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The adage that you should focus on your first impression is the leading reason to learn to write well. Writing well means paying attention to not just the mechanics of English grammar and punctuation, but to the nuances and elegance of the language itself.

Writing is a skill which you will be called upon to make first impressions with all through your life. Whether brief missives via email or important business documents, the word you put on the page matter a great deal. After all, you wouldn’t write a business proposal in IM-speak, would you?

Here are some proven tips and techniques to writing well and writing for clarity.

1) Know who you are writing for before you even begin. Keep in mind what your intended audience knows about the topic already. Don’t waste their time by reiterating the basics. If you are writing for mechanics, you don’t need to explain what a wrench is, for instance. However, if it is technical writing, such as instructions which you are writing, then do give the basics and go step by step. 2) When writing, remember the advice of your English teachers. Come up with a theme and work from there. Know how you will end your piece and just write. You can go back and edit or rewrite later. Begin with the most important point. 3) When you go back to rewrite, don’t worry about simply tossing out the first part of your piece; even a few hundred words. This is common - many writers use the first few paragraphs to warm up.

Habits to avoid:

After you’ve written your piece, do a find and replace for *ly (this is a wild card character and “ly”), replacing it with a word that should never appear in your essay. I recommend using rutabaga. Read through your piece and anywhere you find a rutabaga, cross it out. If the sentence reads as well without it, leave it crossed out. Otherwise, replace it with the appropriate adjective.

Write in the active voice whenever you can. Remember that it is better to show than tell. As an example, compare these two sentences, the first in the passive voice, the second in the active voice: “Running, Brooke’s heart raced as she attempted to evade her pursuers.” “Brooke ran from her pursuers as fast as she could, her heart racing, as her mind sought any means to evade capture.” The second scans better and holds the reader’s attention far better than does the version in the passive voice. Take note of this.

After all of your rewriting, read your piece to yourself out loud. There is no better way to identify an awkward sentence than this. With enough practice at this technique, you will be able to hear the piece in your head as you write - this technique will bring about a vast improvement in your writing.

Writing well is a skill which is barely taught in our schools anymore. What once was commonplace in junior high classrooms is now reserved for college coursework; a truly tragic development.