GV Writing Tips

Be careful with phrasal verbs and their noun counterparts. The phrasal verbs usually have spaces between the verb and the preposition. The nouns don't.  

For example: 

VERB: crack down (ex: China is yet again cracking down on social media.) NOUN: crackdown (ex. China launched yet another crackdown on social media.)

VERB: set up (ex: The government set up the program to fail.) NOUN: setup (ex: The setup of the program doomed it to fail.) 

VERB: break through (ex: The protesters broke through the barriers.) NOUN: breakthrough (ex: The vote was seen as a breakthrough by protesters.) 

Sometimes, a hyphen is used instead to link the verb and the preposition when forming a noun.  

VERB: break in (ex: "We can't break into parliament!" he cried.) NOUN: break-in (ex. There was a break-in at parliament last night.)

What is the difference between for ourselves and by ourselves? They are often mixed up, but they mean two different things.

For ourselves means it is for our own benefit, not the benefit of others. For example: 

After many years of people telling him how beautiful Norway was, he finally visited the country and saw it for himself. 

By ourselves means we do something alone. For example: 

Just as it is important that good writers regularly read, good writers should also regularly write. This doesn't only mean the writing we do that is destined for an audience, but also includes writing for fun, because the mood strikes, to release stress, out of boredom, or whatever the case may be. 

Be mindful of the constructions between X and X and from X to X. We sometimes muddle things up, using the first half of one with the second half of the other. For example: 

X The meeting ran from 6 and 8 p.m.  X The meeting ran between 6 to 8 p.m. ✓ The meeting ran from 6 to 8 p.m.

There are many similarities between a well-told story and a well-written story. In fact, we would do well to borrow some of the techniques oral storytellers use to capture and captivate an audience. 

The creators of performance series "Talkingstick" explained their tips for effectively telling a story to The New York Times a few years: 

1. Keep it simple. "The brain gets overwhelmed when trying to process too much information."

2. Start and end strongly. "When Master Lee and Mr. Patrick organize their shows, they make sure to begin and end the evenings with their strongest material since this is often what stays with the listener."

3. All parts of the story must be essential. "Beware of tangents: if something goes too far astray, you will probably lose your audience’s attention."

4. Approach delicate subjects with care. "Make sure not to alienate your audience."

It's important that we are fair in our writing, but we also want to avoid adopting "the view from nowhere". What is it? This concept refers to supposedly unbiased or neutral reporting that offers two sides of a story without forming a judgment. 

This sounds all well and good, but if one of those sides lacks factual evidence to back up their claims or is simply wrong, it does readers a disservice to present those views without challenging them.