Back to School: Correcting Common Writing Mistakes
It’s back-to-school season, and class is in session here at Self-Publishing Services! Today’s lesson is all about grammar, including some of the most common grammar mistakes we see—and ways to avoid them! So let’s jump in!
Passive Voice
Passive voice is so incredibly common in writing, but it can also be incredibly challenging to spot in a self-edit. Although passive voice isn’t always a bad thing, as passive voice does soften your writing, passive voice tends to detach the author or narrator from the story they’re telling and focus more on the action.
Sometimes, that’s what you want! For instance, think about a news anchor recounting the day’s event, or a friend recapping some drama that occurred in the office that day. “A bank was robbed last night,” or, “Someone broke into the teacher’s lounge.” The focus is meant to be on the action, not the person, so the passive voice is most effective here.
You might also see the passive voice used in historical work. “The soldiers were deployed to the front line,” is an example of effective use of the passive voice. The person performing the action isn’t mentioned because their presence isn’t meant to be the focus; the readers’ focus is on the impact of the action (the soldiers, in this example).
Active voice, on the other hand, shows the action happening to the speaker, and, thereby, increases the readers’ connection to the events. In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action described in the sentence, “Jennifer broke into the teacher’s lounge.” In this sentence, the individual is the focus, not the action.
Although you’ll often hear passive voice dismissed as bad writing, that isn’t quite true. It’s bad writing when it’s used improperly. The best way to ensure you’re using passive voice effectively is to pay attention to where you want to focus in your sentence, and craft your sentences based on that.
Pet Punctuation Mark
Em dashes. Commas. Scare quotes. Parentheses. If you’re a writer, chances are the mention of one of these punctuation marks makes your heart skip a beat. There’s no shame in that. Every writer has a punctuation mark that seems to work perfectly with the way their brain lays out ideas.
Not every author knows how to use their pet punctuation mark properly. It’s okay to have a punctuation mark that fits your writing style, as long as it doesn’t disrupt the read. That usually happens when an author doesn’t know how to properly use the punctuation mark they love so much—or when they overuse it.
So, to ensure your fave punctuation mark keeps working for you, first make sure that you know how to use it. Then, read aloud through your manuscript often to not only see how your pet punctuation mark impacts the flow, but also to see how it looks on the page. If your page is riddled with em dashes or dotted with scare quotes, it might be time to pare back a bit!
Repetition
In the same vein as the pet punctuation mark is word or phrase repetition. Do your characters constantly furrow their brows? Do surprise sounds always tend to clang? Does your villain seem to always glower when they’re upset? If you’re worried you’ve repeated a word or phrase too much, doing a quick search in Word will help you see how often the word or phrase pops up and allow you the chance to pick some alternate words and phrases.
But repetition in writing goes beyond repeating words or phrases. How are you starting your sentences and your paragraphs? How often are you starting with a character’s name, the word the, I, or words like, “perhaps,” or, “additionally”? Sometimes starting sentences with the same word can help drive a point home, but when it’s done unintentionally, it can weaken the impact of your writing.
A great way to change up how you kick off a sentence is to experiment with using different sentence starters. If you tend to begin your sentences with articles or nouns, experiment with kicking things off with a verb, an adverb, an adjective—or even a gerund if you’re feeling spicy! It will not only add some visual diversity to the page, but it will help keep the reader engaged and keep the words feeling dynamic.
Commas and Semicolons
Punctuation is tricky regardless of what is being talked about, but commas and semicolons are two of the most misused punctuation marks out there. To be fair, the difference between the two punctuation marks is a bit murky. And although there are some exceptions, a quick way to think about it is this: a comma is a weaker way of connecting ideas. It can’t connect two complete sentences without the help of a conjunction (words like and, but, or). It’s great at connecting ideas in a list of two or more things, or adding a dependent clause, or additional info that isn’t a complete sentence onto the end of an independent clause.
On the flip side, a semicolon is a comma with a dot on the top, so think of that dot as making it stronger. That means it can combine two complete sentences on its own. It’s a strong punctuation mark, so using it to connect items in a list or adding a dependent clause to an independent clause is way below its pay grade.
Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list of the writing and grammar mistakes you can make, but this is a great place to start if you want to strengthen your writing. A great way to strengthen your writing is to get someone to work with you. The more eyes you can get on your writing, the better! Hiring a beta reader and an editor is always going to be the best way to help improve your writing and make sure you’re delivering your ideas efficiently, clearly, and in an interesting way. And if you’re in the middle of the writing process and you feel like you need support finishing your WIP, hiring a writer coach to come alongside you throughout the process can also be a really powerful tool in strengthening your writing. If you’re interested in exploring those options, don’t hesitate to reach out! We can’t wait to partner with you to make your work as strong as possible!