Writing & Content Creation

How to Transform Your Dull Sentences Into Engaging Ones

6 Tips on snappy and efficient writing

Engaging writing catches the audience and reaches them on a deeper level. Repeated sentence structures, passive voice, and poor words, however, are common red-flag signs used by inexperienced writers that make their content sounds boring.

Whether you’re just starting with writing or already have some experience, if your pieces don’t get the attention you are hoping for, there are probably some techniques you’re overlooking to improve the quality of your writing.

In today’s article, we’ll examine six writing tips to produce engaging content. We’ll see a lot of examples of weak sentences and transform them into powerful ones burning with energy.

Power Words

We all have seen them in marketing and advertising. Writers and marketers use them to get the audience’s attention and trigger a psychological or emotional response. Power words are so persuasive that people simply can’t resist being influenced by them.

Here are examples of how you can change your text by introducing stronger adjectives, verbs, and other words. This may include using exaggeration to add extra drama to your story:

1. From unready idea to thriving business. → From unhatched idea to thriving business.
2. Spelling mistakes make your document look unprofessional. → “Spelling mistakes make your document look sloppy.” — ProWritingAid
3. Grammar mistakes can prevent understanding of what you’re trying to say. → “Grammar mistakes can interfere with your audience’s understanding of what you’re trying to say.” — ProWritingAid
4. Grammar mistakes harm your writing. → Grammar mistakes are serious.
5. Organizing your paragraphs would improve your writing. → Tidying up your paragraphs would improve your writing.
6. If you have a bad performance just after loading your application. → If you have a terrible performance just after loading your application.
7. We need to consider different cases. → We need to consider tens of corner cases.
8. Stories I’m sure people will read did not get enough traffic. → Stories I’m sure people will read seem to go unnoticed.
9. This happens when we’re struggling emotionally. → This is especially true when we’re struggling emotionally.
10. Another thing I like is open source. → Another thing I firmly believe in is open source.
11. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many businesses were been struggling to keep up. → Since the pandemic hit, many businesses were been struggling to keep up.
12. I think both opinions have pros and cons. → “I think there’s merit to both sides of the argument.” — Tom Meitner
13. The internet changes very quickly. → The internet changes at breakneck speed.

A Rhetorical Question

Instead of a very simple sentence, successful writers are varying their sentences by using rhetorical questions which can be an effective device to grab readers' attention.

“A rhetorical question is a question asked merely for effect with no answer expected. The answer may be obvious or immediately provided by the questioner ... They may also be used for dramatic or comedic effect.” — Richard Nordquist

Let’s see examples:

1. The number one thing I wish I knew when I started programming is that programming is not about coding, but about solving problems with coding. → “What do you think programming is about? Writing code? Writing good code? No. It’s just a part of the truth. Programming is not about coding, programming is about solving problems with coding … It’s the number one thing I wish I knew when I started programming.” — Nick Bull
2. I really hope things wind up going well with that business. → Do I hope things wind up going well with that business? Of course.
3. I need to explain this more. → Not quite clear? I think so too.
4. Writing one page a day will improve your writing skills. → What would happen if you write one page a day? There is only one way to find out. Doing it.
5. There are different types of web performance. The runtime performance is the one that would be optimized by using OnPush change detection strategy. → Are you wondering why you should care about the change detection strategy? Don’t get confused. There are different types of web performance. The runtime performance is the one that would be optimized by using OnPush change detection strategy.

Metaphor

Metaphors are a figure of speech that isn’t literally true, but serves to explain an idea and add texture and beauty to a dry description. They also contribute to creating an individual voice and style for a writer. Whether you are writing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or a blog, this technique is one of the most powerful tools in your artistic box.

Let’s practice:

1. He motivated me. → He ignited a fire in me.
2. We often ignore a lot of the things we should do to live well. → “a lot of the things we should do to live well … often slip through the cracks.” — Scott H. Young
3. If you write unnecessarily complicated sentences and paragraphs, your reader may not understand your story in the way you had hoped. → If your reader is having to trudge through unnecessarily complicated sentences and paragraphs, they may not understand the story in the way you had hoped.
4. I have done some research. → To find out, I rolled up my sleeves and started investigating.
5. Strong, concise writing helps to improve your story. → Strong, concise writing helps to add depth and color to your story.
6. You start noticing bugs and race conditions issues in your software. → Bugs and subtle race conditions issues start creeping in.
7. You want to engage your readers in your writing. → You want to create a vivid picture in your readers’ minds that will engross them in your writing.
8. If you’ve ever tried out freelance writing, … → “If you’ve ever dipped your toe into the world of freelance writing, ….” — Tom Meitner
9. Read a lot of blogs and websites in your industry on a regular basis to keep yourself updated. → “Read a lot of blogs and websites in your industry on a regular basis to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on.” — David Aston
10. As we begin a new year. → As we embark on a new year.

