Is Writing all about using the tough words & grammar?

Chris,

The English language is what you make of it. The reality is that you will have to find your own style. Grammar is important, but more important is that your words make sense to your readers.

When you write you are a detective investigating the thoughts of your readers. You think about what makes them tick. How can you exact a response? How can you motivate them?

Grammar helps you do this by providing the structure, but you must find the path that works for your readers and you. Do not worry about being hard and soft. Instead, worry about making an impact with your writing.

Imagine your ideal outcome. Now, look at your writing. Do you believe that will happen from what you wrote. If the answer is no, then keep working.

Hey Chris,

I'd say that when writing in English it's very easy to express genuine knowledge, ideas and concepts when you have a full understanding of them. This in it's self is very powerful. When you're writing, of course, grammar is important but what really matters, in my mind, is that you have a firm grasp of what you've chosen to write about.

Also when you're writing, who are you writing for? Are they people that are like-minded to you? If so then maybe you should write entirely naturally or 'as though you'd speak it'. I find this a great way of writing because it put's people on a level with you, sometimes I feel as though people using big words and being overly concerned with grammar and appearance lose something important - their connection with the reader.

If what your saying really holds true value and is really going to further someones understanding of a subject then they're not going to be that bothered if you've accidentally written 'there' instead of 'their' in a couple of places or whatever other grammatical errors you make.

I guess what i'm saying is as long is the content is there, it's good, it's understandable and it holds true value for the reader then people will not get too caught up about these things!

I hope this helps,

Kind regards and best of luck for the future,

Freddie Worrall :-)

I write as simply as I can - face to face conversations have shown me when people's faces glaze over if I get too technical!

Most of my writing is fairly chatty - as though I was explaining it to a friend.

And although I might know the tough words, I don't use them as I'd need to look up their meaning or most of my audience would.

If you are trying to communicate with your reader, you want to make that message as clear as possible. Unless you're a master of the English language, I would avoid trying to make your writing overly elaborate -- it wont read well.

Instead, aim to write in a simple and concise manner. Strip out all those unnecessary words and turns of phrase, and your voice will come across much stronger.

It's not about using big words, it's about using the right words and, in order to do that, you have to know a lot of words and what they mean.

No, it's not. Grammar, yes; heavy words where you can avoid them, no.

The only thing you should be concerned about is being able to communicate your message to the reader. You don't need to be superfluous at all. There are very few writers who can strike a chord with their readers and, in my opinion, that's a far more important quality to have.

Good writing is a lot more than just being sophisticated in your choice of words. I think it was Blaise Pascal who said "The letter I have written today is longer than usual because I lacked the time to make it shorter". That's a great quote, I think. Being clear and concise takes time and it's one of the most important qualities of a good writer.

The one thing that will help you write better is reading more, and reading people who write really well. :-)

(Though, to be honest, my grammar isn't very good either.)

The trick is to know your audience. Your post is on the formal side. That's not necessary here. Good writers speak to the people who read their stuff. That is likely to be different for each piece you write. Before writing try and get a picture of the typical reader who will want to read the work.

Here's an example. I noticed you used a semicolon. And you used it correctly. Congratulations. One of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, claims to have never used one as they are "clunky" and misunderstood, I think he said. They tend to throw many readers off track. I've written several million words in the last 10 years and have probably used three of them. Most readers have no idea what that punctuation means or where to use it.

There are a couple of informal writing tips that sort of dwell in my mind like ghosts. When you write imagine you're writing to a good friend. That adds enthusiasm and makes it interesting. Also, write every sentence so the reader has a strong desire to read the next sentence. If you can do that you'll become an excellent writer regardless of what your native language might be. If you stay with it you'll actually turn into a writer who does these things naturally. Good luck.

I think so, too. And "striking" is a good sort of writer to become.

I think it probably isn't.

I confess I do tend to do that, myself. I do it consciously and deliberately, but only because I'm trying to appeal to a particular traffic demographic comprising people who consider themselves highly educated and literate. They often like that, and are actually going to be impressed by the occasional word/construction with which they're not very familiar, and it keeps them reading. So I'm kind of "playing to the gallery" a little bit, sometimes, and for my specific demographic that can be worthwhile. But generally I'd say "no": it isn't needed, and it probably isn't advisable.

I've occasionally wondered, from your posts, whether English might possibly be your second language, but I've never quite known until I saw this post. I think most people here, if they're honest, would be really surprised that it is. And I strongly suspect that you already do a lot better than you give yourself credit for!

Indeed!

