Too many writers can get overzealous in their desire to lead the reader.  If you find yourself getting worked up along the same lines, it might be time to relax a little.  Nobody likes getting bullied into accepting a point of view and too much pushing can feel exactly like that to an average reader.

Pushing can get especially excessive when you’re writing a persuasive piece.  While some readers appreciate a hardline stance, most will just be turned off.    There’s nothing wrong with wanting  to convince the reader, but sticking to a few good practices will guarantee that you efforts don’t backfire.

One of the most important things you can do is to use a respectful tone throughout the paper.   Don’t try to intimidate the reader or talk them down.  Instead, treat them like a friend you’re engaging in a healthy discussion with.

Additionally, never present any position as an absolute.  Argue as much as you want for your case, but leave the decision of whether it’s right to the reader.  There’s always room for interpretation and forcing the reader to take your side will not help your cause.

It’s fine to lead, but never do so at the expense of forcing the issue.   Follow the above guidelines and you can help readers wrap their heads around your ideas without losing them in the process.

At this point in the writing process, it’s important to resist the temptation of inviting your inner critic.  When you recognize yourself making judgments about any part of the text, just shut it down and get back to writing.  You can do all that later.

Don’t reread what you’ve produced, don’t attempt to make rewriting and don’t even consider fixing grammar.  You’re only drafting for now — you can do all that when you edit later.

Be more conscious of those moments when your critical voice begins asserting itself.  Don’t give it any room while you’re still drafting.  As useful as it may be, it has no business meddling in your affairs until called upon later when you’re revising.

Different writers have developed various techniques to deal with the need to silence the critical mind — some employ meditation, a few talk to the critical mind like it was a person, others disguise the writing task (e.g. a letter that does not need to be eloquent), and other variations that allow them to keep it at bay.  In time, you’ll likely find one that works best for you as well.   For now, just keep doing your best to stop self-criticism from ruining your work process.

Ask any working writer where the hours actually go and very few of it actually end up on the original draft.  Instead, a hefty chunk of their time is spent on revising that draft and it’s in those post-draft steps that the real work gets done.

If you’ve never been much for revision, we beg you to reconsider.   Consider the draft as an expression of your original thoughts transferred to paper.  Like your thoughts, it can sometimes be jumbled, disorganized, confusing, unfocused and less than refined.  To make it palatable for the reader’s eyes, you then spend the rest of the time polishing, refining and improving on that initial burst of expression, making sure every idea is clear and the entire document effectively achieves its goals.

During rewriting, you’re free from the pressure of expressing your ideas.  You’ve already done that with the draft.  As such, you can focus all your energies on making sure the paper communicates your ideas the way you want the reader to get them — the mechanics, the flow, the rhythm, the style, the voice and all these other things that turn a rough paper into something worthy of the reader’s attention.

More than conforming to the conventions of grammar, using punctuations correctly actually helps control the pace of your writing.  That way, you can give the reader the necessary space to digest your message, as well as speed up their intake when appropriate.

Here are the most basic punctuations and how you can use them to control pace:

Period. The period creates a full stop, just like a stoplight turning red at the corner.  When you write a period, you’re telling the reader to catch their breath before moving on to the next sentence.

Comma. Possibly the writer’s most useful tool, you can think of the comma as a brief stop that encourages you to slow down — such as hump on the road well before you hit corner.

Colon. Use colons to break up long information in a sentence, with due notice to the reader that you’re introducing something new.  You can think of a semicolon as a warning sign — one that tells you to slow down a little, since there’s a pedestrian lane ahead.

Semicolon. A semicolon is like a comma, except it’s more explicit in its function.  It’s not just a hump, it’s a big hump you’re probably not going to enjoy.

An editor’s greatest wisdom is not in being able to identify when things are wrong — it’s knowing when they don’t know if things are wrong.  Not bothering to look up things you’re not sure about is downright careless and isn’t the kind of behavior that promotes positive outcomes.

There are plenty of tools at your disposal.  Your writing correction software, for instance, will likely have a built-in grammar and English usage guide where you can verify various constructions that aren’t clear to you.    There are plenty of books and online resources available for various writing issues, as well, where you can check any lingering doubts.

The important thing is to not be complacent when editing a piece of writing.  Know the old phrase, “If you’re going to do something, might as well do it right?”  Well, that applies here.   Do the right thing and take the extra few seconds to look things up.

Some writers cleverly achieve rapport, regardless of whether the reader will agree with their main thesis, by using a guaranteed commonality as an opening.  Rather than dive straight into the main topic in the first sentence, they set up a more amicable ground by stating something they and the reader can agree on.

