Style: Writing
What to master
Control diction for precision and connotation, syntax for emphasis and rhythm, and tone for consistency with purpose and audience. Vary sentence length: short sentences land points; longer cumulative sentences build nuance. Use parallelism for clarity and force, and subordination to show which ideas are primary.
Eliminate wordiness, passive voice where it hides agency, and nominalizations ("the implementation of") that smother verbs. Match register to audience.
Traps
- Thesaurus diction: big words that blur meaning.
- Monotonous syntax: every sentence the same length and shape.
- Tone whiplash: jokes in a solemn passage.
- Overusing passive voice and burying the actor.
- Clichés and vague abstractions ("very important," "society").
Worked example / rule of thumb
Wordy: "It is important to note that the decision was made by the committee to postpone the vote." Revised: "The committee postponed the vote." The revision restores an active verb, names the actor, and cuts empty framing.
Rule of thumb: read aloud. If a sentence can lose words without losing meaning, cut them. Prefer a strong verb to an adverb-plus-weak-verb pair ("sprinted" over "ran quickly").