A friend of mine, an established writer, asked me to have a look at a letter he had published in a newspaper and give my comments on it. Almost every day he shoots a letter to a newspaper/magazine and has published over 10,000 letters in the past four decades. His articles have also been published by leading newspapers.
This was my comment on the 254-word letter: “Good letter. Congrats! You have commented on a burning issue. You have conveyed your views on the issue in a very powerful manner. It shows your clarity of thought. The tone of the letter is good. Your ideas and diction are superb. Here is an important observation. Quite unusually, the sentences in this particular letter are very long. The 254-word letter has only four sentences and they are long-winded with 56, 65, 47 and 86 words in the first, second, third and fourth sentence respectively. As the letter affects readability, it is good to write simple sentences.” As soon as he read my feedback, he appreciated my advice.
Language is for communication. Plain English is the key to clear communication. Pompous words, long sentences and lengthy paragraphs are hurdles for clear communication. A good writer has clarity of thought and clarity of expression. Gone are the days of long-winded sentences. Look at this extract from the BBC website:
So says Govan, a thin, bearded French jazz musician from Lyon whom I meet in a German language class for people recently arrived in Berlin. “In one month,” he says, “I met lot of people from everywhere.” The faces around the table are young, the accents mainly European. They tell a story about how the demography of this country is changing fast. Germany is now the world’s second most popular destination — after the US — for immigrants. And they are arriving in the hundreds of thousands.
The 87-word text has six sentences varied in length. The first sentence has 25 words whereas the last sentence has just nine words. The average number of words in a sentence is 14.5. The passage is easy to read and understand. Here are some tips for writing in plain English:
1. Know that communication is the main purpose of writing. Communicate, don’t complicate.
2. Know your readers. Be reader-friendly. Ask yourself whether your writing can be understood by your readers.
3. Use simple English.
4. Use verbs instead of nouns and noun phrases wherever possible. Verbs are called action words. They make your writing come alive. Instead of the noun phrase “give consideration to” use the verb “consider” and instead of “make an application to” use the verb “apply”.
5. Avoid wordy phrases. Use ‘to’ instead of ‘in order to’, ‘thrice’ instead of ‘on three different occasions’.
6. Write short and clear sentences. The average sentence length is 15-18 words.
7. Use a variety of sentence structures. Variety breaks monotony.
— rayanal@yahoo.co.uk