English
BOOK: 101 Tips and Tutorials to Write Like a Pro!
Improve Your English Right Away Boost up your writing instantly by taking advantage of these 101 power tips provided by a Fortune 100 writer (yours truly). 126 page PDF file. Over 35,500 words. Includes hundreds of examples. —————————– This is what Bob Bly, the legendary Copy Writer, said about this book: ““Frankly, I was expecting…
Read MoreHow to Split and Simplify Your Complex Sentences
© 2009 Ugur Akinci Here is a sure-fire method to split your long sentences into shorter and more easily understandable ones: Split your sentences at conjunctions like “and”, “or”, “while”, “however”, “although” etc. Those are the connection points where one clause is linked to another. By breaking your clauses apart you can develop a simpler…
Read MoreHow to Eliminate Redundant Words from Your Writing
© 2009-2010 Ugur Akinci Repeating an idea has its rightful place in article writing, essays, or journalistic writing. Even if you’re writing a technical article for engineers and scientists it pays to express the main idea once in the header (a must), then in the sub-header, another time in the opening paragraph, and lastly for…
Read MoreEssay Writing for ESL/EFL Students
This informative video was done with ESL/EFL students in mind but I bet even the native speakers can benefit from the structured tutoring that it provides…
Read More"Me" or "I"? A Simple Method to Use the Correct Pronoun
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Sometimes people are confused whether to use “me” or “I” in a sentence. For example, which is correct: “Me and Jimmy watched a movie”… or “I and Jimmy watched a movie”? First off, it always sounds better if you cite the other person FIRST, as in “Jimmy and me…” or “Jimmy…
Read MoreThe Power of Text and Sub-Text
© 2009 Ugur Akinci We are all swimming in an seamless and boundless ocean of stories, narratives, texts, and sub-texts. Like the oxygen we breath, 99% of the time we are not even aware that that is the case. We are not even aware of it and that’s why it is so powerful. Here is…
Read MoreThe Importance of Using the Right Words
© 2009 Ugur Akinci Using the right words is so critical in communications in general and technical writing in particular. The wrong word can take the conversation to a totally unintended direction, sometimes with humorous and other times with not-so-humorous results. Here is an example… As I was jogging the other day I was listening…
Read MoreDo Your Verbs Agree with Your Subjects?
© 2009-2010 Ugur Akinci It’s a fundamental rule of English grammar: your VERB must agree with the SUBJECT of your sentence. Why I’m addressing this very basic rule? The reason is, when violated, it can have disastrous consequences in technical writing. First the RULE: The garage [Main SUBJECT] where he kept [auxiliary VERB] his antique…
Read MoreWhich Way Your Sentences Branch – Right or Left?
Ugur Akinci Try right-branching sentences in your technical documents for higher comprehension. Right-branching sentences start with the SUBJECT, follow it with PRIMARY VERB (or sometimes the other way around if the verb is in imperative/order mode), and then end with modifiers and other relevant information. What branches off to the right of the subject and…
Read MoreHow to Avoid "Gender Ambivalence" in Technical Writing
© 2009-2011 Ugur Akinci One of the hardest things in writing English is to avoid using the third person singular pronouns, unless you are writing for an exclusively male or female group. Every time I see a document with a sentence like “the operator must configure his or her machine according to…” I cringe. Some…
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