Similes

Some metaphors include the words “like” or “as” to make the comparison and hence called similes. Similes tend to make you think while Metaphors let you feel things directly by using the all-important “show, don’t tell” rule:

1. You don’t have to be a genius to produce engaging content. → “You don’t have to write like William Shakespeare to produce engaging content.” — David Aston
2. Staying up to date on the JavaScript ecosystem needs a lot of time investment. → “Staying up to date on the JavaScript ecosystem can feel like a full-time job.” — Joe Eames

Idioms

Idioms, used by native English speakers, are a type of figurative language. They don’t always make sense literally, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the meaning and usage of each one. Let’s see how you can shift your word usage to sound more snappy by using idioms:

1. They want to be noticed. → They want to set themselves apart from their competitors. → They want to stand out from the crowd in a challenging job market.
2. One thing to consider in this example is that … → One thing to bear in mind in this example is that …
3. I agree with you. → My thinking is in line with yours.
4. Every freelancer starts in the exact same place: job boards. … But the problem is when they don’t move forward and look for something different. → “Every freelancer starts in the exact same place: job boards. … But there’s a problem. Stick with them too long.” — Brad Smith
5. We’re here to guide you step by step, launching your business. → We’re here to walk you through launching your business, step by step.
6. You can find the solution by asking yourself that question. → Asking yourself that question can put you on the right track.
7. With direct response, you’ll be more effective. → With direct response, you’re not messing around.
8. Brands will pay you for help in creating that content for them. → “brands are willing to pony up for help in creating that content for them.” — Tom Meitner
9. If you are good at explaining concepts. → If you are good at breaking down concepts.
10. I need to explain this more. → That sounds nice, but let’s break this down to truly understand what we mean.
11. The main reason is a lack of leadership. → It all comes down to one thing: a lack of leadership.
12. Personally, I don’t have enough experiences to tell you how this all works. → “Personally, I am way too green to tell you how this all works.” — source

Varying Sentences’ Length

Sentence length affects your reader’s experience. Just like reading a lot of long sentences is exhausting, a text with a lot of brief sentences sounds choppy, disjointed, and boring.

Let’s see how to make the content feel more alive by varying the sentence’ length and being more descriptive:

1. Passive voice: I was surprised that there are only 4 types of children. → Show don’t tell: “My initial instinct was to scream, “Only 4 types… are you crazy?” The human essence is just too beautifully complex for that.” — source
2. Most leaders perhaps don’t take care of their words seriously, as they should. → “Words matter. And yet this seemingly obvious phrase conveys an idea that most leaders perhaps don’t take as seriously as they should.” — A.J. Ogilvie
3. Words are how people make sense of the world. → “Words matter, and they matter because words are how people make sense of the world.” — A.J. Ogilvie
4. To start, you need to open your terminal. → With more energy: You know the drill. Go and fire your terminal.
5. In this post, I’ll give you helpful tips. → With power words and idiom: In this post, I’ll reveal tips to follow that will set you apart from the huge number of average writers out there.
6. While you need sometimes to tell rather than show, … → While there will be points in your writing where it makes more sense to tell rather than show, …
7. What I learned on my own time made me the biggest career success. → That was such a big lesson to me: the stuff I learned on my own time made me the biggest career success.
8. You have to adjust it to your own life. → You have to customize it to the needs and details of your own life.
9. Compiler and interpreter are both computer programs that translate code. → Create a narrative: Compilers and interpreters have long been used in the programming world to translate code.
10. Most of us are not as nice to ourselves as we are to our friends, family, and loved ones. → “Ironically, most of us are quite compassionate with our friends, family, and loved ones, but struggle to be compassionate with ourselves.” — Nick Wignall
11. Hemingway related the quality of a piece of work to its ending. → “Hemingway understood something very important: the brain generally attaches the quality of a piece of work to the ending.” — Tom Meitner

Final thought

The world of writing comes with a big learning curve and plenty of challenges. To entice our audience to read our content and create a particular reality in their mind, we have to commit ourselves to the journey of continuous learning to hone our writing voice.

You’re probably not going to write the next Hamlet, but these tips should help make your writing more engaging.

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