But to someone like yourself, obviously intelligent, educated and analytical, I suspect that learning it as a second language can actually have some "advantages over the natives". And people like yourself are perhaps evidence of that.

You have nothing to worry about at all, regarding your use of English, or your developing writing abilities!

This sounds quite striking to me. When you attain this, you have power in your pen.

Often, it's quite the opposite. Many writers hide behind big words and complex sentence structure to hide the fact that they have very little to say. Or, as one of my Texas pals likes to say,

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit...":p

Chris, you're doing fine. Other than an occasional odd construction, I'd have never guessed that English wasn't your milk language. Keep trying to do what the bloggers you described in your OP do, and you'll be in great shape...

With any type of writing it's about appealing to your target audience, and that means style and structure as well subject matter.

I wont write some long paragraph for you to read, but I will tell you that sometimes simplicity is what people are looking for.

(For the grammar police, I know that using the word 'for' at the end of a sentence is not the best way do it. But who are you to judge?)

Chris, words are only containers that are used to carry thoughts. Once you get the contents of the container to where you need them to go, who cares about the container.

Reminds me of a poem I learned in grade school:

Don't Use Big Words

Next time, in promulgating your esoteric cogitations,
or articulating your superficial sentimentalities and amicable,
philosophical or psychological observations, beware of
platitudinous ponderosity. Let your conversational
communications possess a clarified conciseness,
a compacted comprehensibleness, coalescent consistency,
and a concatenated cogency. Eschew all conglomerations
of flatulent garrulity, jejune babblement, and asinine affectations.

Let your extemporaneous descantings and unpremeditated
expatiations have intelligibility and veracious vivacity, without
rodomontade or thrasonical bombast. Sedulously avoid all
polysyllabic profundity, pompous prolixity, psittaceous vacuity
ventriloquial verbosity, and vaniloquent vapidity. Shun
double-entendres, prurient jocosity, and pestiferous profanity,
obscurant or apparent.

So in essence, let the simplicity of your vocabulary be
prominently eminent.

-Ray Edwards

The only thing i'm voracious about reading is my bank statements.

You have to have a passion about writing... copywriting in my opinion is stimulating, and when i read pieces from Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, John Carlton, and Jeff Paul... their pieces inspire me more.

After having read through this thread, I'm compelled to give some advice. Mainly because I'm the only guy who seems to know what the hell he's about in this area.

Chris, I teach English as a second language for a living. I've done this for over 20 years now. My degree is in linguistics (unlike a lot of other "teachers" around here that I could name), so I actually am a specialist in this field.

Also, I have studied Japanese to the extent that I was an interpreter/translator for a major Japanese company for 3 or 4 years. So I know the other side of the coin as well.

Your English is great for a non-native speaker. But I will tell you bluntly: if I were you, I would spend my time learning marketing and concentrating on the non-language side of things. The reason being that if you are not a native speaker, it doesn't matter how hard you study or how great your skill becomes, you will never be in a position to be absolutely SURE that you're saying things correctly. And the second reason being, it's easy to just hire someone who IS a native speaker to write your copy for you.

I know a few (very few) people who have the linguistic talent and dedication to sound virtually native when they talk with someone in a second language. I don't know of any who are able to write at that level. Not even one. It's simply a different skill, and not one that you should beat yourself up over. After all, there are plenty of native speakers around who can't write a decent paragraph, much less hit the psychological buttons in the way necessary to make someone click on a "buy" button.

Sorry if this seems harsh or defeatist. It's not meant to be. Just trying to save you some trouble and give you a different viewpoint.

Imperfect is kind of unique too.
As long as not much grammar mistake and has your own style in your writing.

Hi Chris,

This is a great question!

Culture influences all of us more than we realize.

I've lived in three very different countries, and visited many others. And I can tell you that all of them have different ways of thinking, and writing, about practically everything.


I have done a lot of non-fiction writing in different genres, and I can tell you that the single most important thing that you need to think about when you write is your audience.

Who will read what you write?

If you're writing for 8-12 year olds, then the words you use will be different than if you're writing for an academic publication, or for the WF.

The best way that I know of to get a feel for the style is by reading what your audience reads; and keep on reading it until you can clearly identify the differences between the way you write and the style that your audiences connects with.

When you've figured out that, then practice writing in that style.

It will feel strange at first. But you have to overcome that feeling and just do it, because if you don't, then your audience - the ones you want to reach - won't read it.

I hope that helps you.

Good luck!

"Simplicity is the highest sophistication"

yo uhave to use words most people can understand or your writing wont be as effective, yo ucan really get a point across if most of the population has no idea what your talking about.