How to Write Well - A Four-Part Writing Course
Improve your writing and improve your opportunities with this four-part Writing Course.
How is your writing these days? Consider this sentence:
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The police are searching for a man driving a cream car with red
hair.
Or this:
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Duty nurses will be found pinned to the office notice board.
The person who wrote these sentences knew what he/she meant, but the
rest of us are likely to become confused - and all because of a simple
fault in grammar.
When you’re relying on the written word alone, it’s very easy
to be misunderstood. So it’s vital that what you mean to write is what
you do, in fact, write. And to do that, you have to know how to use
language correctly.
What's wrong with this sentence?
Did you know that Abraham Lincoln wrote the
Gettysburg Address while travelling from Washington to Gettysburg on the
back of an envelope?
Hmmm ... Got that image fixed firmly in place? Do you think that's what
the writer intended you to visualise? I think not ...
Basically, if you start a sentence with an action, you
must place the actor immediately after it AND you must place modifiers
near the words they modify. So, much as I hate to destroy that delightful
image you have of Lincoln wending his merry way to Gettysburg on the back
of an envelope, I feel it my duty to restructure that sentence:
Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg
Address on the back of an envelope while he was travelling from Washington
to Gettysburg.
OR
While he was travelling from
Washington to Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address on
the back of an envelope.
How about this one?
Flying across the island, the boy saw seagulls.
Who is this kid? Clark Kent?
Professor Jones has been writing a history of the
light bulb since 1910.
That's one long-winded professor!
A Quick Test
If you have a moment to spare, have a quick
look at these pairs of words and see if you know how to use each …
1. Lavinia blushed when she recalled the
(gaff/gaffe) she’d made in curtseying to the waiter when she mistook
him for the prince.
2. The (gorilla/guerilla) forces halted
the enemy's advances.
3. (Vocation/vacation) time had arrived
at last.
4. She was afraid she was going to
(loose/lose) her purse.
5. Buy your (stationary/stationery)
supplies before the price goes up.
There are many words like these that are
commonly confused.
OK ... now try these:
Do you know what’s wrong with these
sentences?
1. There's lots of animals at the zoo.
2. He's been laying on the beach all day.
3. She managed to buy the three last
tickets for the concert.
4. You’ll get bargains everyday at this
store!
Now is the time to improve your writing skills
Editors and publishers will insist that your book be well-written and gramatically correct before they'll give you any more than a passing glance. Too many otherwise good books are passed over because of easily-fixed errors. But, if you don't know what they're looking for, you may be making these errors unnecessarily.
Now is the time to brush up on your writing skills - BEFORE you submit your books to editors. Even if you're an experienced writer, you've probably developed some odd habits (we all do).
This four-part Writing Course will help you smooth out the rough edges and get your writing into tip-top shape. Get it now... and find out what's really wrong with the above sentences (answers provided on this link: the four-part Writing Course)
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