Use short sentences. An average of 10 to 20 words per sentence is acceptable today. Long sentences are tiring and, in most cases, can be shortened by throwing out unnecessary words.
Prefers the simple over the complex. The Englishman, HW Fowler and his brother in their famous book ‘The King’s English’, put it best: “Prefer the familiar word to the unlikely. Prefer the concrete word to the abstract one. Prefer the single word to circumlocution. Prefer the short word over the long term. He prefers the Saxon word to romance. “
Prefer the familiar word. Most people’s conversation is limited to about 3,000 words. Well-educated people probably know between 20,000 and 30,000 words. It all depends on who you write for. Everyone will understand common words and virtually any idea can be expressed with a vocabulary of just 3,000 words. Avoid using unfamiliar words simply to impress or force the reader to go to the dictionary (they won’t).
Avoid unnecessary words. Imagine that there is a tax to pay for the words used. Think of each word, “Can it be cut?” Writing gains clarity when it is concise.
Use action verbs. “He drove very fast on the highway.” Much better it is, sped down the road. “The words ‘very fast’ are adjectives used to strengthen the word ‘drove.’ ‘Accelerated’, or perhaps, ‘ran’, is better because of the psychology of the reader. People prefer facts to “Sped” is a fact, “very fast” is an opinion.
Write while you talk. The written word is a substitute for the spoken word. The habit of writing as if you were speaking almost always leads to clearer writing. Just remove the ‘ums’ and ‘er’s’ and the repetitions that usually appear in the spoken word.
Terms of use that your reader can imagine. However, avoid abstract words whenever possible. Aesop’s fables have been read for thousands of years because he turned abstractions like greed, envy, and anger into stories that could be enacted. Jesus did this also with his parables.
Connect with your reader’s experience. Put yourself in the shoes of your reader, otherwise he or she might understand your words but misinterpret your meaning. The reader may have a different foundation than the writer. A good example is in politics, where people from one nation who speak of aggression may appear hypocritical to the other nation due to preconceptions about who the aggressor is from each side’s point of view.
Use variety. Most prose, even if the subject is serious, may contain some humor, some surprise, perhaps some personal injection. Avoid monotonous flat prose.
Write to express, not to impress. It still happens all too often that people turn to long, unfamiliar words and meandering prose, especially when making formal announcements. The cops say, “the thief was arrested”, no, “we caught the thief.” The signs say, “Please don’t smoke” instead of “Please don’t smoke.” Nobody actually uses the word “chorus” in normal conversation, so why use it in an ad? It is done to sound important, to make the ad sound official, to impress, not to express.
