Tips to Strengthen Your Sentences

Here are three tips to help your students strengthen their sentences and improve their writing.

1.  Use strong verbs and nouns instead of trying to prop up weak ones with adjectives and adverbs.

Weak: The dentist intentionally spoke untruthfully about the diagnosis.

Strong: The dentist lied about the diagnosis.

Weak: The insurance agency maliciously took advantage of persons with limited income and limited knowledge.

Strong: The insurance agency deceived the poor and the ignorant.

2.  If you do use adjectives and adverbs choose strong ones and avoid adding intensifiers.

violent  —  not rather violent

starved  —   not somewhat starved

histrionic  —  not slightly histrionic

3.  In contrast, do not try to prop up weak adjectives and adverbs with a string of intensifiers.

She was very, very, very mad. Instead say: She was infuriated. 

The pain was really, really bad. Instead say: The pain was excruciating. 

Here's a lesson with even more hints that will help your students improve their writing. It's ready to print and distribute to your students or you can assign it in Google Classroom.™ 

Answers are included.  https://bit.ly/3oRWhG8

Be sure to check my store for Christmas and holiday activities both free and priced. My latest is Four Fun Holiday Activities that you can print or assign in Easel.™ 

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I hope your Thanksgiving holiday is peaceful and joyful.

Thanks for reading. Take a look at some of the interesting blog posts below from my teacher friends at The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative.

Best regards,

Charlene

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Say What You Mean and Avoid Redundancies

Good writers simply say what they mean and avoid excess verbiage.

Don’t say: “In my opinion, I think you are wrong.” Instead, just say: “I think you are wrong.” (Obviously, this is your opinion.)

Don't say: "At this point in time." Instead, just say, "now."

Don't say: "I thought to myself." Instead, just say, "I thought." (Obviously, your thoughts are directed to yourself. They are your thoughts, after all.)

Good writers avoid using redundant expressions.

Redundancy generally occurs when a word or phrase that already has specific meaning is further modified by words or phrases that mean the same thing. 

In your writing, you should always strive to find the most specific words to express your thoughts.

Then, when you find those words, you must also resist the temptation to embellish them. If you do the result often results in redundancy. 

The following examples are quite common. You may hear them most often on the news or read them online or in print. But, just because they are commonly used doesn't make them good writing.

Avoid redundant expressions to make your writing clear, concise, and clutter-free. Consider the following examples. The words in parentheses are not necessary.

blue (in color)
small/large (in size)
(first) discovered/introduced/began
combine/add/mix/link/weave (together)
Easter (Sunday)
a.m. (in the morning)
(free) gift
(added) bonus
drown/starve/strangle (to death)
(Jewish) synagogue
the winter/summer/spring/fall (months)
(fully) comprehensive
visible (to the eye)
(mental) telepathy
(old) relic
reason (why)
consensus (of opinion)
(previous/past) experience/history
(new) baby/invention/discovery
(remaining) vestige
spin (in circles)

thought(to himself)

These are just a few examples. There are many more. Be watchful and eliminate redundancies from your writing whenever possible.

Click here for an exercise you can use with your students to help them master this writing revision technique.

Thanks for reading!

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Rules for Writing a Novel

During Somerset Maugham's long life, he showed a remarkable understanding of human nature. He wore many hats in his lifetime. He was a doctor, a playwright, a secret agent during WWI, and a writer of short stories and novels.

I was amazed to discover over 800 quotations attributed to him, and found most of them to be quite relevant to the life of anyone who loves to write.

His message in the quotation above is one with which I wholeheartedly agree. There are no rules when it comes to writing a novel or any other creative work. Each writer is unique, and the method s/he uses to complete a work in progress is absolutely the only one that is correct in that moment.

We can all learn new tricks and techniques, and we can all use help, but in the end, it is up to each writer to develop his or her distinctive voice and style.

If you are a writer, you will know exactly what I mean.

Write On!

Thanks for reading,