You walk into a dusty old store. Thousands of items are piled high on shelves and tables. There aren’t any signs. You see a kettle next to a hairbrush, and a pair of gloves draped over an alarm clock. You open a box, and it’s full of cheap, broken china. You open another; there’s only packaging inside. You open a third, and find a jewellery case. It’s not what you want, but it’s exquisite and in wonderful condition. You walk out.

You walk into another store. It’s brightly lit, with a few hundred items on display. A sign hangs above each aisle. You pick kitchenware, and walk past the pans, the crockery, and the utensils. You reach the small appliances, and see three blenders side-by-side on the second shelf. You pick the one you want and pay for it.

On the way out, you spot a gift aisle. Interested, you investigate, and see a jewellery case. It’s not what you came for, but it’s exquisite and in wonderful condition. You buy it.

Be concise
Okay, let’s get to the point. You’ve just read 170 words, and you’re probably wondering what’s going on.

When you write, you must be clear and concise; the reader is your customer. You may have blenders and jewellery cases, but if they’re hidden in a jumble of broken crockery and empty boxes, you aren’t going to make many sales.

Writing concisely doesn’t come naturally to most of us. You have to learn to structure and edit your writing so that you communicate clearly and crisply. Here are some things that will help.

Avoid the passive voice
When we write, we can use the active or passive voice. The passive voice is when something is done to the subject, as in:

“The car was hit by a rock that was thrown by the boy.”

The active voice is when the subject does something:

“The boy threw a rock, which hit the car.”

The active voice uses fewer words, and is clearer and more forceful.

Don’t say the same thing twice
Once is enough. The following sentence has several redundancies:

“The basic fundamentals of the situation have led to an end result where we can’t be proactive and plan ahead.”

Try this instead:

“We can’t plan ahead, given the situation.”

Hunt down redundancies and eliminate then. For example, write:

• Proximity, not close proximity
• Gift, not free gift
• Each, not each and every
• Custom, not usual custom
• Opinion, not personal opinion

Phrases, not clauses
Phrases are simpler than clauses. The sentence below is verbose:

“This novel, which was finished in 1847, never achieved the popularity of his other works.”

Instead, write:

“Finished in 1847, this novel never achieved the popularity of his other works.”

Even better, write:

“This 1847 novel never achieved the popularity of his other works.”

However, be careful not to misplace your modifiers:

“The cat drank the milk that was poured into the saucer.”

“Poured into the saucer, the cat drank the milk.”

How do you pour a cat?

Words, not phrases
Sometimes, you can reduce a phrase or clause to a single word:

“James felt that he was the one who was to blame.”

“James felt responsible.”

“It is probable that this is the first time.”

“This is probably the first time.”

Don’t use unnecessary intensifiers
Words like very, quite, extremely and really intensify the meaning of what they modify. Sometimes they can be important, as in:

“I expected it to be small, but it’s very small.”

At other times, the intensifier is unnecessary and should be deleted:

“I am very enraged at your conduct.”

“I am enraged at your conduct.”

There are
When you write a sentence such as the one below, you’re wasting space:

“There are five cars that are parked in the driveway.”

Instead, write:

“Five cars are parked in the driveway.”

This also applies to there is and it is:

“There is a cat which is on the roof.”

“A cat is on the roof.”

“It is John who stands to lose the most.”

“John stands to lose the most.”

Avoid empty phrases
Many common phrases add nothing to your writing, and should be eliminated:

“As a matter of fact, there are three books on the table, not four.”

“There are three books on the table, not four.”

“Your idea is, for all intents and purposes, impractical.”

“Your idea is impractical.”

Others to avoid include:

• in the process of
• what I am saying is
• in an manner of speaking
• when it comes down to it
• due to the fact that
• when you think about it
• in my humble opinion
• in a real sense

Avoid clichés
Clichés start out as a clever way of saying something, but they quickly become annoying and boring. Avoid sentences like:

“We thought he was in it for the long term, but it was only a flash in the pan.”

Either be original or write plainly:

“We thought he would persist, but he didn’t.”

Don’t carry this to extremes
The goal is to make every word you write count, not to reduce everything to basic English. Sentence variety, imagery and vocabulary also improve your writing, as long as they’re appropriate. Use your judgement; you can go too far:

“The Siamese stretched languidly on the burgundy carpet and waited patiently.”

