Because you really need to know your stuff to explain a complex topic concisely. In fact, there’s scientific evidence to show that authors of a piece of writing look less intelligent when the writing contains long words instead of short ones.

So how do you get used to writing shorter and simpler sentences? Here are some quick tips:

• If you can replace a noun with a verb, do it

• If you can think of a shorter word to use, do it

• If you can get rid of a preposition, do it

• If you can get rid of a word or phrase because it’s already implied by other words in your sentence, do it

• If you can write in active voice (and you probably can), do it

For those of you who want a more detailed and comprehensive strategy for trimming your sentences, check out our post on 10 tips for reducing your word count. You’ll also find tips for writing clear and simple sentences in our eguide on writing concisely. You can download a free copy of the eguide here.

2. You’re using other people’s bad writing as examples

One of the things that makes it so hard for people to become better writers is that there’s so much bad writing out in the world. And when we say that there’s a lot of bad writing out there, we’re not referring just to blogs, social media posts, or websites – writing that often doesn’t get reviewed before being published. You can find examples of weak and ungrammatical writing in major newspapers, academic journals, and even books about how to write well!

For example, take a look at this excerpt from a book about writing good content:

“Or until you’re questioning things best left to the philosophers. As in: I want to drive interest and awareness in the launch of our new collaborative editing software.”

One of the most important things to know about colons (the punctuation kind, not the anatomy kind) is that you always need a full sentence before them. We explain this in our blog post on colons, and both Grammar Girl and Grammarly do too. In the excerpt above, the author used a colon even though the words that come before it (i.e., “as in”) don’t form a full sentence. As a result, the second sentence is ungrammatical.

As most people do, you probably have a certain level of trust in the publication system. You probably assume that anything that’s published in a seemingly credible newspaper, journal, or book is well written or at least grammatically correct. (After all, shouldn’t the piece have been edited by a good copyeditor before being published?) As a result, you may use these sources as examples of good writing even if they aren’t.

And it isn’t just newspapers and books that aren’t guaranteed to be good models of strong writing. Bosses and mentors also aren’t always reliable sources of good writing. Some bosses and mentors are great writers, but the skills required to lead and manage a team don’t always go hand in hand with good writing skills. Be aware that not every boss or mentor will be able to spot your writing mistakes, and some will even suggest changes to your writing that would make it weaker instead of stronger. Note that we’re not trying to make you question your boss’s skills. We’re just mentioning that not everyone in a position of authority is a good writer.

So how do you overcome this barrier to good writing? Try using the grammar and usage sections of styles guides (e.g., The Associated Press Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, The Economist Style Guide, the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, or the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association) as a reference for grammar and usage issues. For guidance about higher-level aspects of writing (e.g., organizing sentences and paragraphs), check out resources developed by credible experts. Here are just some examples:

“Bird By Bird:  Instructions on Writing And Life” by Anne Lamott

“On Writing: A Memoir of The Craft” By Stephen King

“On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction” By William Zinsser

“Revising Prose” By Richard Lanham

“The Elements of Style” By William Strunk Jr. And E. B. White

“The Sense of Style” By Steven Pinker

 And remember, even the best writers and copyeditors make mistakes, so don’t assume that everything you see in print (or online) is correct.

3. You hold yourself to an unreasonably high standard

One of the most common reasons why people have trouble drafting a blog post, report, or essay is that they think their first draft needs to be perfect. If you can relate to this, you’re probably someone who has to get each word in a sentence just right before moving on to writing the next one. This perfectionist anxiety can paralyze you to the point where you can sit in front of a computer for an entire hour and end up with only a couple of sentences on the page.

The good news is that there are three things you can do to tame your inner perfectionist and get more down on the page:

First, recognize that your first draft can be as ugly as it needs to be. Even the best writers often start off with horrendous first drafts. Remember that a first draft isn’t about creating a masterpiece; it’s about getting all of the key elements onto the page so that you can play around with them during the editing phase. No one needs to see your real first draft (even if you have to send someone an “initial draft” at some point), so don’t worry about what it looks like.

Second, if you get stuck in a sentence because you can’t think of the right word or phrase to write, insert a line or “XXX” as placeholder text and keep writing. You can go back and fill it in later. You’ll often find that taking a break from that part of the sentence helps you figure out how to fill it in more effortlessly later on. We talk more about this strategy in our blog post on writing quickly.

Third, if you’re really struggling to get anything down onto the page, try doing a brain dump. Set a timer for two minutes, and once it starts, write whatever comes to mind continuously until the timer stops. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or how your words sound. Just get the thoughts in your head down onto the page. You can clean it all up later.

4. You forget that writing is only one part of the writing process

Another thing that can make you a weak writer is a tendency to leave out some of the most important parts of the writing process. You may think of writing as just drafting a document, looking it over for major typos, and sending it off. In reality, though, what most people think of writing (what we’ll call “drafting”) is just one small part of the writing process. The other two key steps are the planning stage and the editing stage.

