How To Make Your Writing Elite— Written By An Ex-Wall Street Journal Editor
course summary
Malaysia is a very multicultural country. I have been studying three languages (at once) for my entire life.
Therefore, I don’t have a particular native language. English, Mandarin, or Malay, they’ve all been a part of me.
I have a favorite of course, and that’s English — but I don’t particularly excel at English Writing.
And who doesn’t want to take their writing to the next level?
After taking so many writing courses, this specific course has taught me so much about the way we write — and what differentiates the greats from the Average Joes. This course will stay with me forever.
So here’s an overview of Shani Raja’s course on the Secret Sauce of Great Writing.
The course itself provides many examples for practice, and I’d recommend heading over to try it out.
Shani talks about four recurring things that every form of nonfiction writing will fall into.
Learn these things well; and watch your writing transform forever.
And without further ado, here are the four key principles (written by Shani Raja himself, unedited):
Simplicity
Use familiar language
Prefer plain words to needlessly official, flowery or fancy expressions. Pretentious language can cheapen your writing and make you seem insincere. Deconstruct sentences that sound too bureaucratic and try stating the ideas more simply, without of course sounding disrespectful, insensitive or too slangy.
Use as few words as possible
Try to keep your writing as tight as possible. Ask of each word whether it is useful and necessary for conveying the idea.
Uncomplicate your ideas
Avoid complicated ways of saying simple things. Aim to boil down an idea to its simplest form so you can express it in a strong, punchy way. You can always dress it up later if you need to.
Clarity
Avoid curly sentences
Don’t try to appear smart or sophisticated by twisting sentences so much that they become incomprehensible. A reader should never have to unravel your sentences in order to get them. Where possible, deliver points “head on” so readers can make immediate sense of them.
Shun jargon
Many jargon words and buzzwords aren’t specific, and can therefore cloud your meaning. Slick writing is usually precise and meaningful. Impenetrable jargon — as one sees in many resumes, cover letters, blogs, books, reports and press releases — can be tiresome and off-putting to readers. It’s usually better to use expressions that nail down precisely what you mean.
Prevent ambiguity
Ambiguity can sap authority from your writing. Identify it by considering, in context, whether anything you say may be taken to mean something different. Improve your chances of spotting ambiguity by reading back your work through the eyes of a first time reader.
Use punctuation carefully
Pay attention to how you’ve used punctuation in your writing. A simple misplaced comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence. There is a world of difference between, “Did you eat, John?” and “Did you eat John?”
Elegance
Give sentences rhythm
Repeating the same subject-verb pattern for too long can sound repetitive. Aim to give your writing a musical quality — make it flow gracefully. Your prose doesn’t have to read like poetry, but at least prevent it from sounding clunky.
Give ideas structure
Writing flows well when the ideas are arranged neatly. Identify the main sections in a narrative, then link them up elegantly to create the best flow of ideas from start to finish.
Evocativeness
Use stimulating words
A few colorful words here and there can help make a piece of writing come to life. Don’t feed your readers endlessly dry and technical words. Don’t overdo it, but aim where possible to create stimulating pictures, sensations or emotions for your readers.
Use active sentences
A passive sentence focuses on the thing acted upon, rather than the actor (e.g., “The flag was hoisted by John” instead of “John hoisted the flag”). Sentences written in the passive voice make pictures harder to form — and are thus usually less evocative.
Thanks for reading!
If you’d like to check out his course, find it here:
