Essay Tip: Write Positive for Power and Clarity in Your Writing
by
, Feb 7, 2011
I was recently flipping through my ragged copy of The Elements of Style
"Put statements in positive form."
What this says is this: Write what you have done, not what you haven't done.Simple enough isn't it? But often times we use "not" to negate what we haven't done; often we abuse the negative to qualify the words that follow. In both cases, we weaken our writing.
Compare these two statements:
- I did not believe that volunteering in my father's office was a good use of time and decided not to pursue that in favor of working for a women's leadership initiative program in East Africa.
- I knew I would learn more from working for a women's leadership initiative program in East Africa than pushing papers in my father's office, so I chose the former.
Or these two:
- Our start-up's resources did not fully match those of our competition and we could not effectively compete in the market place so ultimately we were forced to cease operations.
- With less capital than our competitors, our start-up was unable to market itself well and was forced to close its doors.
In both of these examples, the positive statement (the second one) is much livelier and more succinct. This is a critical factor when dealing with tight limits on word count.
So put the punch and power back in your writing. Be positive.
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