10 Quick Ways to Polish Your Prose

You've revised your latest article a dozen times. Your writing group, spouse, and cat all insist the piece is great (read: are tired of hearing it.) But despite numerous drafts, something isn't quite right. The last sentence is long-winded, a critical passage concludes with a clunk, and your opening—Holy Hooks!—is downright dull. That's the good news.

The bad news is this: the piece is due tomorrow on the desk of an editor you've been courting (literarily speaking, of course) for months, one you're desperate to impress. Short of a telepathic plea to William Zinsser, how can you deliver strapping prose and clean copy while still meeting your deadline?

First, admit that your writerly vision has gone cross-eyed. For a change of perspective, examine the piece sentence by sentence, rather than staring down whole passages at a time. If possible, be patient. Then, be curious. Finally, be ruthless.

Second, remember that upping the sparkle factor in your writing is often a matter of revisiting the essential tenets of grammar and style. Keeping in mind that rules are made to be broken, here are 10 quick tips for polishing your prose that even a high school English teacher would take a shine to.

Eliminate passive voice
Passive voice forces the reader to play hide-and-seek with your intended meaning. Replace passive sentences with active ones and watch the real subject strut from the shadows.

Example: In summer, many fresh vegetables are offered by the open-air farmers market.

Revision: In summer, the open-air farmers market offers many fresh vegetables.

Substitute strong verbs for weak ones
Scan sentences for weak verbs-have, make, give, and do, for example—and swap them for strong ones such as possess, craft, furnish, and accomplish. Don't overdo it, however: people really do simply "go" to the movies, not peregrinate there.

Example: Chipotle peppers give these enchiladas more flavor.

Revision: Chipotle peppers enliven these enchiladas.


Rewrite nominalizations
Wrapping an action inside a noun or adjective (called nominalization) suffocates your verb, clutters your prose, and often results in passive voice. Encourage verbs to shuck their stuffy packaging and cozy up next to a subject. Then, listen for the fireworks.

Example:  An eloquent toast is complemented like nothing else by the ping of champagne glasses.

Revision: The ping of champagne glasses complements an eloquent toast like nothing else.


Remove redundancies
If you've said it once, saying it again will only increase your already tight word count as well as overload the reader. An informative message, his happy grin, a shining star—you get the picture.

Example:  Bake sales are great fundraisers for your neighborhood community.

Revision: Bake sales are great fundraisers for your community.

Insert missing antecedents
A missing antecedent is like a black hole—it sucks the twinkle (and precision) from a sentence. Planting a colorful subject in the gap is more play than work, and one of the easiest fixes under the sun.

Example: This will intensify the flavor of your cake.

Revision: This Belgian chocolate will intensify the flavor of your cake.


Choose specific nouns
Favoring a specific noun over a vague one adds precision and vigor to your writing. Words such as thing, aspect, and area can be replaced with the subjects you're actually writing about: teacup, flavor, the Milky Way.

Example: Scarlet runner beans differ from green beans in many ways.

Revision: Scarlet runner beans differ from green beans in color, texture, and flavor.


Omit unnecessary words
Everyday speech—peppered with body language, changes in pitch, and pleasingly roundabout phrases—differs from well-written prose, which is clear, concise, and (sadly, perhaps) devoid of corporeal cues. On the page, readers track the author's gist word by word; when a sentence wanders, the reader's attention does, too. To maintain the spark in reader relations, practice the art of concision.

Example: Quick breads are easy to prepare. The reason is that they don't require kneading.

Revision: Quick breads are easy to prepare because they don't require kneading.


Make positive statements
Statements written in negative form are lackluster, awkward, and confusing. To hold your reader's interest, make assertions loud and clear.

Example: Don't sear the chicken breast on each side.

Revision: Sear the chicken breast on one side.

Clip dangling modifiers
Dangling modifiers can be a source of snickering as well as puzzlement. For example: Packed with omega-3 oils, your family will benefit from salmon's nutritional value. While never dull, such sentences make the writer look none too bright.

Example: Packed with omega-3 oils, your family will benefit from salmon's nutritional value.

Revision: Packed with omega-3 oils, salmon is a nutritious food for your family.


When all else fails, delete
Sometimes the best antidote to a stubborn passage, no matter how beloved, is deletion. If you can shorten a sentence or paragraph without sacrificing clarity, you've made the right choice.
A complete reference on grammar and style will offer many more strategies for polishing your prose. For further inspiration, revisit Strunk and White's ever-delightful The Elements of Style or Joseph M. Williams's Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. These handy volumes are good news for head-scratching writers—and aren't we all?