Cliches, colloquialisms and corniness in professional writing

In a nutshell, for professional writing that's top-notch, does the job and gets it spot on, steer clear of cliches, avoid colloquialism like the plague, and give corny language a miss because putting pen to paper with these is just not cricket (unless, of course, you're doing it for effect like this).

These three Cs are markers of unimaginative writing that do not belong in professional writing. They make readers feel nauseous and uninspired.

Here are some phrases I've been mercilessly cutting from some professional text:
~ they're sitting ducks
~ you have to dot the Is and cross the Ts
~ needs must
~ at the end of the day
~ when all's said and done
~ it's all Russian to me
~ chipping away
~ progress was up and down
~ like a reg flag to a bull
~ split hairs
~ full steam ahead

The basics of good structuring

All written material - from letter to novel, website to marketing literature - needs an organised, logical, clear structure. Without this, the reader becomes lost and frustrated, and is likely to abandon any attempt at reading early on.

In my work as a copy editor, I come across chaotic, wandering text pretty often, and it's my job to sort it out - sometimes reordering material, sometimes cutting bits entirely. This is not an easy job, which is why I do my best to remind authors of the importance of good structure in their writing, and the absolute necessity of planning all writing.

Flashback to your school days when your teacher told you things like 'you need a beginning, a middle and an end' and 'plan your essay using spider diagrams'. Most of us grow up and discard such valuable teachings, which is a real shame as your teachers were spot on and trying to impress on you the very fundamentals of good writing.

Here are the ten tips I give authors to help them create well-structured writing:
1. Your material needs a clear beginning, middle and end.
2. Opening and closing paragraphs have the most impact, so ensure they act as a neat frame for your piece.
3. You must plan your writing before you begin - ideally on paper, using a mind map or spider diagram.
4. Each paragraph should focus on one topic only.
5. Use headings and sections to help create a logical structure
6. Material must flow in a logical order - plan what goes where before diving in.
7. If it's applicable to the style of writing, consider using tables, figures and numbered/bulleted lists to present information in a structured way.
8. A little trick to test your structure - work your way through your nicely laid out piece giving each paragraph a heading, e.g. Intro, First argument, First argument deconstructed, Second argument, Quote, Second argument disproved, Conclusion. This will help you find any sections that you can't clearly label (which means they are confused and without a central point) and any areas where the order is chaotic, and help you check the overall direction of the piece. Once you've completed this and are happy with the structure, simply remove the headings.
9. When you've finished writing, go through the material with your plan beside you and check that all the material is relevant to the topic - if it isn't, be merciless and cut, cut, cut.
10. Ask someone else - a friend, colleague or copy editor - to read through the finished material. Ask them to be honest and tell you whether the points are clear and easy to grasp, and whether they are lost/frustrated/bored in any sections.

Proofreading systematically

Proofreading is all about being methodical, systematic and organised. There's no way your eye can look for twenty different things at once, which is why a proofreader breaks down the proofreading into stages. Here's an example of a proofreading list for the proofs of a novel:

1. Check all page numbers.
2. Check all running heads.
3. Check chapter breaks and heads.
4. Check prelims.
5. Check endlims.
6. Scan whole book looking for inconsistency in alignment, spacing and font size.
7. Carry out first proofread (read whole text) looking closely at each word.
8. Make any global changes discovered through the first proofread - e.g. changing all instances of proof-reading to proofreading (removing hyphens).
9. Carry out final proofread to catch any mistakes left.

As you can see, proofreading is a lengthy, involved process and to maximise efficiency and accuracy, a proofreader must have a logical approach.

Company - it or they?

Confusion over this is something I come across frequently. Usually, a company (e.g. Perfectly Write) is singular (see how I used is there and not are?). So 'Perfectly Write is a company providing proofreading services and is based in Kent' is correct; 'Perfectly Write' are a company that also offer copy-editing services and are pretty good at copywriting too' is wrong (well, the grammar is, hopefully the sense is not!).

Often, I look at material in which the company switches from singular to plural pretty frequently and the whole document smacks of inconsistency. Like this: Perfectly Write offer a range of services to publishers. They provide proofreading and copy-editing, and the company has experience in publishing. Perfectly Write are dedicated to ensuring consistency in text - its ethos is to make things 'perfectly write'. I would correct this to: Perfectly Write offers a range of services to publishers. It provides proofreading and copy-editing, and the company has experience in publishing. Perfectly Write is dedicated to ensuring consistency in text - its ethos is to make things 'perfectly write'.

The writing muse

When I was a child, I was fond of art but would become very frustrated very quickly by my inability to translate the image in my head onto the paper. In my head was a Van Gogh; on the paper a splodge. Learning to let go of such frustration and trust the process (and my muse) has been a journey for me.

Copywriting for a living is a funny old business. Obviously, I love writing (not much point being a copywriter otherwise), but writing my own stuff for my own amusement is very different from writing for a client. Why? Well, rather than waiting for your muse to seek you out, you have to get out there and find it on a daily business (and some days my muse loves to play hide and seek!).

I recently proofread a book called Muses, which got me thinking more deeply about how to be in touch with my own. And thanks to some heavy pondering, some experimental writing exercises and a willingness to change my attitudes to 'work' writing, I have found my muse visits much more frequently.

None of this means I don't believe my writing is my own, but I have long been fascinated by the writing process. Today, I sat down and wrote five marketing documents in one go. Before I began, I had a vague idea how I expected them to turn out; as I wrote, I felt myself relax and stay in the moment, going with the flow of my ideas and typing like fury to keep up; and at the end (as is always the case), I was pleasantly surprised by the direction I'd taken and the final result.

Writing must be structured, planned and well-formed. However, on the flip side of this, writing must also be creative and from deep inside. It's about balance. You have to trust that muse to take you there - even if there is somewhere rather different to your expectations.

And that ends today's deep and meaningful moment . . .