My Writing Techniques

    So I decided to risk writing this blog post focusing exclusively on recycling my literary wares. I still don’t want you to think that learning to write with clarity, emphasis, and style is easy. It’s not.

    1. Create a vivid expression
    Listen to your language . Well-chosen words can make your writing memorable. Here is a title by Margaret Mitchell with one word altered.

    Gone With the Snow.

    Here is the original tittle.

    Gone With the Wind.

    Can you feel the cold damage done by the former security agency contractor Snowden who has no regrets from leaking the biggest cache of top-secret documents?

    2. Write with detail
    Move beyond generality and abstraction.

    World Cup gave Putin cover for pension-age increase.

    Immediately after Russia’s 5-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in the opening game of the World Cup, president Putin’s government pushed for a bill to raise progressively the national pension age, thereby steadily decreasing the probability of surviving until retirement for more than 5 million elderly people.

    Which of the two sentences above makes you think?

    3. Appeal to the senses
    Don’t tell the reader; show the reader.

    Change “There are still a lot of wild animals and birds of prey in the forest. ” to “Bears and wolves lurk in the thickets, and white-tailed eagles circle above the forest canopy”.

    4. Collect good words that are just right for your intended meaning
    After listening to hundreds of teachers tell their stories, I have reached the conclusion that there is one deciding factor that makes the difference in whether the teachers in any given school will lean toward positive and productive or desperate and crushed: that factor is the administrator.

    Change “factor” to “element”

   After listening to hundreds of teachers tell their stories, I have reached the conclusion that there is one deciding element that makes the difference in whether the teachers in any given school will lean toward positive and productive or desperate and crushed: that element is the administrator.

     Some other techniques are outlined below:

• appropriate level of formality; delete “that” for rhythm and flow; avoid indefinite negatives; eliminate wordy references to time; don’t trust modifiers; use strong verbs and don’t nominalise; unstack those noun stacks; prefer the active voice; keep your verbs near their subjects and avoid mid-sentence shifts; punctuate for emphasis and use dashes for dashing effect; use ellipses for compression; use semicolons to both separate and connect; delight your readers with classic two-way setup; use antithesis; build towards climax; trim sentence endings for closing emphasis; end with the thought you intended to develop next; use three-part paragraphs (topic, development, resolution) to frame your thoughts; write in sentences but think in paragraphs; use parallel structures to create rhythm; use periodic sentences instead of loose ones to create suspense; use anaphora and epistrophe, anadiplosis and isocolon, analogies and comparisons; return to your metaphors and similes; avoid cliches; write with personal and style; add a light-hearted touch to your writing; know your options for comic effect; go beyond clarity to eloquence and grace; develop your persona to be Christian; 
• and finally, start with something old and end with something new.

     If you’re a teacher, feel free to skip around. Assign the techniques in any order that suits your purpose. Use my examples to create your own.