Easy ways to improve your English writing.

Starting sentences with "it" makes them very weak.

Easy ways to improve your English writing.

What are some simple ways to improve your English writing style? First, don’t start sentences with “there is” and “there are.” When I pointed this out to one student, he understood immediately, and added his own observation "These words are like dead wood::” they added no meaning to the sentence. Though not technically incorrect, using these words only weakens your writing. In fact, using any unneeded words weakens your message by diluting it with irrelevancies. “There is/are” really says nothing except that something exists. Try to leave this out as much as you can.

In conversation, we use this construction frequently so using it in writing is natural. However, when writing we have time to carefully select the words and phrases we use. Any sentence starting with ‘there is” or “there are” can be stated differently. For example:

“There are twenty customers in the restaurant.”       

“Twenty customers are in the restaurant.”

“There is some food in the refrigerator.”

“Some food is in the refrigerator.”

In both cases, the facts can be stated directly, instead of needing the superfluous (extra) words “there is/are.” Sometimes, constructing sentences without these words seems difficult or even impossible. Don’t give up. Discovering the answer is how you can refine your English writing proficiency.

These comments also apply to writing sentences starting with “it is,” as in “It is sunny today.” The pronoun “it” is supposed to substitute for the previous noun but in this case, there is no such thing. Dig deeper and realize that what is sunny is the weather. Then rephrase the sentence: “The weather is sunny today,” or even “Today’s weather is sunny.” When you can express the same thought in several different ways, you can select the best one to suit your intention, to express yourself fully.

Even many U.S.-born writers use these expressions, not realizing the shortcomings. These easy, simple constructions become a habit to avoid having to select a more effective construction. You will note that professionally edited writing, online or in print, uses these constructions only rarely. Government and corporate bureaucrats use "It is" and "There is/are" s a lot, since they often seek ways of saying something without saying anything.

The second easy way to improve your English writing is by avoiding passive sentences. Sentences can be active, such as “The man carried the laptop,” or they can be passive “The laptop was carried by the man.” The second sentence is passive, because the subject (laptop) did not do anything. In fact, the action of carrying is reversed. Both sentences are true, but the passive sentence describes the action from the laptop’s point of view. Some more examples:

                The man flew the airplane vs. the airplane was flown by the man.

                I wash the dishes vs. the dishes are being washed by me.

                He watches TV vs. TV is being watched by him.

                The last goal was made by the youngest player vs. the youngest player made the last goal.

Notice how passive sentences only mention the agent indirectly (by him) while the object acted on is featured as the subject of the sentence. If you are not certain about active and passive sentences, transitive and intransitive nouns in English, reviewing them will help a lot. 

Using passive sentences in your writing only obscures your meaning. Why? This construction makes readers work harder to understand your meaning. Passive sentences actually detract from readability. Standard readability measures, such as featured in MS Word, detect and report the percentage of passive sentences. Though a careful reader will find passive sentences in my writing, I try to avoid them as much as I can. Often writers have trouble converting passive sentences to active ones. As difficult as it seems sometimes, all expressions can be stated actively if you try hard enough.

As a grammar exercise, try thinking of active sentences, like “the man drove the car” and its passive version, “the car was driven by the man.” Try to think of at least ten or twenty examples. Once you have practiced like this, your brain will begin to recognize the symmetry between active and passive. From then on, you can encourage yourself to discover active constructions for all your sentences.

Keeping these ideas is a very basic way to improve your writing style. Try to pay attention to what you read and write, to look out for these constructions. Ask yourself, do they add to the meaning?

More American “No” idioms.

More American “No” idioms.

My previous blog on different ways of saying “no” using natural American expressions generated some great comments. One reader asked me to write about the popular expressions “no problem” and “no worries.” The reader pointed out a “pet peeve” (personal annoyance) about the phrase “no problem” used instead of the more courteous and formal response, “you’re welcome.” The traditional American response to “thank you” is “you’re welcome.” These days, though, if I thank a waiter for binging me water, he will likely respond “no problem” instead of “you’re welcome.” Traditionalists argue that my request for a glass of water does not make a problem for the waiter. When I thank the waiter, he does not need to re-assure me that I have caused “no problem.” After all, bringing customers water and food is his job.

More subtly, “no problem” does not acknowledge the courtesy of the person doing the thanking, like saying you’re welcome does. Saying you’re welcome is much more socially intelligent because you recognize that people don’t have to say thank you and that they are going out of their way to be gracious and polite. The reply should acknowledge and reciprocate the gracious gesture. Responding with “no problem” does neither of these. Instead, the phrase is self-centered and makes it sound like a big favor has been done.

