The Formal Rules of Writing

The following rules should be followed in order to strengthen the quality of your writing.

1. Tell the reader at the beginning of the essay what the essay is about. Writing should not be a mystery. The first sentence is the most important in the essay because it answers the reader’s question “What are you trying to say?”
2. Write the essay about one specific topic or theme
3. Keep one idea to a paragraph
4. Be clear, simple, and concise
5. Keep paragraphs to no more that 5-8 sentences
6. Keep sentences to no more than 20-25 words
7. Do not try to say too much
8. Avoid contractions such as “can’t, don’t, won’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t and shouldn’t”
9. Leave out personal feelings – academic writing should be cold and objective – thus, do not use the word “feel”
10. Do not begin sentences with “and” or “because” – this is acceptable in newspapers and magazines due to space limitations
11. Do not use etc. Etc. means “I don’t know or else I would have written it.”
12. Do not use pronouns, especially “I” and “You”
13. Do not use the following words: “thing, get, or got”
14. Do not use absolutes such as “all, everything, or always” because the reader needs to find only one exception to the absolute to defeat the author’s argument.
15. Avoid duplication of words. Try to find synonyms rather that simply repeating the same word over and over again
16. Do not use “a lot of” – use “numerous, a multitude of, a plethora of, a number of” instead
17. Avoid “Moreover” and “Also” – use “In addition” or “Furthermore” instead
18. Avoid “Nowadays” and use “At the present time,” or “At present” instead

Note: Keep in mind that there are several different types of writing. Newspapers frequently use pronouns largely because of space restrictions. In addition, these rules are for formal writing. In informal writing the rules are relaxed.