Susannah Ross
Communication Services

Tips on writing

(latest first)

Be a thermostat not a radiator

Radiators pump a room full of heat whether it needs it or not; thermostats adapt. Ineffective writers spew out words profligately; efficient writers craft their words to a specific purpose and a specific audience.
(source: Are you a thermostat or a radiator? by Daphne Gray-Grant)

Use more verbs

As a general rule, choosing a verb rather than a noun to convey your idea produces a more concise sentence. Rather than using the noun "investigation", as in "carry out an investigation", why not just "investigate"?
(source: Ten tips for building a better website by Susannah Ross)

How to write reports

If you want to learn how to write reports, study the professionals: read a daily newspaper. Newspapers work on the basis that nobody reads every detail, so readers need the best possible signposting in order to make their choices.
(source: The Right Way to Write by Rupert Morris)

Use analogy to explain

Analogy is a useful device to help get a message across in any medium. For example, we talk of constructing sentences and refer to the component parts of a sentence, subject + verb + object, as the building blocks.
(source: A Simple Guide to Writing for Your Website by Susannah Ross)

Avoid tautology

Go through text and delete unnecessary words. We all tend to say the same things twice, as in "top priority", "careful consideration", "future prospects" and so on. Test every word to make sure it's needed.
(source: A Simple Guide to Writing for Your Website by Susannah Ross)

Cut the clichés

When overused, similes and proverbs become clichés. Employ them if they illuminate a passage, but if a phrase springs to mind as easily as the phrase "springs to mind", chances are it's a cliché.
(source: The A-Z of Plain Text by Paul Waddington and Paul Nero)

Be positive

Postive expressions are more likely to be effective than negative ones. Negative expressions are hard to visualise and a lot of negatives (however, but, not etc.) make text difficult to follow.
(source: A Simple Guide to Writing for Your Website by Susannah Ross)

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