What Is the Best Way to Develop a Writing Style?

Whether or not you realize it, you have a writing style. It’s like fashion: sometimes you don’t notice it at all (jeans and a t-shirt), and other times you can’t take your eyes away (Fashion Week, or Lady Gaga). Whether you’re trying to make it as an author or churning out dozens of business emails a day, your writing style is your signature way of communicating.

Your writing style is uniquely yours, but that doesn’t mean it has to be so unique that it causes confusion. Writers like Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway have such personalized writing styles that you could spot their writing in a lineup, but let’s just say Woolf’s run-on sentences aren’t going to be a hit in a business memo. To get your point across but also stay true to your own writing style, it’s important to identify your quirks, polish your technique, and be willing to adapt.

Identify Your Writing Style

Are you quirky? Casual? Formal? Are there certain words you use all the time? Are parentheses all over your writing? Do you go for diverse punctuation, or prefer short, choppy sentences?

The components that make up the way you communicate are what make your writing style yours—whether you consider yourself a Writer with a capital W or just have to create text for your job from time to time.

If you’re interested in improving your communication, start paying attention to your habits. Notice what favorite words keep popping up, whether you find yourself going for semicolons or em-dashes, and other specifics.

How?

• Go through old chapters, articles, or emails you’ve written and take notes on recurring traits.
• As you’re writing something new, reread each sentence or paragraph to find your tics.
• Ask a friend or colleague what they’ve noticed about your writing. Sometimes an extra pair of eyes can pick up details we’re used to glazing over.

After you’ve identified what characterizes your writing style, you can work to improve it, or if you’re satisfied, keep on writing with that heightened awareness.

Hone Your Writing Style

Having a personal writing style is good, but a writing style that’s too out-there can get in the way of comprehension. Whether you do journalism, business writing, or fiction, make sure your writing style fits the norm, but is still your style.

For example, if you keep a thesaurus handy, great. Big words can help you be more precise and descriptive. Just make sure they’re not weighing down your writing or causing confusion.

Or, if you find yourself using phrases like “I think” or “I believe,” cut them. In general, writing sounds more confident and assertive without self-references.

Is the passive voice frequently used in your writing? Scratch that: do you use the passive voice in your writing? Active voice is stronger and more direct, and it’s often the better choice.

Curb Your Writing Style

Honing means making your style concise and clear. Curbing it means getting rid of bad habits. In general, you should check your grammar and spelling. (Shameless plug: we happen to know a handy writing tool that does just that!)

Other than that, unfortunately, writing has a lot of no-no’s, and they vary depending on the type of writing you do. Try these articles to get specific:

• Clean up your dirty, wordy writing
• Get rid of filler words
• Avoid these words at work
• Create error-free content marketing
• Be clear and assertive over email

Adapt Your Writing Style

Back to the fashion metaphor. Maybe you have a thing for sweater-vests or mismatched socks, or you wear sweatpants whenever you can get away with it. Fashion is about being yourself, but there are times when you dress a certain way because it’s expected of you. A job interview. A wedding. Prom. You can still be yourself, but you adapt to the occasion.

Similarly, you can shift your writing style based on the situation you’re writing for. Here are some examples:

• For a memo or report for work, write in short sentences or bullet points, use the vocabulary favored by your industry, and focus on the goal.
• For emails, unless it’s a super serious topic, this is usually a place to be more casual. (What about social media? Find out.)
• For essays or academic papers, formality goes through the roof. Read some examples of similar writing to get a sense of how to adapt.
• For presentations, the writing on your slides or your speech notes should be casual and concise to suit the spoken format.

When it comes to your writing style, just like with fashion, you can be yourself, but also be appropriate for whatever situation you’re in. If you’re aware of your habits and willing to adapt, your writing style will not only serve you in a wide range of writing scenarios but will also continue to improve with time.

How to Read Between the Lines of a Job Description

Guest post from Jennifer Parris, Career Writer for FlexJobs

On the surface, a job description might seem fairly straightforward. It lists the job title, a smattering of responsibilities, and contact info by which you can apply for the position. But upon a second reading, you’re sure to find many layers to the posting, full of nuances and hidden messages that a seasoned job seeker might be able to pick up. If you’ve ever read a posting and wondered, “What are they really asking for?” here are some tips on how to read between the lines of a job description—and submit a job application that will get you the position.

Pay attention to the placement.

