sentence structure

Lost your voice?

By Joshua | October 9, 2015 - 6:52 pm | general writing, style

Voice can refer to many things in writing. When we talk about voice in terms of writing, we’re often talking about active voice versus passive voice. But that’s not what I want to talk about in this blog entry. Finding your own voice is one of the most important things for effective writing of any kind. As a general rule, no matter who you are or what you’re writing, your audience will respond best when you write in your own voice.

This isn’t meant to be a Stuart Smalley, “I’m good enough; I’m smart enough; and doggone it, people like me” affirmation. What I am saying is that your writing will always be its best when it comes out in your voice. When practicing law, I’ve often had to write things to be signed or argued by other people. This is hard for me. The reason is not that the law or argument changes, but that the voice has to change. If a document is going to be argued or presented by someone else, it has to be written in that person’s voice. If it’s not, the argument will not go smoothly and the person arguing will have a hard time presenting the things as set forth in the document. When I have to write for a voice other than mine, it feels unnatural. I wind up having to say things in a way that is foreign to the way my mind works. I’m never very happy with something that I’ve written for someone else’s voice, because it just doesn’t work for me. And if the person who it was written for doesn’t spend some time editing and adjusting the document to his or her own voice, it won’t feel natural to them either, and no one will be happy with it.

But when you have the freedom to write in your own voice, don’t try to sound like someone else. I think an audience can tell. It’s just like when you walk around trying to talk like someone other than you; you may get away with it for awhile, but before too long, someone will notice that you seem like a fake. Of course there’ll be good reason for that—you’re faking! Be aware, you’re writing voice doesn’t necessarily match your speaking voice all of the time. And you may have the skill to write different types of documents in different voices. Just make sure whichever voice you write in is yours. Readers can tell if you’re authentic; and you’ll never be authentic if you can’t write like you.

Stop pretending. Find your voice. Make your documents yours. Sure, there will be many times where your voice must be modified, or even stunted, for certain projects; but make those the exception.

Find your voice and you’ll find you; and your audience will find you and connect with you.

Tradition!

By Joshua | September 17, 2015 - 6:08 pm | general writing, structure, style, word use

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This truth may be hard for some to hear: much business and legal writing is based more on tradition than on clarity or transmitting meaning. There, I said it. Too much of our writing is mired down in the muck of tradition to the point where we write things from forms and do it simply because, “We always do it that way.”

I’m going to let you in on a little secret here:

“Because that’s how we’ve always done it,” is a horrible reason for doing anything in a certain way. “That’s how we’ve always done it,” doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it, or even that it’s a good way to do it. It only means that someone did it that way first. Do we still fly on planes like the Wright Brothers built? I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been on any planes like that in at least a couple of years. You know, at one point, everyone could have used the reason, “Because that’s how it’s always been done,” to justify refusing to make any improvements on almost anything ever invented.

Do you want to be the type of person, the type of writer, who does something because that’s the way it’s always been done? Or do you want to be the person who looks at how it’s been done and sees all the ways that it could be made better? I’ll let you in on another secret (wow, I’m really dishing those out today!): you want to be the person who makes it better.

If you are using a template or form to write any sort of document—whether a contract,case brief, or anything else—the first thing you should do is make one major change to the form. Starting out with that one major change will give you the freedom to modify the form where necessary. If you’ve already strayed from it, why not stray from it some more?

There is certainly a place for forms and templates. They can be very helpful and get us by many of the initial obstacles to many writing projects. But they can also be dangerous. They can hold back progress. When using a form or template, you’ve got to realize that, just because it’s been that way, doesn’t mean that’s the way it should be.

On the other hand, be sure not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” A form becomes a form because there is at least something in it that works. Try to keep the parts that work and drop the parts that don’t. Perhaps the problem with the form is not its substance, but the words used. Maybe you just need to modernize it a bit; give it a “plain language” checkup. For example, if you’re working from a form contract, be sure you get rid of the “party in the first part” language—that stuff is ridiculous, and there’s no reason for it.

Make your own traditions, don’t settle for others’. And don’t set your traditions in stone, it may be time to change them sooner than you think. Always be ready to make the product better.

Size Matters

By Joshua | September 10, 2015 - 2:04 pm | general writing, structure, style

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Now that I’ve got your attention, let’s talk about sentence length. First off: it matters and you should pay attention to it. Shorter sentences tend to be clearer, and we should always strive for clarity. But clarity does not always require the shortest-possible sentence; most thoughts can be properly conveyed in a number of longer or shorter ways. Let’s call this the “length-clarity spectrum.” So long as your sentence falls in the not-too-ambiguous portion of the spectrum, you can choose the appropriate sentence to express your thoughts.

Sentence length, along with word choice and sentence structure, is a key element in pacing your writing. You can take the same set of facts and completely change a reader’s’ perception of those facts through sentence length. As an example, the next two paragraphs demonstrate how much size matters when it comes to sentences. To emphasize the importance of sentence length, both examples are written in active voice with near-identical, mostly-neutral language.

As Tommy neared the stop sign, he hit his brakes and looked both ways to see if there was any traffic at the intersection. Because it was dark, Tommy could not see Billy’s sport utility vehicle, which was also approaching the intersection. As Tommy pulled into the intersection, he heard the sound of a car horn and looked up to see Billy’s sport utility vehicle, with a panicked Billy behind the wheel, also entering the intersection. Both of the drivers, who were trying to avoid a collision, applied their brakes…

Tommy neared the stop sign. He hit his brakes, looking both ways. It was dark. Tommy did not see Billy’s SUV approaching. Tommy pulled into the intersection. He heard a car horn. Looking up, Tommy saw Billy’s SUV entering the intersection. Billy was panicking. Tommy applied his brakes. Billy applied his brakes. Both tried to avoid the collision…

Both examples describe the same incident. The only real difference is that Example #1 contains four sentences and ninety words, for an average of just over 22 words/sentence. Example #2, on the other hand, has eleven sentences and fifty-eight words, for an average of just over 5 words/sentence. Both fall into an acceptable range on the length-clarity spectrum. But as you can see, even though they both give the same facts, they tell a different story.

Example #1 unfolds more slowly, and the pacing does not foreshadow any impending action. Example #2 moves quicker, jerkier, leading us quickly from one fact to the next without allowing us to meander around at any point of the narrative. Even with both paragraphs written in active voice with nearly-identical word choice, sentence length changes the narrative. More could be done to differentiate the pacing, and hence a reader’s perception of the facts, through word choice and sentence structure, but we are only exploring sentence length here.

Is there an optimal sentence length? It depends on what you are trying to do. Are you trying to speed up the story, get to the action? Opt for shorter sentences. Are you trying to draw it out, slow down the story and give your reader the perception that things aren’t happening quite so fast? Go with longer sentences.

I’m interested in your thoughts on this topic. Does size matter when it comes to sentence length? Let me know in the comments.