“The cat sat on the mat.”

When you write, avoid the misplaced modifier. This is when you try to say something about one thing, and end up modifying something else.

Don’t let your participles dangle
Look at the sentence below:

“As I was skiing down the slope, the trees went flying by.”

Here, it’s clear that I’m skiing down the slope, and that the trees are flying by. However, if I is left out the first clause, the meaning of the sentence changes:

“Skiing down the slope, the trees went flying by.”

Why were the trees skiing down the slope? When did trees start to ski?

The problem is that skiing down modifies the subject I in the first example. Once I is removed, skiing down is left dangling, and ends up modifying trees. Skiing is a participle (the -ing form of a verb), skiing down is a participial phrase, and this mistake is called a dangling participle.

Don’t misplace you modifiers
You don’t have to leave out the subject to create confusion. For example, if the participle is too far away from the thing it’s supposed to modify, the results can be hilarious:

“I saw a moose driving down the highway.”

This sounds interesting, but highly improbable. It’s more likely that:

“Driving down the highway, I saw a moose.”

We apply the modifier to the nearest noun, so, in the second sentence, we know the moose isn’t driving. However, if the moose saw me, the first form below would be correct, but not the second:

“A moose saw me driving down the highway.”

“Driving down the highway, a moose saw me.”

We are back to the same problem we had with skiing trees.

It’s not just participles
Consider the following sentence:

“A little pink bolt of lightening, Jim chased the piglet around the barn.”

Jim may be a little pink bolt of lightning, but it’s not the way to bet:

“Jim chased the piglet, a little pink bolt of lightening, around the barn.”

What is the well-dressed elephant wearing?
According to Groucho Marx, “One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got into my pyjamas I’ll never know.”

The humble quotation mark seems so simple, but it’s easy to use it incorrectly. Here are some rules that will help you avoid mistakes.

Direct quotes
Surround direct quotes with double quotation marks:

“To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Indirect quotes
If you are using your own words to describe what someone else said, don’t use quotation marks. The first example below is correct; the second one isn’t:

John said that the play was boring and poorly acted.

John said that, “the play was boring and poorly acted”.

You can tell an indirect quote because it’s preceded by that, or could be, as in:

Abraham vowed he would never go back to that theatre.

Abraham vowed that he would never go back to that theatre.

You can use quotation marks to call attention to a specific word or phrase. Only do this if it is noteworthy:

Mary said that the play was an “utter disgrace”, and went to bed.

Other punctuation
Precede a formal quotation with a colon when the quotation is used as evidence:

The first law of robotics is: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”

Otherwise, precede a quote with a comma:

Robby the Robot said, “Sorry, miss. I was giving myself an oil-job.”

There’s no need to add extra punctuation when you end a sentence with a quote. This is wrong:

Robby the Robot said, “Sorry, miss. I was giving myself an oil-job.”.

However, if you’re only quoting a word or phrase, you do need to add punctuation:

Commander Adams said he was in command of 18 “super-perfect physical specimens”.

Quotes within quotes
Sometimes, you need to put a quote inside a quote. Use single quotation marks to avoid confusion:

“Dickens wrote, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’, but was it?”, the teacher asked, rather missing the point.

Poetry
There’s no need to put quotation marks around poetry, but it should be indented, as in this soliloquy from Hamlet:

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.

Many people use i.e. and e.g. interchangeably, but they’re not the same. Here’s the right way to use each of them.

Id est
i.e. is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase id est, which means that is. It’s used is two ways:

• To provide a clarification of something that precedes it, as in the following:

“Airline prices are at their highest during the holidays, i.e. when demand is at a peak.”

This clarifies that airline prices are at their highest when demand is at a peak.

• To provide a complete list of items in a category, as in the sentence below:

“I travelled around Scandinavia, i.e. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.”

Exempli gratia
e.g. is an abbreviation of the Latin exempli gratia, which means for the sake of example. You can use e.g. to list one or more examples, but the list doesn’t have to be complete:

“There are many types of dog, e.g. spaniels, terriers and retrievers.”

Here, the list of dog breeds isn’t complete; we haven’t mentioned poodles, for example.

Other Latin abbreviations
Here are some other common Latin abbreviations used in English:

• c. stands for circum, which means around. It is used to indicate approximate dates:

“The bronze statue was dated to c. 500 B.C.”

