How to spot bad writing: tips for content, features and blogs

Whatever you are writing, here are a few simple tips that will make it easier to read.

1. Don't overuse capital letters. Poor writing uses too many capital letters. Given the mildest excuse this writer will use caps for Job Titles (Head of Molecular Biology at the Department of Molecular Biology) and descriptions of things that seem important (Consumer Marketing Strategy). Only use capitals when you absolutely have to.
2. Avoid overuse of exclamation marks!!!! The most obvious sign of poor or juvenile writing. School kids use this a lot in their homework and bad writers use it a lot in their copy. They think it's a way of grabbing attention!!!!!! Only use when you absolutely have to and they will have more impact. Let the words grab attention not the punctuation.
3. Keep sentences short. Once you write more than 25 words or so without a full stop, it becomes almost impossible to read. Break down long sentences into punchier, shorter ones.
4. Use consistent typefaces. Stick to just a couple of typefaces rather than making your blog post or document a riot of colour and typeface. It just looks tacky and it undermines your authority.
5. Avoid more than 10 words across a column. Again, any longer than this and it becomes a challenge to read. If you want longer columns, make the spacing between the lines bigger.
6. Avoid 'really' and 'very'. These are redundant words, which means you can usually take them out of the sentence without really making very much difference to the meaning. Take them out and the copy will seem really tighter and very easy to read. 

https://plus.google.com/103224565414900693469/posts