If someone steps on my toe accidentally, then says “I am very sorry to step on your toe” then I might answer “no problem.” If someone says “thank you,” however, I will answer with “you’re welcome.” When the waiter brings food or water, many people don’t even say thank you since it is not a personal favor. I like to say thank you, because it acknowledges the humanity of the server. By saying “you’re welcome” the server acknowledges my humanity. But if the server says “no problem” instead, I think to myself sarcastically, “well I hope it was not too much trouble to bring me water, and I am glad to know my request did not cause you any personal problem…”

This is my personal practice but I am somewhat old fashioned, not to mention just somewhat old. In the U.S., though, “no problem” has almost completely surpassed “you’re welcome” as the most common reply to “thank you.”

Around the same time as “no problem” started taking over American conversation, we imported a similar phrase from Australia: “no worries.” To me this means the same as no problem. In other words, instead of saying “you’re welcome” the speaker is telling me not to worry about any problem or difficulty I have caused by saying “thank you.” Here in the Silicon Valley, I will guess that "no problem" is more common than "no worries," but everyone expects to hear one or the other from servers or salesclerks.

Languages constantly change, so maybe these expressions will completely replace the traditional formula “thank you—you’re welcome.”  After all the traditional expression no doubt replaced some earlier courteous form of speech. I will be slow to adopt these new phrases because they sound self-centered to me,. By saying “you’re welcome” I signal that I know the other person is not required to say thank you but does so anyway, to show courtesy.  The new expressions basically ignore the courtesy of the thankful expression. Instead they express a more selfish view of the interaction.

Secondly, simply the word “no” is so powerful, I hesitate to use it in friendly, casual speech. As the expression of negativity, the word "no" powerfully impacts our subconscious. You can prove this to yourself easily. Simply sat the words "no" and "yes" out loud a few times. Of course yes sounds positive and no sounds negative. Think about it. Do you want to sound negative or positive?  Even though “no problem” is supposed to sound positive, having the word "no" embedded in it sabotages any positive message.

Thirdly, negative expressions do not usually start with “no” in everyday life. Negation usually occurs with the verb: “Do you want some bananas?” “Thank you, I don’t want any bananas.” Starting a sentence with “no” is used for emphasis. “I really want you to take these bananas!” “No, I don’t want to take any bananas.” This sentence already includes one negative (don’t), and then we add another at the beginning to ensure there is no doubt, to emphasize the negation beyond question.

Using newer expressions like “no problem” sounds kind of hip and modern, but realize that these phrases are slang. They may include subconscious meanings that you do not intend, or is even contrary to your intention. “You’re welcome” is tried and true, and works for everyone, from our family to the queen of England. If you feel especially enthusiastic, you can say “you’re very welcome!”

High vs. Low Stakes: idioms describing risk

Wooden stakes 

High vs. Low Stakes: idioms describing risk

Many decisions can involve some risk, especially in business. Making the wrong decision can be very costly and even lead to complete failure. Other decisions have less serious or inconsequential levels of risk. In other words, decisions can have high levels of risk or virtually no risk at all. Deciding what shirt to wear in the morning has little risk for me, while deciding where to invest my retirement savings could have disastrous results.

Inconsequential decisions are often called “low stakes” situations because what happens does not matter very much. Wearing my blue shirt instead of my gray one will likely make no difference. “High stakes” situations include college admission tests, dating and marriage, job interviews, etc. You have a lot to gain or lose at critical points. Casinos try to attract “high stakes” gamblers who will bet a lot of money. For corporate boards, selecting a CEO is a process that is often critical. Because the potential risk is so high, the board is “playing for high stakes.” Here in Silicon Valley, a lot of venture capitalists compete for high stakes, such as funding the next Apple or Google.

So what is a “stake” exactly? Because of the spelling we know it isn’t for dinner (steak), even though the pronunciation is exactly the same. Please look this up because I am only offering my guess here, but the most common meaning of stake is a piece of wood that is sharpened on one end, to help stick the wood into the ground. For example, we use fence stakes to hold up fences. In the old days, people marked the corners of their property with wood stakes, so others would recognize the boundary. Even today, surveyors use wooden stakes to measure the land very precisely. Often the tops are sprayed orange or a colorful ribbon is tied around the top. If you camp, you probably have tent stakes to hold up your tent. Though originally made of wood, most tent stakes now are metal or plastic.

