At the risk of sounding too cliché, practice is what makes you perfect at writing. You write all the time, be it an e-mail, a report, your blog or just a post on LinkedIn. Believe it or not, a significant amount of your time and thoughts go into ideation and curation of content. Irrespective of whether you’re into writing professionally or not, you can always use some tips to enhance our writing in order to improve readability, intuitiveness, and appeal in general. Here are a few tips that will not just help you refine your writing skills but can revamp your whole viewpoint of works and what doesn’t:
1. Empathy is the key:
Having an understanding of your potential readers will help you appeal to them on a more holistic level. You should develop a habit of going through your own content with different approach impersonating different mindsets. Read and judge yourself on various parameters like readability, complexity, conciseness, etc. Similarly, anticipate your readers’ questions that need answering and style your content accordingly.
2. Don’t explain too much:
Your content should put up a statement and when you’re doing that, you don’t need ornate details to prove your point. At times, trivial details can work against your goal of keeping your readers engaged since they may lose patience and therefore interest. At the end of the day, your motive is to make the readers understand your point and you should do it in the most efficient way possible.
3. Refrain from using filler words and phrases:
Framing sentences with a lot of filler words like- might, sort of, like, maybe, a little makes you sound unsure and untrustworthy. Except for when you’re writing for or in a diplomatic setting, you might kind of want to stay away from something like filler words. See? It sounds terrible. Again, the solution is to read out loud and see for yourself what impression your content is giving away and make amendments accordingly.
4. Keep it simple:
Simplicity is the best sophistication. It’s good to have a stupendous vocabulary up your sleeves; however, when it comes to writing for your readers, you should understand that it’s them who you are serving to. Moreover, there’s a difference between having a rich vocabulary and bragging about a knowing a word you just googled. You also run a risk of the wrong usage of words you didn’t know the meaning of priorly. Make sure that you are not making any mistakes in Grammar. Check out how to improve your Grammar.
5. Keep distractions away:
Nothing is worse than being distracted by petty things when you’re in the zone. After being distracted, it’s difficult to get yourself to concentrate again and start to think in the same context you were in before. Keep your phone on silent and disable all the flashy notifications on your computer too. You will see for yourself how the quality of your content will enhance drastically.
6. Read, Read, Read!
Obviously, you have to read a lot in order to get a hang of what you’re writing about. Reading is like an open-secret not just to improve your vocabulary, but to train yourself on different styles of writing and then developing the instinct to know for yourself what style would be apt for a host of scenarios.
7. Actively use contractions:
Using contractions improves the readability of your content exponentially. Contractions sound more natural and feel like something you’d say and hence increases the degree to which people can relate to your text. Even when you’re writing in a formal setting, it’s good to use contractions like- you’re, they’re, can’t, didn’t.
8. Your writing should reflect yourself:
Use words and phrases you would normally do. Seriously! Imitating the manner and techniques of other writers will take you nowhere. Being authentic is the first and foremost way of getting your reader’s attention. There’s a difference between imitating and being inspired by someone or some piece of writing.
9. Join a workshop or Take up an online course:
If you can find a good one, you should definitely join a workshop on content writing or creative writing. Although, many writers don’t shine as perfect communicators it undoubtedly helps to interact with like-minded individuals. If your schedule is too tight for such activities or development groups, you can always find a good online course, with an open online community to synergize with people for your benefit.
10. Proofread!
As boring as it may sound to some people, it is THE most important part of your write-up. You don’t finish writing when you stop typing. If you struggle to find mistakes in your write-up only to regret it later, it’s better you lend someone else’s eyes to proofread your content in exchange for might be doing the same for them. This way, it’s a win-win situation for both of you.
Final Words:
Telling your piece through the perfect words in an inquisitive and thought-provoking way is one of the prerequisites for marketing in the time to come. Inculcating the aforementioned while writing is sure to give your writing skills a boost and hence your business or your blog.
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