Common Problems with Style

Writing in a new context—like a new field, workplace, or situation—is daunting. It’s hard to write with confidence in your style when you are unsure of the conventions of the context or your abilities as a writer. Practice and experience will help you gain confidence and polish, but, while you are learning the elements of style that make your writing effective, it may help you to watch for these style problems common to inexperienced writers.

Not Enough Action

When everything you write is in passive voice or you’ve buried your action in a whole lot of prepositional phrases or clauses, your writing lacks action. To combat this problem, review the “Active vs. Passive Voice” infographic at the end of this chapter.

Writers often end up with wordy sentences when they are unsure of the best way to say something, so they say it several different ways in separate sentences and hope one works. Hedging, passive voice, and extra prepositional phrases also add unnecessary words. Look out for sentences that are bogged down with phrases and superfluous language. Identify the words that absolutely must be in a sentence for it to accomplish its purpose and dump the rest. For more help with concision, see the Purdue Owl on Concision^[1].