How to Make Your Writing Look More Professional?

Improving one’s writing is not that easy. In fact, many people give up and stick to their basic skills so long as it gets the work done. However, once you encounter a situation where the lack of vocabulary or poor grammar understanding puts you in a difficult spot, you will wish to have had better writing. 

Some of the examples of such situations include writing a resume or an email to a potential client. Recipients will not take you seriously if the text you send is full of mistakes. 

Fortunately, there are a few strategies that can improve your writing. If you wish to not make a fool out of yourself the next time you need to submit a text to someone important, remember this article’s tips.

Follow Basic Grammar Rules

Starting with simple things is the way to go. Build a strong foundation, and you should be good for the most part. 

Basic grammar rules include knowing where to put commas, semi-colons, periods, question marks, and quotation marks. 

Superscript and subscript characters are also a common problem. Instead of x² or H₂O, some people do not bother and use x^2 or H2O instead. Not sticking to proper subscript and superscript rules leaves a bad impression.

Whether you want to learn how to type superscript on a mac or a Windows computer, there are two ways to do this. The first is copying and pasting words or symbols from the internet or another source. The second is to memorize keyboard shortcuts. 

Read as Much as You Can

Many professional writers will tell you that they read as much as they write. In fact, some writers read more than they write. 

The suggestion should be quite obvious. Reading and experiencing other people’s writing will let you memorize words, phrases, sentence structures, and other writing rules. Even if you are not familiar with the theory, you will know how to write because you spend time reading.

Use Grammar Tools

Relying on your intuition is a solid approach, but there might be instances when you are uncertain about how to spell a word or what it actually means, and whether it is okay to include it in a sentence.

When in doubt, use tools like Grammarly and the Hemingway application. You can copy your text or write in either of these tools directly and fix underlined mistakes. 

Edit Text Multiple Times

It is true that editing is not for everyone. Plenty of professional writers have dedicated editors who go through work and fix typos, get rid of redundancies, and polish writing in other ways to improve it.

Even if you are not aiming to become a professional editor, the skill is worth learning. The more times you look through your writing, the higher the odds of leaving no errors in it. 

Avoid Editing Immediately

Continuing with the editing advice, do not edit right away. If possible, leave editing for the next day because you will have a fresh perspective on the writing, and it will be easier to spot what is wrong with the text. 

In case you need to submit your writing on the same day, take a break for as long as you can between the time you wrote and have to edit. 

Get Rid of Redundant Words

Word redundancy is a common problem even for experienced writers. Sometimes, one needs to write a certain number of words and struggles to meet the requirements. And what better way to fulfill the word quota than by adding redundancies? Well, it is a popular strategy, but your writing quality will suffer if you rely on redundant words.

Let’s take a look at some examples. If you write new innovation, omitting one of the words does not change the meaning since innovations are already associated with something new. In other words, new and innovation are synonyms.

Another example could be your own. Similar to the previous word combination, either of the two words does not add extra information. 

Find a Writing Partner

Having a writing partner is one of the best pieces of advice to improve as a writer. You might be biased when checking your writing which leads to missed mistakes. On the other hand, another person would read your text without attachments and could provide a critical analysis of what is wrong with it. Exchanging ideas with someone who is also looking to improve their writing is bound to push both people to progress.

Do Your Research

Do not neglect research. Even if you are writing a simple topic, confirm little details. Otherwise, your article or another piece might end up with bits of misinformation. For instance, if you are uncertain whether a word should be capitalized, check the official sources.

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