Do you hate pretentious writers?

I know the feeling.

Such writers use complicated words or many modifiers.

You can’t carry on without a dictionary. You end up wasting your time.

In this short tutorial I’m going to explain how to get rid of unnecessary words in a sentence. I hope these suggestions will help you develop a better writing style.



Join the Discussion
Write something…
Recent messages
SadieChan Premium
I often have problems with some collective words. Whether I need to include the s for the plural term.
Reply
MudreM Premium
You're not the only one Sadie. It takes some practice and you should be fine.
Reply
terrberr Premium
Thank you, Sinisa; you make a lot of sense!
I want to further ask you about the word, "that".
I don't like it much; I think it's clunky and in the way.

I try to write with my English-as-second-language readers in mind.
So between, "She thinks he is handsome", and, ''She thinks that he is handsome"...
I've been using the latter sentence at times, because I feel non-native english folks can understand that better.
Can you help my mind and outlook on this, please?
Reply
Dreamer56 Premium
I'll just add my 2 cents Terry. I like the first one better on both counts.
Reply
JonStevens Premium
I agree with Tim, I like the first one better also.
Reply
terrberr Premium
Thanks, Tim...point taken.
I just wonder how non-native english speakers read/understand it;)
Reply
Dreamer56 Premium
I really don't see a difference Terry
Reply
Juneyo Premium
I fall into the English-as-second-language readers. So, I prefer the latter. In fact, I use that quite a lot in my posts. I think some of my friends are like that too :-D
Reply
terrberr Premium
Thank you very much for your point of view, Mu'minah:)
My personal feeling is, if English was my second language, I might be confused by the close placement of "She'' and "he'' in the sentence. So injecting the conjunction, "that'', helps to break up those 2 pronouns.
Certainly for native English speakers, the first way is proper.
For non-native English speakers, the second way is less confusing;)
I have some friends in Brazil who of course speak Portuguese. When we are conversing, they use the second sentence example...which got me to thinking;)
Reply
ThomasTay Premium
Well say. I learnt from you to write precise content today. Straight to the point and consider my target audience in mind when I create my content. Good suggestion.
Reply
MudreM Premium
I'm glad you like it Thomas.
Reply
Ultimateless Premium
Drat...it's what keeps my word count up!
Reply
MudreM Premium
Don't get discouraged. It happens to all of us.
Reply
cosmicradio Premium
Thanks for sharing this. I'm kind of a loose cannon writer. Not that I never plan, of course. I also do a lot of editing and cleaning up. Appreciate the tips! :)
Reply
MudreM Premium
Appreciate your comment. Thank you.
Reply
Top