5 Common Writing Mistakes to Avoid

Hi, everybody.

Welcome to www.engvid.com.

I'm Adam.

In today's video, I want to give you some writing tips, especially five things not to

do, five things to avoid in your writing.

Now, for those of you who are familiar with my other YouTube channel, youtube.com/writetothetop,

I do a lot of videos like this to show you how to make your writing a little bit stronger.

And I have made videos about these tips, but I want to share it with everybody here as

well.

So you can also go to that channel and get some more writing tips if you need them.

So today we're going to look at five things that you should not do in writing.

Number one, avoid wordiness.

And I'll explain each of these separately.

Avoid jargon.

Avoid redundancy.

Avoid making assumptions.

And the most important one, avoid freestyling.

And I'll explain that as we get to it.

So let's start with one, wordiness.

What does wordiness mean?

It means you're using too many words to express ideas.

And generally what happens when you do this, the reader either gets bored because you're

just wasting their time with too many words they don't need, or the message gets a little

bit confused because I'm not sure what exactly I'm supposed to focus on because there are

so many words being used, right?

So another thing to remember is that more does not equal better.

What you want to aim to do is be concise.

Concise means as short as possible, as direct as possible.

So basically, I want to get to your message right away without having to read too many

words.

And these days, especially, a lot of people, they skim.

They don't actually read every word.

Make sure your point gets clear.

So if you can say something with two words, don't use five, for example.

How do you do this?

You use precision and selection.

You use precise language, precise adjectives, precise verbs, precise nouns, etc. and be

very selective about the words you use.

Now, the only way to do this, of course, is to build your vocab base.

There is no escaping this reality.

If you want to write better, if you want to speak better, if you want to communicate better,

you need more words.

More words allow you to have variety, but they also allow you to have concision.

The more words you have, the fewer words you actually need to use, which is a little bit

strange thinking, but that's how it works.

I'll give you a couple of examples.

And these are taken from essays that I have actually read and checked, because I do assessments

and stuff like that, and I'm a certified editor.

So, the first point that I would like to make is that...

If you're going to start a paragraph like this, you've already lost the reader's attention.

The whole point of an essay, or of writing, is to make a point.

So, erase all of this,

and just get into your point.

I don't need to know all of this stuff.

I know you're making a point.

Don't tell me that.

And that's going to be part of redundancy as well, which we'll talk about soon.

These people have been working and farming on this land for over 800 years.

Okay, good sentence.

You're giving a lot of information, but you're also using more words than necessary, right?

Now, if you had precision words, you can get rid of and put the word "toiling."

To toil means to work hard, and it has the added idea of, like, sweaty and painful back

and all this stuff.

Like, working hard on the land means they've suffered for it, and so they have a sort of

attachment to it, which is...

You can probably tell the context of this sentence.

On this land, for over 800 years.

Now, if it's important, if this number is important, leave it.

If you're just trying to show that it's a long time, just put "for centuries."

Now, you're thinking 800 years sounds like a lot.

When you're using centuries, that has a more emphatic idea to it.

A person will feel, like, a stronger connection or a stronger experience when they've been

doing something for centuries, because we think of centuries as a huge chunk of time,

whereas 800 years is just a number.

I know it doesn't sound logical, but in terms of people's response to reading, they have

an emotional reaction to certain words over other words.

Numbers don't create that emotional connection as much as words that imply something, right?

Again, that's a little bit more very detailed tip to writing, but again, the main thing

you want to do now is reduce your word count.

So, I went from 15, I think, to 9, right?

Now, you're thinking six words, not a big deal to save, but over a whole essay, and

if you're doing this constantly to all of your sentences, you're reducing the word count

a lot.

So, just a side tip for now, for anybody who's writing essays, like academic, especially

if you're in university or college or all that, or if you're applying to university

and you're writing a statement or a personal statement, etc., remember that you want to

re-tighten, you want to reduce the word count to have better style.

So, anytime you're finished with your first draft, what I normally do, the first step,

I cut out 10% of the words.

Right away, the first thing I want to do is cut out 10%.

Right away, as I'm doing that, I'm seeing where things can be shifted and tightened.

10% is a lot.

Start with 5% and move your way up to 10%.

It's a good exercise, okay?

So, that's wordiness.

Okay, so now we're going to look at a couple more of those things to avoid.

Number two, we talked about jargon.

What is jargon?

