Quote books in the present tense and writers in the past tense.

When you take a quote from a book, you have to decide whether you are attributing the quoted material to the author or the book.

If you are attributing a quote to a book, use the present tense. Because the information is always present (i.e., always available right now), use present tense verbs, such as states, notes, claims, and describes. For example, you may write the following:

“The book Ten Habits of Unhappy People claims that the main reason for disappointment is a lack of communication.”

On the other hand, if you are attributing a quote to the author, use the past tense. Because the author wrote the information at a specific time in the past, use a past tense verb, such as stated, noted, claimed, described, and wrote. For example, you may write the following:

“James Patterson, author of Ten Habits of Unhappy People, wrote that the main reason for disappointment is a lack of communication.”

---

This is the strategy for day 41 in 300 Days of Better Writing, available at Hostile Editing in PDF, Kindle, and paperback formats.

For a sample of 300 Days of Better Writing and other books by Precise Edit, download the free ebook.

Be prepared to work hard at your writing.

Easy reading is damned hard writing.

(Nathaniel Hawthorne)

(Please excuse the curse word. It may indicate Hawthorne’s frustration with the work necessary to produce good writing, or it may indicate the strength with which Hawthorne believes this.)

The point of this quote is that clear, easy-to-read writing is not easy to produce. Instead, it is the result of writing, analyzing what you write, and re-writing—perhaps many times.

When you write, you are attempting to communicate. The more work you put into writing, the better you will be able to communicate. Hard work by you leads to easy understanding by your reader.

People have told me, “Writing is so easy for you.” This isn’t true. I have practiced writing, studied writing, and analyzed what makes writing clear. The documents they read are the result of much work: writing, criticizing, and rewriting until they are “easy reading.” That’s what great writers aim for: not easy writing but easy reading.

---

This is the strategy for day 110 in 300 Days of Better Writing, available at Hostile Editing in PDF, Kindle, and paperback formats.

For a sample of 300 Days of Better Writing and other books by Precise Edit, download the free ebook.

Change preaching language to persuasive language.

On day 165, we discussed the problem of preaching to your readers. To write persuasively and avoid angering your readers, revise your preaching sentences to objective sentences that connect an outcome to an action.

Here is the 5-step process we use:

1. Identify the rhetorical subject, the one you want to do the action.
2. Add the word can or will after the subject, followed by an action word.
3. Add the purpose of the action (the “why”).
4. Add the desired action (the “ought to” action).
5. Remove can or will. This last step is optional, depending on whether or not it strengthens the sentence and whether or not the resulting sentence is grammatically correct.

This process works in almost every case. Let’s try it with the following sentence.

“To help more children read, this legislative body SHOULD allocate more money to schools.”

1. This legislative body.
2. This legislative body will help
3. This legislative body will help children learn to read
4. This legislative body will help children learn to read by allocating more money to schools.
5. This legislative body help children learn to read by allocating more money to schools. (Removing “will” makes the sentence grammatically incorrect, so we used the sentence in the fourth step.)

Now, the outcome, “children learn to read,” is connected to the action of “allocating more money.” This is presented as an objective fact, not a moral statement or opinion.

Most importantly, the resulting objective statement is more likely to produce the action desired without creating a confrontation with the reader.

---

This is the strategy for day 178 in 300 Days of Better Writing, available at Hostile Editing in PDF, Kindle, and paperback formats.

For a sample of 300 Days of Better Writing and other books by Precise Edit, download the free ebook.

Create transitions to the next paragraph.

The final sentences of a paragraph have two functions. First, they need to provide a conclusion, impact statement, or action statement relevant to the single idea of the paragraph. Second, they need to create a transition to the idea of the next paragraph.

This transition is created by using words and phrases relevant to the next idea or by specifically noting how the current idea relates to the next one. Let’s look at two examples.

NONFICTION EXAMPLE:

End of paragraph one: “Throughout the grades, teachers build this disposition by asking questions that help students find the mathematics in their experiences, and by encouraging students to persist with interesting but challenging problems.”

Beginning of paragraph two: “Students who can successfully solve problems are able to apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies.”

[National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000]

The first paragraph discusses teaching strategies, and the second discusses types of problem-solving strategies. The transition is created by the underlined words at the end of the first paragraph, which relates to the idea described in the context of the second paragraph.

FICTION EXAMPLE:

Gloucester:
I hope they will not come upon us now.
King Henry:
We are in God’s hands, brother, not in theirs.
[Shakespeare, Henry V, act 3, scene 6]

Gloucester’s comment discusses actions by the enemy, using the word “they.” This reference to the enemy creates a subtle transition to the beginning of Henry’s speech, which starts with a reference to the enemy: “theirs.”

---

This is the strategy for day 90 in 300 Days of Better Writing, available at Hostile Editing in PDF, Kindle, and paperback formats.

For a sample of 300 Days of Better Writing and other books by Precise Edit, download the free ebook.