The conversation was long, but what we have covered in the article was too short. Bottom line: it is a ‘must’ for one to devote plenty of quality time to whatever he is doing.
Here’s a rundown of what I have learned from Craig tonight:
Be specific. Words you use in writing must ALWAYS be specific, that is, measurable, descriptive, not general. Why say ‘good’ when you can say ‘productive’?
Make sure you always connect the thought of the entire article to the title and the lead-in paragraph. Unity of idea is needed in any writing activity. And it is more needed in the kind of writing that I am supposed to do. So I guess I have to see to it that the whole write-up is unified.
EMPHASIZE! It is necessary that you put strength in the words you say in the article. It doesn’t mean it should be present all the time, though. Once the situation asks for it, don’t hesitate to express those simple words in a SPECIAL WAY (like this).
Every word used in writing should be meaningful. I guess it is related to number 1. You have to make sure that you express what you want in just as few words as possible.
Observe parallelism. This makes your writing not only grammatically correct. It also makes your article rhythmical.
Read what you write ‘aloud.’ This is helpful for you to know whether what you write is right. It also tells you whether your writing sounds natural and passes the ‘conversational’ standard.
Go over what you are writing again and again and again… I think this is what I learned the most for tonight. Spending much time on writing your article is important so you can create a much better output. If you need to read it a million times just to perfect it, do so.
All these little lessons were learned after more than an hour of discussing two paragraphs only. That means I still have a lot of things to learn. And a lot of chances to improve, I hope.