Jargon is technical language or very specific language for a specific topic.

So, if you're talking, like for example, medicine with doctors, medical people have very specific

words that they use that non-medical people probably don't know.

So, if you're a doctor and you're talking to non-medical people, you don't want to throw

out a lot of medical words because they won't understand what you're talking about.

And I'll give you an example in a moment.

So, make sure you know your target audience.

Who are you writing to?

And I'm going to talk about target audience again in a minute, but make sure you're writing

to the right people.

So, generally, there are two types of readers for any article or any paper, etc.

Experts, so the people who are in the field that you're in and you're writing basically

to them.

So, if you're a PhD student and you're writing a paper about dementia and you're pretty sure

that the only people who will read this are people like nurses and doctors or social workers

who work with dementia patients, then yes, you can use very technical language.

You can use a lot of jargon.

But if you're writing a paper and you hope that non-medical, non-experts read it, we

call these laypersons.

It used to be laymen, but now that's politically not correct, so don't say laymen.

Layperson or laypersons.

Notice I don't say laypeople, I just pluralize the persons.

That's fine when it's in a conjunction like this.

If you're writing to laypersons, simplify the language.

Use language that they can understand.

You can mention the technical name of something, but then make sure you explain what it is

in simple terms so that they can relate to it.

So, for example, if you're a doctor and you tell me and you write to me about encephalitis,

I'm like, "Oh, okay.

I've heard that word before.

I'm not exactly sure what it means."

Then there's not much point reading anymore because I won't understand you.

I'm a layperson.

I'm not a doctor.

I'm not a nurse.

For me, write "brain swelling," which basically is what encephalitis is.

Make me write with words I understand, not with technical words, so that's a very important

thing.

Now, I've noticed I've read hundreds of IELTS and TOEFL essays in my time, and if you're

one of those people taking these tests, don't throw in a lot of technical words to try to

impress the examiners.

If the examiners don't know this word and they have to look it up in a dictionary, you're

losing points.

But for everybody else who's not doing these tests and you're just writing articles or

blog posts or academic papers, make sure that the person reading it can understand what

you're saying.

Then, we'll talk about the next point is redundancy.

So, if something is redundant, essentially it's unnecessary.

It's basically the most common type of redundancy is repetition.

You're saying something that you've already mentioned before, unnecessary.

Tell me once, I'll understand it, move on to your next point.

Repeating only puts in more words, so you get wordiness.

It bores me, it might confuse me, and it's a little bit insulting because it shows me

that you don't trust me to understand what you're writing.

Like maybe you're too smart for me and I don't know what you're saying, so you have to explain

it to me again in simpler terms.

Say it once, say it correctly, move on.

Here's an example, gentrification.

This is a big word, but it's a very common word, especially these days.

Gentrification is a process wherein wealth flows into an area and changes its character,

namely by displacing its poor residents.

So, you have a very poor neighborhood, like old buildings, maybe empty stores, a lot of

people hanging around in the streets, and suddenly money starts to come into this area.

Some rich company buys a building, tears it down, puts up a condo, a very nice condo.

So now, other rich people start seeing, "Oh, this area is changing, that's a nice condo,

I want to live there."

And slowly new stores come in, and developments, and parks, and all that, and all the prices

go up, so the poor people who were living there now can't afford it, and so they have

to move somewhere else.

And then all the rich people come into the neighborhood, or the middle class people come

into it.

That's gentrification.

Understood.

As a result, the poor, the poor people, who can no longer afford to stay there, must relocate

to another area.

Okay, I get that.

But I already understood that here.

"Wealth" means the poor people can't afford it, "displacing the poor" means they have

to move.

So, this whole sentence, from here to here, isn't redundant.

It's showing me that you don't think I understand this first sentence, so you have to say it

again in a different way, with simpler words.

All you're doing is boring me, and a little bit insulting me, because you don't trust

me to understand what you said the first time.

This whole sentence also adds too many unnecessary words, and now your paper is too long, and

I stop reading about a quarter way through, and I go on to the next article.

So, redundancy is a big issue.

Try to avoid it.

Which is why, never think that you're finished with a paper, or with an article, or with

a blog post.

When you finish your first draft, first thing you want to do, cut out 5%, 10% of the words,

and as you're reading, hopefully you will notice where you're repeating things, that

you can take these words out as part of your 10%.

Okay, so now we're going to look at the last two things to avoid.

