grammar | Stella Tarakson

active and passive voice

Stella

25/06/2013

One sign of weak, unclear writing is the overuse of the passive voice. If you want your work to radiate authority, be active and root out those passive sentences! Active sentences are clear, direct and strong. Passive sentences are indirect and carry far less impact. I’ll explain the difference in a moment, but first here’s …

Avoid adverb overload

Stella

5 comments

28/05/2013

It’s a mistake most of us make: overusing adverbs in an attempt to make our writing sound better, slicker. It doesn’t work. Writing that suffers from adverb overload is often weak, verbose and hard to read. It tries too hard to impress. In the process, it loses the magic spell that a tightly written piece …