By their very nature, job descriptions are fairly short and succinct. Without having pages to list every single job duty, company background, and so on, hiring managers will write what’s most important at the top of the job description. It’s there that they’ll give you—in either a sentence or two—an overarching idea of what they want from their potential employee. As a job seeker, it’s important for you to repeat that information (in your own words, of course) in your cover letter. Not only does it show that you read through the job description, but that you can do the work as well.

Respect the responsibilities.

A typical job description might have upwards of ten or more job duties listed. Generally, the top five are the most critical ones and those that can make or break your job application. Make sure you actually can perform these duties, particularly if some of them are listed as “requirements” or “qualifications.” If you don’t, your job application will be rejected by the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or the actual person who is reading your resume.

Learn the lingo.

Team player. Strong organizational skills. Leadership qualities. There are some terms that go hand in hand with a job description. But what do they really mean—and do you really need to possess these skills and traits? A team player means that you’ll be working with others, and you’ll need to do so without any drama or complaining. Strong organizational skills is code for having a very busy workload and having to be able to manage it all well without dropping the ball—or making your prospective boss look bad. If you’re expected to have leadership qualities, you’ll need to command the respect of your colleagues and lead and inspire them, which will require you to think outside of the box at times and be adaptable.

Share the love.

In an effort to avoid being inundated with job applications, some companies will refrain from posting the company’s name in the job description. If the company’s name is listed, though, you should make a concerted effort to offer up some praise about the organization in your cover letter. If you’re not very familiar with the company, do some research first, and then include a couple of sentences in your job application that depict how much you want to work for that specific organization. For example, you might write something like, “I admire your organization’s policy on workplace flexibility.” After all, a boss is more apt to hire someone who specifically wants to work for his company as opposed to someone simply looking for any old job.

Find out the compensation.

It’s the question of any job seeker: how much does this job pay? Unfortunately, very few job postings will name a dollar amount. That doesn’t mean you can’t find out how much the company is willing to cough up for the position, though. By using sites such as salary.com, you can find out comparable salaries for the job you’re after, and you can use this info to determine if it’s worth applying for the position or not.

When you’re deep in the throes of your job search, it’s easy to quickly scan a job description so that you can submit your application ASAP. But taking the time to thoroughly read through the posting can help you submit quality job applications that will get you hired for a position that you truly want—and deserve.

 

---

About the Author

Jennifer Parris is a Career Writer for FlexJobs, an award-winning service that helps job-seekers find professional opportunities that offer work flexibility, such as telecommuting, freelance, part-time, or alternative schedules. To learn more about Jennifer, visit FlexJobs.com or tweet @flexjobs.

Comma Before Such As

The phrase such as requires a comma in front of it only if it’s part of a nonrestrictive clause.

When to Use a Comma Before Such As

Here’s an example of such as used correctly with a comma in a sentence:

In this forest, you’ll see many types of coniferous trees, such as pine and spruce.

The phrase such as pine and spruce is nonrestrictive, so you need a comma. How can you tell it’s nonrestrictive? Take the phrase out and see whether the sentence is still true: In this forest, you’ll see many types of coniferous trees.

When to Use Such As Without a Comma

Don’t use a comma if such as is part of a restrictive clause.

Trees such as oaks and elms don’t grow at this altitude.

Here we have a restrictive phrase. Try taking it out of the sentence: Trees don’t grow at this altitude. The sentence isn’t true anymore. We’re not trying to say that no trees grow at this altitude—we’re restricting the statement to specific types of trees: oaks and elms.

How to Use Such As in a Sentence

Use such as to provide specific examples of something you’re talking about. If the specific examples aren’t essential to the accuracy of your sentence, then use a comma before such as and after your example, unless the example is at the very end of the sentence.

Citrus fruits, such as oranges and grapefruits, are high in vitamin C.

We like to plan our vacations around three-day weekends, such as Labor Day.

If the examples are essential to the meaning of your sentence, omit the commas.

Foods such as pizza and ice cream aren’t very good for you.

This year we’d like to visit a place such as Greece or Rome.

3 Punctuation Mistakes That Can Make You Look Like A Cannibal

1. Eat your dinner. vs Eat. You’re dinner.

Normal: Eat your dinner. Cannibalistic: Eat. You’re dinner.

