Any Other Word Is Not As Sweet
be specific
the right word makes all the difference
Most people are not specific enough in their choice of words, which leaves their writing vague and weak. For example, when writing my bio for the “About” page of Moist Ink, I could say “Charles Carlson has been a science writer, a sports journalist…” or I can say “Charles Carlson was editor-in-chief of a physics magazine, senior editor at Skiing Magazine…. Or, better yet:
“Charles Carlson was editor-in-chief of an international physics magazine that he founded when he was only 30 years old. He was also the senior travel editor at Skiing Magazine, where he basically got paid to fly around the world and go skiing, when he wasn’t chained to his desk in Manhattan writing on deadline.”
Do you see the difference? The first attempt is bare bones and doesn’t give much in the way of specifics. The second is better, with more information. But the third tells a story, with subtle humor and visual cues that help the reader use their imagination to identify with the author. Most people reading this will know the feeling of being young and thrown into a job we felt we weren’t ready for. And in this modern day and age, most educated readers will have flown in a plane. Finally, who among us hasn’t felt chained to their desk? Effective writing—and communication—is in the end all about telling stories. That’s why Aesop’s Fables, or Grimms’ Fairy Tales, or stories from the Bible have survived for hundreds or thousands of years.
There are many ways to be more specific. For example, I find that I use the pronoun “it” much too often in my first drafts. In a blog post about schedules, for example, my first draft looked like this:
“I type out a daily schedule, print it out and tape it to my refrigerator door to remind me of what I’m supposed to be doing. It also helps other household members to know my schedule and support me. It looks like this:”
The edited version ended up reading very differently:
“I type out a daily plan with events and times on my computer, print out the schedule and tape it to my refrigerator door to keep me focused on tasks to be done at specific times. Having a posted agenda also helps other household members to know my schedule and support me. The printed schedule looks like this:”
Do you see the difference? There is a lot going in in the editing of this one small paragraph to make the writing more specific, thereby allowing the paragraph to do a better job of communicating meaning. The first thing I did was to replace several instances of “it” with more specific references. For example. in the last sentence I replaced “it…” with “The printed schedule…” I also didn’t just say “schedule,” which would have been ok, and more specific. I added a descriptive adjective so it became “printed schedule.” Even though I had said that I print out the schedule in the first sentence, there is nothing wrong with reinforcing that description so that the reader visualizes a printed schedule in their mind’s eye.
Be specific and your writing will be better. Simple as that.
