Overused words
During the revision process of novel writing, you can quickly eliminate overused words and phrases once you know what some of these redundancies are. Please don’t feel ashamed if it has never occurred to you these words are unnecessary or overused; they plague the best of writers. The quick tip today is training the eye to recognize them so your work flows, it reads smoothly, and your writing is stronger.
Overused Phrases and Idioms
|
|
Also look out for these redundant pairs or words that describe the same thing:
|
|
Active vs. Passive Voice
In your writing (unless scientific),you should be using active voice for the majority of your sentences. Why? This makes your meaning clear for readers, and keeps the sentences from becoming too complicated or wordy. Even in scientific writing, too much use of passive voice can cloud the meaning of your sentences.
In an active sentence, you lead with the doer of the action, not the receiver of the action itself. This creates more concise sentences.
In an active sentence, you lead with the doer of the action, not the receiver of the action itself. This creates more concise sentences.
Parallel Structure (parallelism)
Parallel structure is simply the repeated use of similar grammatical structure within a series.
Not only ... but also, either ... or, and neither ... nor all require special attention when you are proofreading for parallelism. These are called correlative conjunctions, and require equal grammatical units after both parts of the conjunction.
Not only ... but also, either ... or, and neither ... nor all require special attention when you are proofreading for parallelism. These are called correlative conjunctions, and require equal grammatical units after both parts of the conjunction.
Now your turn. In your groups, revise the following sentences to create parallel structure. Share your answers on the board.
1. Students capped their pens, were closing their notebooks, and zipped their book bags as they tried to alert their rambling that class was over.
2. Sam was neither coming to class or completing his assignments.
3. In Iceland, women have confidence and are equal to men.
4. To succeed is opening a new opportunity.
5. My friends never judged me by my words or what I did.
*Now read through a partner's draft and mark areas where overused words, passive voice, and/or parallel structure need to be revised.
1. Students capped their pens, were closing their notebooks, and zipped their book bags as they tried to alert their rambling that class was over.
2. Sam was neither coming to class or completing his assignments.
3. In Iceland, women have confidence and are equal to men.
4. To succeed is opening a new opportunity.
5. My friends never judged me by my words or what I did.
*Now read through a partner's draft and mark areas where overused words, passive voice, and/or parallel structure need to be revised.