What you need to know about amateur writing vs professional writing

I am indebted to Maeve Maddox for explaining, in a highly relevant post on the Daily Writing Tips blog, the difference between amateur writing and professional writing.

I am also grateful to her for pointing out that, contrary to what some people may think, it is NOT a waste of time to take pains over grammar, diction, and syntax.

"Few writers have what it takes to produce 'great writing'," Maddox says, "but even a great storyteller requires professional writing skills to get the story across to the reader."

And then, an important observation:

The difference between amateur writing and professional writing is rewriting.

Read the post, which offers a close look at the work of an amateur, in its entirety here: "A Sample of Amateur Writing".

ADDITIONAL READING:

• What matters most in good writing

• "Want To Be Taken Seriously? Become a Better Writer"

• How do you make sure you’re writing right?

• How to spot lazy a.k.a. mediocre travel writing

• If you want just one "golden rule" of writing...

How often do you write "seperate", "definate", and "calender"?

"Separate", "definite", and "calendar" (note the spelling) are among the 10 words that are most frequently misspelled, according to a recent post by Maeve Maddox on the very useful Daily Writing Tips blog. Take a look at the other seven here.

• You also will want to check out these 15 commonly misspelled words: "Why you can't spell".

• ALSO READ: "50 Facebook rants to make you think about bad English vs good English".

"Youthful job seekers may not regard correct speech as an emblem of education or intelligence, but they’d be wise to look upon it as a mark of professionalism"

What does it do to your job prospects when you are ignorant about subject-verb agreement? Let Maeve Maddox, explaining on the Daily Writing Tips blog why grammar consultants are in great demand these days, enlighten you: "Ignorance or sincerity?"

• ADDITIONAL READING: From the excellent Purdue Online Writing Lab — "Making  subjects and verbs agree".

How do you make sure you’re writing right?

Here are seven helpful tips provided by Mark Nichol, editor of the Daily Writing Tips blog:

• Look up the definition of an unfamiliar word and be sure you understand the meaning before you use it.
• Search a thesaurus or a synonym finder for the precise meaning, taking care to notice the different connotations of similar words.
• Keep your writing clear and coherent, and avoid pretentious or overly formal language.
• Select the strongest nouns and verbs before you select adjectives and adverbs.
• Seek opportunities to use repetition for rhetorical effect while, at the same time, you watch for careless redundancy.
• Read your draft aloud to help you refine grammar and usage. If something doesn’t sound right to you, it probably doesn’t read right to your audience, either.
• Ask someone else to read your writing and critique it.

Read the post in its entirety here: "7 Tips for Editing to Improve Usage".

Also read Mark Nichol's recent post: "Does Good Writing Matter?"

• ADDITIONAL READING:

"10 Tips about Basic Writing Competency"

"Want To Be Taken Seriously? Become a Better Writer" 

How writers can overcome reader resistance

Following on from yesterday's Reading Room post on Tim Radford's 25 commandments for journalists, here is some terrific advice from an experienced editor and author, Arthur Plotnik, who has contributed a guest post to the very useful Daily Writing Tips blog.

I was hooked by Plotnik's electrifying opening line:

All we writers crave is to charge into the resistant, overloaded brain of a reader and shoot forked lightning through every last dendrite.

Who can resist such a creative intro? Who can hold off the urge to read the next line and the next paragraph and all the paragraphs that follow? Not me. And, I hope, not you either. Especially if you want to be engaged, entertained, and enlightened. And definitely if you want to be a good writer.

Here are the points Plotnik is emphasising:

1. Specificity.

2. Supercharged verbs.

3. High performance modifiers.

4. Fresh intensifiers.

5. Sound words.

6. Surprise images.

7. Nowness.

8. Street beat.

9. Big nature.

10. Tough talk / Irreverence.

11. Understatement.

12. Torque through intensity.

And here is his post in its entirety with all these points explained in detail, with examples: "Twelve Non-Negotiable Elements of Force in Writing". Have a ball!