Writing Effectively, Unit 2.1

Photo: Pexel

In this unit of Public Relations Writing, we learned about writing effectively. There are four ways to clean up our writing: 

- Writing with clarity: making sure our sentences have a word order that doesn't create confusion or ambiguity.

- Reducing clutter: being concise by using fewer words to express an idea.

-Sentence variety: using different sentence structure to reduce monotony in writing. 

- Sentence emphasis: Structuring sentences where the most important information is first if it is important, or delaying it to create suspense, depending on context. 

We were then challenged to create poor examples of each and provide ways of correcting them. 

Writing with Clarity:

Poor: Walking down the hallway, her papers were thrown in the trash. 

Better: Walking down the hallway, she threw her papers in the trash. 

Reducing Clutter:

Poor: At this point in time, he would like to hold a meeting with the board.

Better: Now, he would like to meet with the board.

Sentence Variety:

Poor: J.K. Rowling won the literature prize. J.K. Rowling is the author of the "Harry Potter" series. 

Better: J.K. Rowling, the author of the "Harry Potter" series, won the literature prize. 

Sentence emphasis:

Poor: The police chief said Monday the robberies have increased since last year.

Better: Robberies have increased since last year, the police chief said Monday.