Writing Simply

Writing simply and plainly is the best policy for most writers. There may be occasions when flowery, embellished language is appropriate or even required. But for the most part, your job as a writer is to communicate clearly with your readers. This is best accomplished through lean, clean prose that gets directly to the point and doesn't lead readers on a contrived literary goose chase. This type of direct writing is achieved through careful selection of words, eliminating unnecessary or redundant words, and reducing the amount of modifiers (adverbs and adjectives) that make writing seem convoluted and confusing. Some writers mistakenly think they must use big or unknown words to impress readers, but it often has the opposite effect. Readers don't want to have to wade through difficult passages of prose. They don't want to have to stumble through overly wordy language that seems awkward and forced. They want writers to make reading easy for them, spelling everything out smoothly, plainly and as succinctly as possible. If you remember that your goal is to communicate, not confuse, you will choose language that gets to the point, informs readers clearly, expresses your ideas effectively, and gets the job done.