To become a more fluent writer

1. Trust your hands. 2. Adopt a daily routine. 3. Build in rewards. 4. Draft sooner. 5. Count everything. 6. Rewrite.
7. Watch your language. 8. Set the table. 9. Find a rabbi.
10. Keep a daybook.

Reaction to Cheat Sheet

My former professor Paul Iredale, a 30-year old REUTERS veteran, with experience
in Latin America and romantic memories from El Salvador writes:
Javier

Fraid I have to disagree with your friend on no 2. A good rule in journalism is "don't do anything to excess" and if you fill your copy with transitional devices, rather than improve the flow it will slow it down. An occasional "however" is fine - by the way you have two in your list - but "furthermore" is urgh and "for instance" is discursive and often redundant. Another good rule is "if you can do without, cut it out".

bests

paul

Cheat Sheet - some tricks for writing

My friend Laura, an salvadorean-canadian anthropologists living in Regina, Canada, sent me recently via regular mail a Cheat Sheet for some tricks on writing "I picked up during several years of English courses".
1. Sentence variation (using long and short sentences back and forth) is good, but English is a language where shorter sencentes generally work better. So no 3 line sentences!
2. Use LOTS of transitional devices: furthermore, however, likewise, for instance, also, however, etc. These will improve the flow of your writing and will make for a much better reading. They were always my saving device.
3. Don´t use double negatives.
I.e. We don´t have no access to water (incorrect)
We don´t have any access to water (correct)
4. Try not to use contractions, especially for formal writing... so cannot instead of can´t or did not instead of didn´t.
5. Invest in a decent thesaurus. I plan on taking this advice one of these days.