• C.V. stands for curriculum vitae, which means course of life. A C.V. is a short written description of your education, qualifications and previous jobs that you send to a prospective employer.

• etc. stands for et cetera, which means and the rest. It’s used to indicate the remaining items in a list, without listing them explicitly, as in:

“Snow White lived with seven dwarves: Grumpy, Dopey, Bashful, etc.”

• Q.E.D. stands for quod erat demonstrandum, which means which was to be demonstrated. It is used to indicate you have proved something, especially in mathematics.

• R.I.P. stands for requiescat in pace, which means may he/she rest in peace. It is used as a short prayer for someone who has died. Contrary to popular belief, it does not stand for rest in peace, which is an inaccurate translation of the Latin phrase.

Similes and metaphors are the most common methods of comparing something to something else. When you use a simile or metaphor, you imply that one thing has the characteristics of another one, but do not have to list those characteristics as they are already widely understood.

Similes
Similes are the weakest form of comparison, as they say that something is similar to something else. You can recognise a simile from words such as like and as. Here are some examples:

“He is running like a cheetah.”

“The rain fell as if it were manna from heaven, reawakening the parched and tortured land.”

In the first case, the comparison to a cheetah calls to mind immense speed. If the runner had been compared to a hippopotamus, the mental image would have been quite different. In the second case, rain is compared to manna, creating an image of supernatural deliverance from hunger and thirst.

Basic Metaphors
At its simplest, a metaphor says that something is something else, rather than saying it is like something else. This is a stronger comparison than a simile (although some would argue that a simile is a type of metaphor). Consider the following:

“Doing the assignment was a walk in the park.”

“The meal cost me an arm and a leg.”

The implication in the first case is that the assignment was easy and relaxing, just as a walk in the park would be.

The second example is more interesting. Here, it is clear that the diner did not actually need radical surgery to pay for dinner, but, on the other hand, there is nothing that is being compared explicitly to an arm and a leg. Instead, an arm and a leg is a metaphor for a large amount of money, and it is implied that parting with it caused the diner great suffering. In other words, the comparison is not made explicitly; by simply using the metaphorical phrase an arm and a leg, the subject of the comparison is understood.

Extended Metaphors
This then leads to the broader definition of a metaphor: using something to represent something else. This can be as basic as the examples above, or as complicated as an entire story told using symbols which represent other things. For example:

• The biblical snake in the garden of Eden is a metaphor for evil (or a real being, depending on your beliefs).

• Robert Frost wrote a famous poem titled “The Road Not Taken”, in which the opening line is “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”. The roads are a metaphor for the choices we have to make in life, without understanding where those choices may lead.

• Entire stories can be metaphors, in which case they have both a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. These are referred to as allegories; examples range from fairy tales to religious works such as John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

Avoid the mixed metaphor
One very common mistake when writing is to use a mixed metaphor, which combines two existing metaphors in such a way that the combination does not make sense. The result of doing this can be anything from unintelligible to ludicrous. One classic example of a mixed metaphor is:

“Don’t burn your bridges before you come to them.”

Clearly, this does not make any sense. However, this mixed metaphor was created by combining two other perfectly reasonable metaphors:

“Don’t burn your bridges behind you.”

“Don’t cross your bridges before you come to them.”

The first metaphor is advising against cutting off your route of retreat; in other words, don’t do anything you will regret later. The second is saying that you should not worry about problems before they arrive. Individually, these make sense. Combined in a mixed metaphor, they are nonsense.

Although they look similar and have similar names, colons and semi-colons perform very different functions. People who are uncertain of their punctuation often confuse the two, or use them inappropriately. Here is a simple set of rules that you can follow.

Semi-colons
There are two ways to use semi-colons:

• To link two sentences that are closely related. Consider the following:

“I was shaking before I went on stage. I get nervous in front of crowds.”

If you want to emphasise that the reason you were shaking is because you get nervous, you can use a semi-colon, as in:

“I was shaking before I went on stage; I get nervous in front of crowds.”

You could also do this with a conjunction, as shown below:

“I was shaking before I went on stage, as I get nervous in front of crowds.”

Don’t use a comma instead of a semi-colon. It is wrong, as in this example:

“I was shaking before I went on stage, I get nervous in front of crowds.”

