Mind Your Language

Tip Of The Day — Day 2 — A Series Of Tips For Writers

This is part of a series of daily tips for writers which is published to share ideas and suggestions on our craft. Everyone will have different advice on how to write, so the tip below is just a personal selection which I hope you will find useful, and do share any of your own in the comments. I hope you find it useful.

Growing vocabulary and turns of phrase

The tip for today is to build up a list of new words and interesting phrases you come across. Learning new words helps expand your vocabulary and challenges the reader. Where better to record them than in that notebook recommended in the last tip.

I love noting down novel things I come across, which may be acronyms, unusual or particularly pleasing phrases, original metaphors, similes or alliteration, as well as new words, along with the source where I saw them, and the context. Many of these come from reading the work of fellow writers on Medium, and I like to credit them when appropriate.

It is a great way to extend and improve our ability as authors. However as a general rule only use a complex word if it is relevant or for example to avoid repetition of the same word — a simpler word makes for easy reading and there is no need to show off! The quality of your writing should shine through without the need to be pretentious or ostentatious.

This does depend of course on what you are writing about and your preferred style, as there are writers who write beautiful, lyrical prose as poetry like Laurie Lee, or political commentators like George Monbiot who dazzle with their grasp of terminology and semantic choice.

A writer who was particularly known for his precise writing style was Ernest Hemingway, and the following article considers this –

It is also worth recalling the six “rules for writing” suggested by George Orwell, who was also known for his crisp, sparse style –

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

I hope you found this tip helpful, and do share any of your own in the comments.

Previous tips:

Day 1- The Notebook https://readmedium.com/the-notebook-34dda9b13c4b