People judge you by your writing. They decide how smart, creative, and trustworthy you are — all from what you’ve written. So be sure your writing makes a good impression on the reader. Here are some common mistakes that cast you in an unflattering light:
- Using lots of pairs or sets of threes. For example, avoid sentences like this: “The policies and practices of business and nonprofits can be expected to change and grow.”
- Inventing names or acronyms. Making up terms sounds pompous, not smart.
- Repeating words with no good reason. Writers seem inattentive when they have a lot of empty echoes in their documents.
- Using nonparallel bullet points. If three of four are complete sentences and one is only a phrase, that’s sloppy.
- Changing the order of items. If you refer to A, B, and C, don't discuss them in the order A, C, and B.
Adapted from
“Improve Your Writing to Improve Your Credibility,” by Barbara Wallraff.
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