By using a mixture of semi-colons and conjunctions, you can introduce variety and interest into your sentence structure.

• To separate a list in which the individual items already contain commas. If you were to separate such a list with commas, then it would be ambiguous. Look at this list:

“The winners are: Joan Davies, London, Mark Jones, Cardiff, and Paul Smith, Glasgow.”

You can probably deduce that there are three winners, but the following is clearer:

“The winners are: Joan Davies, London; Mark Jones, Cardiff; and Paul Smith, Glasgow.”

Colons
Use colons to:

• Introduce a list, such as:

“I have three brothers: Joe, Simon and Peter.”

This also applies to bulleted lists.

• To connect two sentences, where the second sentence completes the statement made in the first sentence by explaining it or continuing it, as in:

“We have made our decision: the business is not for sale.”

•  To introduce an example, as below:

“The following is an example of a paradox: I always lie.”

• To introduce a quotation, as in:

“As Shakespeare said: ‘All the world’s a stage’.”

When you want to describe the quantity of something, you may wonder whether to use much or many, little or few or some or any. The secret is to ask yourself whether the noun whose quantity you want to describe can be counted or not.

Countable and uncountable nouns
Some nouns can be counted, and have a plural. For example:

“There are six chairs in the dining room.”

On the other hand, nouns such as water are not countable. The following makes no sense:

“There are five wines in the glass.”

The plural of uncountable nouns generally refers to different types, rather than quantity:

“He enjoys different wines, and has made a study of them.”

Much or many?
Use much with uncountable nouns and many with countable nouns:

“We don’t have much hope of winning.”

“There are many ways that we can still win.”

Little or few?
Use little with uncountable nouns and few with countable nouns:

“There is a little water left in the jug.”

“There are only a few minutes remaining before the store closes.”

Some or any?
Some and any can modify both countable and uncountable nouns, and they can be used interchangeably in questions:

“Is there any water left in the jug?”

“Is there some water left in the jug?”

“Are there any chairs in the dining room?”

“Are there some chairs in the dining room?”

However, for statements, some should be used for positive statements, and any for negative ones:

“I don’t think there is any water left in the jug.”

“I think there is some water left in the jug.”

“There aren’t any chairs in the dining room.”

“There are some chairs in the dining room.”

When it doesn’t matter
No, plenty of and enough can be used uncountable nouns:

“There is enough water in the jug.”

“There is no water in the jug.”

“There is plenty of water in the jug.”

They can also be used with countable nouns:

“There are enough chairs in the dining room.”

“There are no chairs in the dining room.”

“There are plenty of chairs in the dining room.”

When you are writing a sentence, the person of the verb must match the subject of the sentence. This is known as subject/verb agreement, and in most cases it is fairly straightforward.

The simple case
For regular verbs, the present tense of the verb is the same for all persons, except for the third person singular, as follows:

“I chase the car, you chase the car and he chases the car.”

“We chase the car, you chase the car and they chase the car.”

However, there are a number of cases where it becomes less obvious.

Compound subjects
A compound subject is when there is more than one subject in the sentence, such as:

“The cat and dog are fighting again.”

When and is used to connect the subjects, then the subject is plural, and therefore the plural form of the verb must be used. In the example above, the subject is cat and dog, and so the correct form of the verb to be is are.

However, when or is used to connect the subjects, the overall subject is singular, as only one of the subjects is actually selected by the or, as in this example:

“Either the cat or the dog starts the fight.”

Here, we use the third person singular form, starts, rather than the third person plural, start.

This becomes particularly difficult when both subjects are not in the same person. For plurals, English verb forms remain the same no matter what the person: we do, you do, they do, we have, you have, they have, etc. However, the singular verb forms vary based on the person, so which form do you choose if both subjects have different persons?

The rule here is that the verb should agree with the closest subject. This gives:

“Either you or I am in trouble.”

“Neither John nor you give me confidence.”

In the first sentence, am is used, not are, which would agree with you. Similarly, in the second sentence, give is used, not gives.

Identify the real subject
The subject of a sentence can sometimes be far away from the verb, and you may be tempted to have the verb agree with the nearest preceding noun in a clause or phrase. Don’t do it. The following examples are incorrect:

“One of the prisoners are injured.”

“John, as well as his brothers, are going on holiday.”

