Here is the presentation that accompanied the lecture on writing tips.

1. COM 140 – Writing Tips

2. Writing Tips
• Here is a list of nine characteristics editors are grateful to see in their
writers. Steve Padilla, Column One Editor of the Los Angeles Times,
compiled it based on his experience as both a writer and editor.

3. Writing Tips
1. Writers who read their work out loud.
2. Writers who love the sound of words—but still use the dictionary to make
sure they’re using the words correctly.
3. Writers who don’t file 1,000 more words than promised.

4. Writing Tips
4. Writers who use precise and vigorous verbs.
5. Writers who vary the rhythms of their sentences.
6. Writers who take chances.

5. Writing Tips
7. Writers who remember that the most important thing in writing is the
idea/meaning/message. If you know what you want to say, you’ll figure out
how to say it.
8. Writers who dare to use a sentence fragment for emphasis. Really. Truly.
Just now and then.
9. Writers who read. A lot.

6. Writing Tips
• Eliminate clutter
1. George Orwell: If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
2. Primo Levi: Maximum information with minimum clutter.

7. Writing Tips
• Write for yourself (with the audience in mind)
“You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it
with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth
writing for.” – William Zinnser

8. Writing Tips
• Study the greats and contemporary writers
“Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to
write, I’d say I learned by reading the men and women who were
doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how
they did it.”- Zinnser
Think of works that are personally admirable. Think of why each is
admirable.

9. Writing Tips
• Writing is a process, not a product
1. Don’t let the production structure get in the way of writing.
2. Don’t become paralyzed by obsessing on whether someone will
steal your idea.
3. Write first.

10. Writing Tips
• Read everything aloud and consider rhythm and sound
1. Lyrical magic is not limited to poetry.
2. “Good writers of prose must be part poet, always listening to what
they write.” - Zinnser

11. Writing Tips
• Be confident
1. Everybody is Macbeth: cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in, to
saucy doubts and fears.
2. Get over it and get the words on the screen.

12. Writing Tips
• And there’s this from Quora contributor Felipe Bida:

13. Writing Tips
• “The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the
class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said,
would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on
the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of
class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the
quantity group - 50 pounds of pots rated an A, forty pounds a B and so on.
Those being graded on the quality, however, needed to produce only one
pot - albeit a perfect one - to get (an) A.

14. Writing Tips
• “Well, come grading time and a curious fact emerged. The works of the
highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.
• “It seems that while the quantity group was busily churning out piles of
work and learning from their mistakes, the quality group had sat theorizing
about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts
than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”

15. Writing Tips
• That means in order to write well, you must:
1. Write
2. Listen all the time
3. Observe all the time
4. Read a lot
• It will facilitate the shift from outside to inside the language and all the
words, the phrases, sentences, the grammar, etc. that serve as the
mechanical forces of the writing universe.

16. Writing Tips
• “Excellence in the great things is built upon excellence in the small.” –
John Updike

17. Writing Tips
• Yes, you can break the rules but first you need to know the rules you
are breaking.
• Accomplished writers stretch the language but do so from a foundation
in existing rules of grammar and style.

18. Writing Tips
• Let’s look at the following article that unpacks a rule-breaking sentence
but retains fidelity to rules of grammar.
• A 198-Word Sentence