For instance, say you’re arguing for universal health care to a likely readership of people opposed t o it.  Leading off with “Universal healthcare is a must” is a sure-fire way to turn them off immediately.  On the other hand, if you start by working on common ground — such as “Health care in this country needs a serious makeover” or “As American citizens, each and every one of us deserves the best healthcare money can buy”  — then you get the paper off on a more agreeable foot.

Openings that appeal to a commonality can do multiple things at the same time that help establish rapport:

1. It makes readers feel like you can see things from their vantage point.
2. It validates an opinion the reader has.
3. It shows them you share similar goals.

Next time you write to an audience who might not be too welcoming of your position, try opening the piece with something you can both agree on.  It won’t always guarantee that you’ll sway them your way, but it helps you make your case to ears that, otherwise, wouldn’t have bothered to listen.

Fact is, you can spend the rest of your life rewriting the same 2,000-word essay and you’ll keep finding ways to improve it everyday.  If you’re having a hard time figuring out when good is good enough then it might be time to axe perfection as the goal of revision in your mindset.  Instead, think of revision as merely a process you go through a set number of times to ensure you’ve given the paper enough attention.

Rather than depending on your perception of the revised draft, which can drag the process along endlessly, you might just want to rely on how many passes you’ve done.  If you’ve found during previous writing tasks, for instance, that two top-to-bottom passes are enough to sufficiently fix up an essay, then you can use two passes as the target.  This way, you can comfortably finish the task after two runs without having any doubts in your mind.

Will you keep thinking of new things to add, change or remove after the second pass?  Probably.  However, you don’t have to entertain those thoughts.  You’ve already done the work — it’s enough.  Time to stop rewriting and put the finishing touches, instead.

When we say “qualifiers,” we’re not talking about adverbs that modify the verb’s meaning.    Saying “Mrs. Robinson timidly picked the pie on the left”  is a perfectly valid adverb use — “timidly” showed the apprehension behind Mrs. Robinson’s action and gave the sentence a more precise meaning.

Instead, we’re talking about modifiers that do nothing but dilute a verb’s potency.  Verb qualifiers that fall into this category include:

• Sort of
• Kind of
• Somewhat
• Tend to
• Could have
• Appears to
• Seems to

I assume you catch the drift.  When used to qualify a verb, those terms above don’t modify a meaning.  Often, they merely serve to confuse.

When a guy is “training for a boxing fight,” we know exactly what is meant.  He’s doing exercises that will prepare him for a fight.  When that same guy, however, is “sort of training for a boxing fight,” do you know exactly what he’s doing?  What does the “sort of” stand for?  Is he training half-heartedly, training only in his mind, training only half the time or something else?

To wit, avoid verb qualifiers as much as possible.  If you need to modify a verb, find a more precise adjective.  I’m pretty sure an alternative exists.

In particular, you should concern yourself with finding the words “which,” “who” and “that” in the context of being used to introduce a subordinate clause.  A lot of the time, the clause can be eliminated in favor of a more concise construction.

See these examples below:

• “Pick up the stones that aren’t colored blue.”
• “Count the number of eggs which aren’t as big as this one.”
• “Find the people who are responsible for the mistake.”

In all three sentences, you can find one instance of the words we listed above.  And, after reading through them, you’ll probably realize that conciseness can indeed be achieved by removing the clause prefixed by one of those words.  Rewritten in a more concise manner, the above sentences can now be shows as:

• “Pick up all non-blue stones.”
• “Count the number of eggs smaller than this one.”
• “Find the people responsible for the mistake.”

In each of the three sentences, we have eliminated multiple words by simply paying attention to the instance of “which,” “who” or “that,” then performing appropriate revisions to restate the meaning.    Performed over a long essay, such small changes can add up, leading to a tighter, more concise pieces of writing.

Will non-native English speakers be reading what you write?  If so, then it pays to take certain precautions to make sure they’ll understand your message with the same clarity your fellow [insert English-speaking nationality here] do.

When you write for a global audience, you have to write at your potential audience’s level.  No, we don’t mean dumbing down.  Instead, you’ll need to compose your writing in a way that makes it more accessible to those who haven’t been speaking English all their lives.

Idioms. Most non-native speakers won’t be well versed in idioms you take for granted when speaking among your friends, so it’s usually best to steer clear of them.  You can probably use one or two that are widely used, although beware of sounding like a tired cliché.

Verbs. Choose strong verbs, but not so strong as they could fly over the heads of non-native speakers.  Try to ascertain whether a verb will be understood in the right context by second-language speakers.  If there’s a good chance it won’t, choose a simpler synonym.

Vocabulary. Pick vocabulary items that are more common.  Forcing your readers to stretch their word banks a little never hurt, but too many unfamiliar words and you’ll have them spending half the time checking a dictionary.  This destroys the flow of their reading, increasing the likelihood that they’ll confuse your message for something else entirely.