The planning stage is when you take the time to think through why you’re writing a certain piece, who your audience or reader is, and what key pieces of info you need to include. For most people, it can be helpful to create an outline that includes the key points you want to make and the explanations, examples, or data that will support these points. If you take the time to create a detailed outline, you’ll have an easier time writing your first draft. You’ll also find that your first few drafts are more structured and comprehensive than they would be otherwise.

Note: we’re actually using this strategy right now to draft a grant proposal. We’re finding that the drafting stage is going so much more smoothly and quickly than we thought it would because we spent time creating a detailed 14-page outline.

We mentioned before that first drafts are often pretty ugly. This is why the editing stage is so important. Even if you write what seem to be pristine first drafts, the editing stage is key for improving the clarity of your main points, rearranging sections, filling gaps, removing unnecessary info, and correcting errors.

Strong writers often spend more time planning and editing a draft than they do writing it. So if you’re not planning or editing when you write, you’re leaving out key parts of the writing process.

Want to see a detailed example of how to plan, draft, and edit?  Check out our step-by-step eguide on writing a med school personal statement. Even if you don’t have plans to apply to med school, the guide can help you develop strategies for rocking all three major stages of the writing process.

5. You don’t set aside enough time to write

In the back of your mind, you may know that it’s a good idea to create an outline for a document and to spend time editing it. However, if you have a tendency to leave writing to the last minute, you may end up scrapping the planning and editing stages and sticking with the drafting stage only.

As we’ve discussed, first drafts almost always need a lot of work. So if you’re not giving yourself enough time to edit, you’re setting yourself up to end up with a blog post, report, or essay that’s much less refined than you want it to be. And if you skipped the planning stage too, your final document may be a far cry from what you initially envisioned.

To make sure that you end up with the best final document you can, start writing early and schedule the planning and editing stages into your work plan or planner. Because writing projects differ in length and complexity, it’s hard to provide a fixed number of hours to spend on the planning, drafting, and editing stages. However, you can usually count on the editing stage taking much longer than the drafting stage. And depending on the amount of detail you include in your writing plan or outline, your planning stage may take longer than the drafting stage too.

6. You don’t write regularly

If you can buy into our idea that writing is a skill instead of an innate talent (which we’re assuming you have if you’re still reading this), you’ll realize that writing is something that requires practice. You weren’t born knowing how to walk, ride a bike, or cook; you had to practice these skills by doing them over and over and over again. The same thing applies to writing.

Depending on the courses you took in school and how your academic semesters were structured, you may not have gotten many opportunities to write on a regular basis while you were in school. The same may be happening now. If you write only once a week or once every few weeks, you may not be giving yourself enough time to practice writing.

You can tackle this barrier by writing more frequently each week. Figure out how much time you can reasonably spend on writing tasks each week. Then, spread this time out over 3–5 days each week. The issue isn’t so much about how much time you spend writing each day but about how regularly you write. Have three hours to write each week? Spend an hour each day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Have just 1.5 hours? Spend 30 minutes writing on each of these days.

It can be easy to push writing tasks to the back burner, so you might find it helpful to schedule your writing time into your calendar. This will protect the time slot in your calendar and encourage you to schedule other tasks and meetings around it.

Want more details about how to develop a regular writing schedule? Check out Paul Silvia’s “How To Write A Lot.”

Final Thoughts

As you can see, writing well isn’t so much about having one specific talent or power as it is about having beliefs and habits that help you hone your writing over time. Of course, this means that being a good writer is something that requires hard work and time. You aren’t going to become a better writer overnight. It also means, though, that no matter where you’re starting, it’s within your power to learn how to write well.

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Want to write better brand content, web copy, proposals, or essays? Check out our 12 tips on writing clearly. Download the eguide here.

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At Inpression Editing, we help businesses, students, and professionals make the best impression possible on customers, investors, admissions committees, and hiring managers. We do this by providing online copywriting, editing, and writing coaching services for brand content, website copy, marketing materials, personal statements, and much more. Located in Toronto, Canada, we provide all of our services in both Canadian and US English.

Active voice versus passive voice

Want an easy way to make your sentences stronger and livelier? Write in active voice instead of in passive voice.

In active voice, the person or thing that performs the main action of the sentence is the subject of the sentence. For example, “Bob wrote the report” is written in active voice because the person (i.e., “Bob”) who performed the main action of the sentence (i.e., “wrote”) is also the subject of the sentence.

In passive voice, the subject of the sentence is the person or thing that is acted on or affected by the main action of the sentence. For example, “The report was written by Bob” is written in passive voice because the subject of the sentence (i.e., “the report”) is the thing being acted on by the main action in the sentence (i.e., “written”).

Note that in both cases, “Bob” is the person who performs the main action of the sentence. However, when the sentence is written in active voice, Bob is the subject of the sentence, but when the sentence is written in passive voice, Bob isn’t the subject.

