Basic Writing Tips

1. BASIC
Writing
Techniques
Chapter 1

2. Writing IS:
—————————

4. GOOD WRITING IS HARD WORKDigital Nation: 36 minute mark

5. CRIME
Sheriff identi es pastor killed with his own gun in east
Texas church shooting after confronting manhunt
suspect

7. By Lara Korte
Posted Jan 8, 2020 at 5:13 PM
Joseph TenBarge, the University of Texas’ assistant dean for instructional technology and facilities,
runs something similar to a live TV studio. There are cameras, producers and even sometimes a
“live studio audience.”
But when the lights switch on and the camera starts rolling, it’s not a host who does the talking —
it’s a professor, broadcasting a lesson to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of students watching from
their computers.
Nearly a quarter of UT students took an online class in 2018, up more than 80% from 2015. It’s a
big leap for the school, but it’s not alone: across the country, hundreds of colleges are increasing
their offering of online courses, encouraging students to take advantage of the convenience and
flexibility that comes with “distance education.” Recently released federal data show 34.7% of all
college students in the country took at least one online class in the fall of 2018.
Austin-area universities see boom in online enrollment

8. CHARActeristics of GOOD WRITING

9. 01
CLEAR
Leave no
doubt about
the
meaning.
02
SIMPLE
Use simple
language,
words,
sentences.
03
EFFICIENT
Use the
fewest
words
possible.
04
PRECISE
Use the
correct
word. Know
the exact
meaning.
05
MODEST
Don’t use
complicated
words to
impress
readers.
CHARActeristics of GOOD WRITING

10. TIPS from a BBC Journalist

11. 01
CLEAR
Leave no
doubt about
the
meaning.
02
SIMPLE
Use simple
language,
words,
sentences.
03
EFFICIENT
Use the
fewest
words
possible.
04
PRECISE
Use the
correct
word. Know
the exact
meaning.
05
MODEST
Don’t use
complicated
words to
impress
readers.
CHARActeristics of GOOD WRITING

12. Let’s
Practice:
CLARITY
1. For those of you who have children
and don’t know it, we have a
nursery downstairs.

13. Let’s
Practice:
CLARITY
1. For those of you who have children
and don’t know it, we have a
nursery downstairs.
2. Coming home, I drove into the
wrong house and collided with a
tree I don’t have.

14. Let’s
Practice:
CLARITY
1. For those of you who have children
and don’t know it, we have a
nursery downstairs.
2. Coming home, I drove into the
wrong house and collided with a
tree I don’t have.
3. A pedestrian hit me and went under
my car.

15. Let’s
Practice:
CLARITY
1. For those of you who have children
and don’t know it, we have a
nursery downstairs.
2. Coming home, I drove into the
wrong house and collided with a
tree I don’t have.
3. A pedestrian hit me and went under
my car.
4. The guy was all over the road. I had
to swerve a number of times before
I hit him.

16. Benjamin
Franklin
“To write clearly,
not only the most
expressive but the
plainest words
should be chosen”.

17. Let’s
Practice:
SIMPLICITY
"It can therefore be said that
although we cannot speak of a
uniform population decline
across Europe, the demographic
growth of every country in
Europe was slowed or retarded in
the seventeenth century when
compared to that of the previous
hundred years." (42 words)

18. Let’s
Practice:
SIMPLICITY
"It can therefore be said that
although we cannot speak of a
uniform population decline
across Europe, the demographic
growth of every country in
Europe was slowed or retarded in
the seventeenth century when
compared to that of the previous
hundred years." (42 words)
Necessary?

