How to Improve Your Writing

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To create sophisticated prose, you need to utilize a variety of sentence structures to keep your writing lively. An essay written completely with “subject/verb” sentences will put your readers to sleep--and mark you as a novice writer. For example, a string of sentences like this--“Critics believe Judd Apatow is a talented director. His last two films have been well received.”--will get your points across, but won’t make much of an impact. Here are a few sure-fire ways to make your prose more sophisticated and interesting to read. Read on to learn how to improve your writing.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Draft of an essay, story, or other piece of writing
Computer
Pen and paper

Step1

Read through your work and mark passages where the sentence structure is repetitive or dull. These are the sections you should focus on for your revision. Need help deciding what passages need work? Go through and circle your sentences’ subjects and verbs. If you see a lot of short, declarative sentences, your writing needs a shot of life.

Step2

Consider joining two or more sentences with coordinating conjunctions such as and, but, or, so and yet. For example, remember the two short sentences in the introduction? Look what a difference an “and” can make: “Critics believe Judd Apatow is a talented director, and his last two films have been well received.” Using a coordinating conjunction is an easy way to eliminate the choppy effect of short declarative sentences.

Step3

Combine related ideas by turning one sentence into a phrase by using subordinating conjunctions such as though, since, while, although, or because. Take a look at these two choppy sentences: “Most people know the actor Michael Cera from his role as George Michael on ‘Arrested Development.’ He has played successful roles in movies as well.” Combining these related ideas works wonders: “Though most people know the actor Michael Cera from his role as George Michael on ‘Arrested Development,’ he has also played several successful roles in movies.” When choosing a sentence to turn into a phrase, you should select the “lesser” idea. In this case, the fact that Cera has played successful film roles is the main point, supported by the less important observation that he’s known for his previous television role.

Step4

Join two sentences with a semicolon and a conjunctive adverb such as “however.” For example: “Most people know the actor Michael Cera from his role as George Michael on ‘Arrested Development’; however, he has played several successful roles in movies as well.”