Number four was assumptions.

Don't assume things about your readers.

Know your audience.

Know your readers.

Because once you know who's going to be reading this, it'll help you understand how to write

to them.

Okay?

So, a few things you can assume.

Always assume that they can read.

Now, this sounds a little bit silly to say, because, you know, everybody can read.

But if you're going to assume that they can read, it means that you don't need to explain

things to them.

They know how to read.

They know how to understand things based on the way you put sentences together, the way

you arrange ideas, the words you use.

They are not stupid.

Don't treat them as such.

They can read, but they just don't know the topic, so they're learning something.

But I'll talk about that in a second.

Then also, assume that they are interested.

If they pick up your paper or on the screen or whatever, they are there for a reason.

They want to be there.

In that case, assume that they're going to read and keep them interested.

Right? They're not there to do you a favor.

Don't, you know, don't look at them in a strange way.

They're here because they're interested.

Give them the information that they're interested in.

Also, if they are unfamiliar with the topic, then they came to learn.

So, give them something to learn.

Teach them something, but again, in a way that respects their ability to read and their

interest.

If they are familiar with the topic, then they're still there to read, means they still

want to learn something new.

Give them something new.

And very, very important, they trust you.

If they picked up your paper and they start reading, they trust you to write well, to

express ideas clearly, to have new ideas.

So, keep writing and keep doing it well.

But remember, they trust you until they don't trust you.

As soon as you start, you know, being redundant, being wordy, being boring, not having a variety

of language, they will stop reading.

Because then they realize, you know what, maybe you're not a very good writer, they're

not going to waste their time with you.

So, with all of these things in mind, very important, don't patronize your readers.

So, to patronize means to, well, usually we use this in speaking, but to communicate with

someone in a way that, you know, you're being nice to them and you're being friendly and

helpful, but in reality, you're looking down on them.

You think you're better than them.

Readers, especially, you can get this in speaking very easily, but also in reading, people understand

when a writer is being patronizing or when the writer is looking down on the readers.

"I'm so smart, but I'll do you a favor and I'll write this out for you and explain this

to you because, you know, I'm a good guy."

No, people who see that walk away.

Then they stop trusting you and they go read somebody else's papers.

Don't patronize, look down on, or be dismissive of.

"I don't need these people."

You do.

That's why you wrote whatever it is you wrote, right?

So, keep that in mind, always know your audience.

And the last one, remember I mentioned freestyling?

This is probably the most common mistake people make when they start writing.

They start writing, they don't think enough, they don't plan enough, they don't organize

their thoughts, they just start writing.

And it's so easy to get lost along the way, and it's so easy to make repetitions and redundancies

and to use too many words because you don't know where you're going.

So, you just, you know, you're freestyling, you're on a ski slope just going whatever

and going fast, that's the key, you just want to get to the end.

But the reader is going to be alone with your paper.

If you're not organized, they won't be able to understand what you're saying, they won't

be able to make sense of it.

Plan before you write.

And it doesn't matter if you're writing for an English test, if you're writing for a college

or university course, if you're writing a blog post, if you're writing an article, anything

you write, even an email, plan it.

Make sure you know what you want to say before you type that first word, before you write

that first word.

Always make sure you know what your purpose is, what are you trying to accomplish with

this piece of writing.

Have a map.

I'm going to have an introduction to bring up this topic.

I'm going to talk about A, B, and C, and then I'm going to reach a conclusion, and make

sure that there's a conclusion.

If all you're doing is presenting a question, that's fine.

Make sure that that is a very clear purpose, but make sure to tell the reader or to make

the reader understand why you have this question, why this is a question that they too should

be asking for.

And that in itself is the conclusion.

The conclusion is that this is a question worth seeking an answer to.

If there's no purpose and nowhere to go with your writing, your writing will go nowhere.

It'll go all over the place, actually.

It'll be unorganized.

It'll be boring.

It'll be a little bit annoying or confusing, and then nobody's going to read what you write.

So there you go.

Five things to avoid in your writing.

And if you want to get more writing tips, don't forget to go to Write to the Top on

YouTube.

I have a lot of videos about writing.

That's the specialty of that channel.

And if you have any questions, please ask me and I'll be glad to help you with that.

And if you like the video, give me a like.

Don't forget to subscribe to my channel, and come back next time for more useful tips.

See you then.

Bye-bye.