You can remember the difference between active and passive voice by remembering that a sentence is in active voice when the subject of the sentence is actively doing something (e.g., writing). A sentence is in passive voice when the subject is passively being acted on (e.g., being written).

Some people think that writing is passive voice is better than writing in active voice because passive voice seems more scientific and formal. After all, many scientific articles are written in passive voice (e.g., “Participants were given 200 mg of the medication each week”).

In reality, though, sentences written in active voice are usually clearer and easier to understand than sentences written in passive voice are. Here are two key reasons why:

1. Active voice sentences are typically shorter than their passive voice equivalents because passive voice sentences contain extra words (e.g., some form of “was” plus “by”). Because shorter sentences are generally easier to understand than longer ones, active sentences tend to be easier to understand than passive sentences.

2. In active voice sentences, it’s usually easy to identify the person or thing that performs the main action in a sentence. In a passive voice sentence, however, it’s easy to write the sentence in a way that cuts this person or thing out of the sentence. Look at these examples:

Example A. “Mistakes were made in incorporating the data into the report.” (passive voice)

Example B. “The technical writer made mistakes in incorporating the data into the report.” (active voice)

In Example A, it isn’t clear who made the mistakes. It could have been the marketing analyst, the statistician, the technical writer, or the entire project team. We simply don’t know who it was because the sentence doesn’t tell us. It’s common for people and organizations to write sentences like this when they want to avoid taking responsibility for an action or assigning blame.

In comparison, in Example B, we know that it was the technical writer who made the mistakes. In other words, Example B is written in a way that makes it easy to understand who the key player is in the sentence and what the sentence means.

Although it may not always be important for your reader to know who performed an action in a sentence, having this information can help readers interpret surrounding sentences or paragraphs. Furthermore, if you’re submitting a grant proposal that outlines work that will be performed by multiple people on a team, writing sentences that remove the main actors from a sentence may make it challenging for the reader to figure out who will be responsible for carrying out each task.

Note that writing in passive voice isn’t always a bad thing, When the subject of your sentence isn’t important and you want to focus on the recipient of an action (e.g., “The ducks were released back into the wild”), it may be best to leave your sentence in passive voice. In most cases, though, changing sentences from passive to active voice can make them easier to understand.

Want a quick way to identify sentences in passive voice? Call in the zombies! If your sentence makes sense when you place “by zombies” after the main verb (e.g., “The interviews were conducted [by zombies] in October.”), it’s probably in passive voice.

In sum, you can write a sentence in one of two grammatical voices: active voice and passive voice. In most cases, writing in active voice instead of passive voice will make your sentences clearer and easier to understand. It’ll also make them flow better.

The next time that you’re writing a report, blog post, or admissions essay, review your text for sentences written in passive voice. If you find any, rewrite them so that the person or thing that performs the main action in each sentence is the subject of the sentence.

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Need to make a good impression with your marketing content, funding proposal, or admissions essay? We can help. Get an instant quote here.

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The building blocks of a personal statement

If you’re preparing a personal statement for a med school, law school, grad school, or medical residency program, don’t make the mistake that many applicants make. That is, avoid writing a series of vague statements about why you want to pursue a particular career, how you’ve explored your interest in this career, and why you’re a strong candidate for the program you’re applying to. For example, don’t write something like this:

“I am interested in pursuing a career in medicine because I am passionate about helping people. By training to become a physician, I hope to improve the care that patients receive.”

It’s easier to write a vague statement, but taking the easy route isn’t going to help you get in to your dream program.

So how do you avoid making one of the most common personal statement mistakes? Ground your statement in specific experiences and examples. First, think about the past experiences you’ve had that could be relevant to your application. These can include extracurricular activities, academic experiences or accomplishments, research experience, volunteer work, employment, or defining moments. Then, identify a few experiences that will allow you to provide the best answers to these questions:

1. Why do you want to pursue a career in Field X?

2. What activities or experiences have you pursued to explore your interest in Field X and make sure that it’s the right fit for you?

3. How have your activities and experiences influenced you?

4. How are the things that you learned from your activities and experiences useful for a career in Field X?

When you describe your experiences in your statement, be sure that you don’t just rehash your resume or provide a laundry list of activities you’ve taken part in. Instead, focus on a few key experiences and give yourself the space to describe what you did, why you did it, and what you learned from it in detail. Admissions committee don’t just want to know what you did. They want to see that you have the self-awareness to reflect on your experiences and understand what they mean for your personal growth or professional development.

In our guide “How To Write a Medical School Personal Statement: A Step-By-Step Process,” we provide a detailed method for writing a personal statement that’s centered on identifying and describing specific, concrete experiences. Although this guide is geared toward medical school applicants, many of the points in the guide are relevant to all types of personal statements for academic programs. Download a copy of it here.

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Need some help polishing your personal statement? We can help. Get an instant quote here.

Inpression Editing | Online editing, copywriting, and coaching | www.inpression.io