That apostrophe (‘) is important! There are often a lot of hilarious (sometimes scary) sentences that come about when people confuse “your” and “you’re.” To avoid looking like a creep, it’s best to remember that your is the possessive form of you. It functions just like my does in relation to me. If you get confused by that, you can memorize you’re as the contraction (short form) of “you are.” Your = the possessive form of you You’re = the short form of you are.

2. Let’s eat, Grandma. vs. Let’s eat Grandma. Normal: Let’s eat, Grandma. Cannibalistic: Let’s eat Grandma.

The comma here is critical. The comma tells the reader that Granny isn’t the object of the verb “eat.” That is, with the comma, Granny isn’t on the main course tonight. The function of the comma here is to show that the sentence “let’s eat” is directed to an audience, Grandma.

3. I love cooking, my dogs, and my family. vs. I love cooking my dogs and my family. Normal: I love cooking, my dogs, and my family. Cannibalistic: I love cooking my dogs and my family.

Similar to number two, the commas here keep the nouns “dogs” and “family” from becoming unintentional objects of the verb “cooking.” In general, use commas to break up the items in lists.

Confusing Sentences That Actually Make Sense

Let’s face it: Sometimes the English language can be downright bizarre. The plural of ox is oxen while the plural of box is boxes, ‘rough’ rhymes with ‘gruff’ even though the two words only have two letters in common, and there are actually more than nine hundred exceptions to the infamous “i before e except after c” rule.

If you’re still not convinced that the English language is full of oddities and conundrums, take a look at these five wacky sentences that are actually grammatically correct.

1All the faith he had had had had no effect on the outcome of his life.

Well, talk about lexical ambiguity. But as strange as this sentence might sound, it is actually grammatically correct. The sentence relies on a double use of the past perfect. The two instances of “had had” play different grammatical roles in the sentences—the first is a modifier while the second is the main verb of the sentence.

2One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know.

This famous Groucho Marx joke takes advantage of the fact that the same sentence can often be interpreted in more than one way. The first sentence can be read in two distinct ways: A) The man shot an elephant while he was wearing his pajamas or B) The man shot an elephant that was wearing his pajamas. It’s unclear who is wearing the pajamas—the man or the elephant. Most people interpret the sentence the first way and are subsequently startled to read the second part of the joke.

3The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.

This is what we call a garden path sentence. Though grammatically correct, the reader’s initial interpretation of the sentence may be nonsensical. In other words, the sentence has taken the reader down a dead-end.

Here, “complex” may be interpreted as an adjective and “houses” may be interpreted as a noun. Readers are immediately confused upon reading that the complex houses “married,” interpreting “married” as the verb. How can houses get married? In actuality, “complex” is the noun, “houses” is the verb, and “married” is the adjective. The sentence is trying to express the following: Single soldiers, as well as married soldiers and their families, reside in the complex.

4The man the professor the student has studies Rome.

This awkward but grammatically correct sentence is a product of what is known as center embedding. In English, we can typically put one clause inside of another without any problem. We can take “the man studies Rome” and add a bunch of additional information between the noun and the verb. However, the more information that is added, the harder it is to interpret the sentence.

In this particular case, the sentence conveys the following: The student has the professor who knows the man who studies ancient Rome. Each noun corresponds to a verb (the man studies, the student has). But because of the sentence’s syntax, this is hard to decipher. Remember: just because a sentence is grammatically correct doesn’t mean it is acceptable stylistically.

5Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. You read that sentence right—it reads “buffalo” eight times. You see, “buffalo” is a noun that refers to the large, shaggy-maned North American bison, a city in upstate New York, and a verb that means, “to intimidate.” First devised by professor William J. Rapaport in 1972, this notorious sentence plays on reduced relative clauses, different part-of-speech readings of the same word, and center embedding. It’s also a pretty prime example of how homonyms (words that share spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings) can really confuse things.

While it might be hard to parse, the sentence is coherent. If you stare at it long enough the true meaning may even miraculously come to you: “Bison from Buffalo, New York, who are intimidated by other bison in their community, also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.” For further clarification you might also want to check out English indie rock band Alt-J’s song “Buffalo,” which was famously inspired by this conundrum of a sentence and used in the soundtrack of the Oscar-nominated Silver Linings Playbook.

So, in conclusion: English is weird. But in spite of its oddities, it is also a strangely beautiful language. You can do all sorts of crazy things with it without breaking any rules. The bounds of proper English are virtually endless—test them in your writing today!