19. Let’s
Practice:
SIMPLICITY
"It can therefore be said that
although we cannot speak of a
uniform population decline
across Europe, the demographic
growth of every country in
Europe was slowed or retarded in
the seventeenth century when
compared to that of the previous
hundred years." (42 words)

20. Let’s
Practice:
SIMPLICITY
"It can therefore be said that
although we cannot speak of a
uniform population decline
across Europe, the demographic
growth of every country in
Europe was slowed or retarded in
the seventeenth century when
compared to that of the previous
hundred years." (42 words)
WORDY

21. Let’s
Practice:
SIMPLICITY
"It can therefore be said that
although we cannot speak of a
uniform population decline
across Europe, the demographic
growth of every country in
Europe was slowed or retarded in
the seventeenth century when
compared to that of the previous
hundred years." (42 words)

22. Let’s
Practice:
SIMPLICITY
"It can therefore be said that
although we cannot speak of a
uniform population decline
across Europe, the demographic
growth of every country in
Europe was slowed or retarded in
the seventeenth century when
compared to that of the previous
hundred years." (42 words)
2x EUROPE

23. Let’s
Practice:
SIMPLICITY
"It can therefore be said that
although we cannot speak of a
uniform population decline
across Europe, the demographic
growth of every country in
Europe was slowed or retarded in
the seventeenth century when
compared to that of the previous
hundred years." (42 words)

24. Let’s
Practice:
SIMPLICITY
"It can therefore be said that
although we cannot speak of a
uniform population decline
across Europe, the demographic
growth of every country in
Europe was slowed or retarded in
the seventeenth century when
compared to that of the previous
hundred years." (42 words)
Redundant

25. Let’s
Practice:
SIMPLICITY
"It can therefore be said that
although we cannot speak of a
uniform population decline
across Europe, the demographic
growth of every country in
Europe was slowed or retarded in
the seventeenth century when
compared to that of the previous
hundred years." (42 words)

26. "Although there was no uniform
population decline across
Seventeenth Century Europe, the
demographic growth of every
country was slowed when compared
to that of the previous hundred
years." (28 words)
REVISED VERSION

27. USE SIMPLE WORDS
Fewer syllables is better:
subsequent
substantial

28. USE SIMPLE WORDS
Fewer syllables is better:
subsequent
substantial
after
large

29. USE SIMPLE Sentences
“She was shot through the right
lung after confronting a woman
married to her ex-husband inside
the Food World store on Bankhead
Highway shortly before 1 p.m.”

30. Those
Sentences!
“She was in the Food World
store on Bankhead Highway.
Shortly before 1 p.m., she
confronted the woman married
to her ex-husband. That woman
shot her through the right lung.”DIVIDE

31. Let’s
Practice:
EFFICIENCY
There are many farmers in
the area who are planning to
attend the meeting, which is
scheduled for next Friday.

32. Let’s
Practice:
EFFICIENCY
There are many farmers in
the area who are planning to
attend the meeting, which is
scheduled for next Friday.
Many area farmers plan to
attend next Friday's meeting.

33. Let’s
Practice:
MODESTY
I think it is agreed by all parties, that this
prodigious number of children in the
arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of
their mothers, and frequently of their
fathers, is in the present deplorable state
of the kingdom, a very great additional
grievance; and therefore whoever could
find out a fair, cheap and easy method of
making these children sound and useful
members of the common-wealth, would
deserve so well of the public, as to have
his statue set up for a preserver of the
nation. — Jonathan Swift

34. MORE
WRITING
tips
Know the language
Know the Subject
Write it down
Edit & rewrite

35. Edit
Rewrite
Revisit your work

Reexamine critically
Be open to Feedback
Don’t take it personalLY
REREAD

36. Pres.
Obama’s
Edits

37. If you don’t
have time to
read, you
don’t have
the time —
or the tools
— to write.
Simple as
that.
- Stephen King

38. There are three things that are important: First, if you want
to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal
that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put
down what you think about life, what you think about
things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair.
And second, you need to read. You can’t be a writer if you’re
not a reader. It’s the great writers who teach us how to
write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every
day. Even if it’s for only half an hour — write, write, write.
Madeleine L’Engle
=

39. Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re
inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will
delete it and the writing will be just as it
should be.
Mark Twain
=

40. Would they have succeeded in
getting their stories out if
they hadn’t gone through
the tedious work of
growing an audience
first? My guess is no.
A TRUE (HORROR) STORY

41. A TRUE (HORROR) STORY

42. Beware of nominalizations