Stake supporting sapling

White settlers pushed west after 1865. The Homestead Act signed at the end of the Civil War encouraged western expansion by giving land for free to anyone who would go live there and put the land to use for seven years. Free land was a big incentive, and the settlers used wood stakes to mark out their land claims. Quickly, “staking a claim” meant asserting ownership over a piece of land, and eventually anything else. During many gold rushes in the west, each miner established his area by staking a claim, both literally and then figuratively, by registering with authorities. Before miners could travel west and stake their claim, they had to save or borrow a grubstake, so they could eat (grub=food) until they found gold.

Some mines grew very rich and attracted outside investors who often paid dearly for a small share, or stake, of a company. Initially, investors held only a “small stake” in the mine. By stock manipulation and other tactics they quickly grew their investments until they gained control. These days, people who own corporate stock are called stockholders, but we use “stakeholders” to indicate all those affected by group decisions. For example, all Americans are stakeholders in our democracy because how the government operates will affect us. Corporate employees who do not own stock are still stakeholders because their jobs are at stake.

To make a long story short, what started out as a piece of wood pointed on one end became a verb meaning “to claim,” and then evolved into a noun describing value (I wish I owned a big stake in Google!). Please post a comment or send me an email if you wish to correct or add anything. Accuracy is important to me because my reputation is at stake.

Negative idioms in American English

"No" is a good way to stop a conversation.

Negative idioms in American English

Everyone knows the word “no” but not always the power of the word to form impressions in other people. Monday morning you ask your co-worker “Did you do anything special this weekend?” Your colleague is tired and irritable and simply says “No.” This reply is considered curt (very brief) or brusque (insensitive)

You ask someone in the break room, “Did you do anything special this weekend?”, and they answer “Not especially, we just relaxed. What about you? Did you do anything special?” The second response appears kinder, friendlier, and more interested in conversation.

Answering a question simply “no” is perfectly acceptable and expected when you are being questioned by a prosecutor in court who requires you to confine your answers to the affirmative or negative. If you have an emergency and have to call 911, the operator will ask you “yes or no” questions to get facts more quickly. We associate monosyllabic (one syllable) answers with emergencies or hostile people unwilling to converse. If the emergency is not evident or obvious, we assume people answering this way do not wish to speak with us or have nothing to say. Or maybe the person who answers with a single word is depressed?

Saying no is like a stop sign for further communication. If you must answer a question in the negative, what are some better ways? “Do you want a cigar?” “No, thank you” is a lot more polite and gracious than a simple “no.” By expressing thanks, we recognize the generosity shown by the person making the offer, helping them to feel good about themselves. Another answer could be, “No thank you, but I remember as a child that might grandfather smoked them.” Other situations call for different answers: “No thank you, I don’t care for one myself but please feel free to light one up for yourself.” Someone with severe allergies might answer, “No thank you. In fact, if anyone smokes I will have to say my goodbyes now because of my allergy.”

Less gracious ways of saying no include “I’ll pass” and “I’ll take a rain check.” Both of these expressions can sound like you think the offer is of dubious value. A rain check used to be given out at baseball games when rain stopped the game. With the ticket you could get in when the game resumed, but you were “owed” the balance of the game; it was not an act of generosity by the ball park. “I’ll pass” is an expression from cards and other games when a player has the option of taking no action, such as betting, taking new cards, etc. Again, no generosity is involved so none is implied by saying “I’ll pass.” Using these forms of refusal can sound sarcastic or critical of whatever is being offered.

Saying no gracefully requires thoughtfulness, diplomacy, and tact, as well as some empathy for the other person. When offered an expensive cigar, another answer could be “Thank you for the generous offer since I’m sure you only have the best cigars. However, I am not a cigar smoker so I must decline your invitation.”

What can you say if someone invites you to a party you don’t especially want to attend?

Just plain no? Or, “I’ll pass,” or “I’ll take a rain check?”

These responses show that you are not interested in future invitations, even in the case of the rain check. If you want to get more invitations, a better way to reply is, “How thoughtful of you to think of me! I am glad that you included me but I have already made a commitment, so I’m sorry I can’t make it this time. Thanks for the invitation!” The commitment you had already made was to do something besides go to the party at that time. Maybe at another time, you will want to accept, but if you don’t answer graciously you might not even get an invitation next time. 

So, the next time you have to answer negatively, thinking about the message you are sending.