“The man with all the dogs go for a walk each day.”

These should read:

“One of the prisoners is injured.”

“John, as well as his brothers, is going on holiday.”

“The man with all the dogs goes for a walk each day.”

Other things to watch out for
Here are some things that often catch people out:

• Collective nouns and pronouns are singular:

“The family has a large house.”

“Everyone is waiting for someone.”

• Noun phrases starting with words like most, all and some are plural, even if they appear to be a group:

“Some of the glasses are in the sink.”

• Some nouns which describe a single object are plural, such as scissors and pants:

“Tweezers are useful when you need to remove a splinter.”

• Quantities can either be single or plural depending on whether they are being treated as a single entity or not:

“There are four quarts in a gallon.”

“Four quarts is a lot of eggnog for two people to drink.”

Mr. Torrance, the English teacher, drove an old, beaten-up Cadillac with huge tail fins.

Perhaps he did, and perhaps he didn’t, but the sentence above provides a perfect illustration of an appositive. An appositive is a noun or noun phrase with describes or qualifies another noun. In this case, the appositive is the English teacher, and it provides further information about Mr. Torrance. An appositive fills the same role as an adjective.

Here are some other examples:

“John, a devoted husband, never got over the loss of his wife.”

“A committed socialist, Mary attended many rallies.”

As you can see, an appositive can come before the noun it modifies or after it.

The same rules apply to punctuating appositives as apply to punctuating adjective clauses:

• If it is not essential to the meaning of the sentence, surround it with commas:

“The chairman, John Winters, called the session to order.”

Note the similarity in punctuation to the following non-restrictive adjective clause:

“The car, which was covered with dust, sputtered into life.

• If it is essential, do not use commas:

“Churchill the great leader cannot be separated from Churchill the drinking man.”

Here, both appositives are essential; if they were removed, the sentence would tell us that Churchill cannot be separated from Churchill, which is at best self-evident.

In this case, note the similarity to the restrictive adjective clause below:

“The boat that I bought last summer is faster than the boat that I owned previously.”

Remember these simple rules about appositives, and you won’t go wrong. Make Mr. Torrance proud!

In English, changing a single letter in a word can completely change its meaning, but sometimes the result is more subtle. Here are some pairs of words which are often confused, along with the correct definition and usage for each one.

Farther or further?
Both farther and further have to do with distance, but they are actually different:

• Farther is related to physical distance, and is a comparative form of far:

“My house is far away, but your house is farther.”

• Further is also a comparative form of far, but refers to non-physical distance:

“I am further along in my work than I had expected.”

• Further is also a verb:

“I want to further my knowledge.”

Ingenious or ingenuous?
Here, both words are adjectives, but the meaning is completely different:

• To be ingenious is to be clever, original or resourceful:

“After a lot of thought, they came up with an ingenious plan.”

• Ingenuous means sincere, honest and trusting in a naïve way:

“It was ingenuous of him to expect that a stranger would help him.”

Prescribe or proscribe?
Both of these are verbs, but again the meaning is completely different:

• To prescribe means to tell someone what they must do, to set a rule or, in the case of doctors, to give medicine:

“The law prescribes that everyone must pay taxes.”

“The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for my infection.”

• To proscribe is to prohibit:

“The committee has the power to proscribe undesirable activities on club premises.”

Stationary or stationery?
These are not even the same part of speech:

• Stationary is an adjective which means unmoving or unchanging:

“The car remained stationary at the traffic light.”

“The markets had remained stationary for several months now.”

• Stationery refers to the things you need to write by hand:

“You will find paper and pens in the stationery cupboard.”

Complimentary or complementary?
These are both adjectives, but the meanings are unrelated:

• Complimentary is related to praise or admiration:

“Luke was very complimentary about your cooking.”

• Complimentary can also mean free:

“We were given complimentary tickets to the concert.”

• Things are complementary when they go well together:

“Our skills are complementary, and we enjoy working together.”

Affect or effect?
The meaning of these words is related, but affect is a verb and effect is a noun:

• To affect is to produce change, as in:

“The recent snowstorms will affect consumer sales.”

• An effect is a change which is produced:

“The recent snowstorms will have the effect of reducing consumer sales.”

So, when you are writing, mind your p’s and q’s. And your a’s, b’s, c’s …