Lei Yu

My Notes

Clutter

• Are there words that can be eliminated? Words that don’t serve a purpose?
  • “personal”, “experiencing”,
  • “fuzz” words are used as verbal camouflage
  • remove those exclaims “I might add, it should be pointed out…”, just add it
• To get rid of clutter, bracket words that don’t add anything or weaken your sentences. Then remove them.

Style

• To get style you will first have to get the basics down.
  • The basics is to write as simply as possible
• Relax, be confident, and be yourself!
  • Believe in your own identity and your opinions
• If writing is a transaction: feel free to use “I”, “me”, “we”, and “us”
  • There are contexts that disallow the use of “I” and such
• Today, politicians speaks with words that means nothing

The Audience

• You are writing for yourself in term of attitude when your write (creativity)
  • Don’t be afraid that the “audience” won’t get it
  • Don’t be afraid that the “reader” won’t like it
  • Don’t write what you wouldn’t say in a conversation
• Write for an audience to improve writing (mechanical)
  • Making the sentence clearer and simple

Words

• Respect words, and don’t rely on cliches
• Use a dictionary to learn the difference between synonyms
• Use a thesaurus
• Readers also read with their ears
  • Take note of the rhythm and rhyme of the words used, entertaining the reader can keep the reader engaged (good writer of prose is also part poet)

Usage

• Judge if a word is really needed or if there is a word that is better suited

Method

Unity

• Writing is about making decisions, what mood you are writing in? What tense? In what perspective?
• What is one point you want to leave the reader with?
• What is the scope of the writing?

The Lead and the Ending

• Write your beginning statements to draw in the reader’s

• They can be long or short

• Good to have a collection of odd facts to use for these hooks

• Get more materials than you will need, get material from anywhere

• You last sentence of a paragraph should also make the reader want to continue

• Using a story in the lead

• How to end?

  • If the reader realizes you are about to end, they may stop reading
  • When you are ready to stop, stop.
  • Ending abruptly, is better than boring the reader with a “in conclusion”

Bits & Pieces

• Verbs
  • Verbs are like the engine
  • Use active verbs over passive verbs
  • Use precise verbs
• Adverb
  • Don’t use redundant adverbs
  • Don’t use ambiguous adverbs like “perhaps”, “arguably”, “decidedly”
• Adjectives
  • Don’t use redundant adjective
  • Use it if it is important and makes a difference
• Little Qualifiers
  • Remove “a bit”, “a little”, “sort of”, “kind of”, “rather”, “quite”, “very”, “too”, “pretty much”, “in a sense”
  • Remove timidities, and be confidence
• Punctuation
  • The Period .
    • write short sentences
  • The Exclamation Point !
    • Use sparingly
    • Change the order of your word to add emphasis
    • Don’t use it to denote a joke
  • The Semicolon ;
    • Use sparingly
  • The Dash —
    • To amplify or justify the latter part of your sentence
  • The Colon :
    • Used for an itemized list
• Mood Changers
  • Use them as soon as possible
  • “but”, “yet”, “however”, “nevertheless”, “still”, “instead”, “thus”, “therefore”, “meanwhile”,
  • “now”, “later”, “today”, “subsequently”, helps the reader orient themselves with time
  • Feel free to use “But” in the beginning of a sentence
    • “however” is a weaker substitute
• Contractions
  • “I’ll”, “won’t”, “can’t”, can make your writing warmer and truer to your personality when they work
  • “He’d” is confusing. He had, or he would?
• That and Which
  • “which”, describe the noun proceeding the comma
  • “that” is more specific
• Concept Nouns
  • Keep people, and verbs in your sentences so its easier to visualize and clearer
• Creeping Nounism
  • Don’t stick nouns together when one noun or one verb will do
• Overstatement
  • don’t go OVERBOARD with hyperbole
• Credibility
  • Making something more crazy that it actually was will lose the reader’s trust
• Writing is not a contest
  • Go at your own pace
  • You’re only competing with yourself
• The Subconscious Mind
  • Your subconscious mind writes in the background
• The Quickest Fix
  • Removing the problem sentence
• Paragraphs
  • Keep it short, keep it organized
  • A paragraph is a unit of thought
• Sexism
  • look for generic substitutes
  • turn to plural, use “or”, sparingly
  • using “You”, address the reader directly
• Writing is rewriting
• Don’t annoy your readers by over explaining things they can figure out themselves
• Write about what you are interested in

Forms

Interviews

• The people element is important
• Use direct quotes
• Finding the right person to write about
• Prepare for you interview
  • list of questions
• Bring a pen and paper, bring it out when you need to. Make them feel relaxed
• Tape recorder and writing
  • You can ask the person to stop so you can have time to write things down
• When quoting, start with the quote and put “he said” somewhere appropriate inside

Writing About Places

• Don’t tell “all” about your trip. Just the significant part
• Beware of travelese, add details that are significant not redundant
• Write about the people and activities
  • What is the place trying to be?

Writing About Yourself: The Memoir

• Write about yourself, but don’t become egotistic
• Memoir is a narrow look into one’s life (don’t write everything of your life)
• Write about the people that you crossed path with that made a difference
• Write about what you learned from events, places, and people you experienced

Science and Technology

• Assume that the reader knows nothing
• Building the logic and fact bottom down
• Adding in the human element
• Explain abstract with concrete familiar imageries
• Write like a person and not a scientist (the be yourself element)

Business Writing Writing in Your Job

• Adding human element
• Clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity

Sports

• Write about the player and the game
• Write about what it is like to play the game, what the athlete is feeling

Writing About the Arts Critics and Columnists

• as a review

  • What would you want to know if you have to spend money on it?
  • Critics should like or love the medium they are reviewing
    • Going into a movie wanting to like it
  • tell just enough so people know whether they want to watch it or not (no spoil the fun)
  • Use specific examples
    • use direct quotes or examples

• as a critic

  • it is harder, you need to know the medium really well
  • express your opinions firmly

Humour

• Humour can be used to make serious points about things
• it can make people see things in a different light

Attitude

The Sound of Your Voice

• breeziness
  • As if the writer is talking to you
  • get good taste
  • imitate writers you admire

Enjoyment, Fear, and Confident

• Write about subjects you care about

The Tyranny of the Final Product

• Why you want to write and how you want to write it

A Writer’s Decision

• What does the reader want to know next?
• What is the piece really about?

Writing Family History and Memoir

• Don’t try to be a writer, try to be you
• Think small, you don’t have to write about everything (manage the scope)
• Write about the events that are significant to you

Write as Well as You Can

• Make it entertaining