Free Writing Tips

In these sentences, decide if one word is correct or both.

1. I felt (bad/badly) about giving Felix so little time to rehearse his role in our skit.
2. I was worried about Felix’s performance, but he did (good/well).

The bad and the good

In #1 does “felt badly” sound more sophisticated than “felt bad”? Careful, now! We don’t make decisions based on what sounds more sophisticated; we decide based on grammar rules. Then we really sound good.

Although many smart people prefer “felt badly,” it’s wrong. Yes, we might “drive badly” or “sing badly,” but remember that a few verbs – like “is,” “seem,” “appear,” and “feel” – are called linking verbs. They don’t convey any action, like “drive” or “sing”; they just connect. And most of them don’t throw us off because we can tell what sounds right. (His speech was bad, not badly. The weather seemed bad, not badly.) But watch out for “feel” or “felt.” They take the adjective “bad” as well, not the adverb “badly.”

So in #1 we want I felt bad about giving Felix so little time to rehearse his role in our skit.

Now what about “did good”? Yes, we sometimes say that or “I’m doin’ good” in a slangy way, but, of course, those are incorrect. “Do” is an action verb, so it takes the adverb “well.”

Therefore, in #2 we want I was worried about Felix’s performance, but he did well.

I hope you did well on the brief quiz.

You can go to http://www.normfriedman.com/index.shtml to learn more about my workshops on writing in the workplace, individual coaching, editing, and handbook – 100+ Instant Writing Tips. Thank you.

Time to see if you can read my mind again. Come up with a word to replace the underlined section in #1 and another word for the underlined section in #2. (Hint: The words are the same except for the first two letters.)

1. The company has a great number of holdings in the Midwest.

2. The company’s very thorough interviewing process is a key to the high caliber of its staff.

Your answers and a few notes

Extensive, in #1, performed the work of four words, but there are other reasons to appreciate “extensive” beyond its economy. One is that – although we never want to tax our reader or show off – we sometimes want more elegant words than those we’ve used since first grade, such as “big,” “large,” “huge,” and “tremendous.” Having words like “extensive” at our fingertips helps us uplift the quality of our writing without sending anyone to the dictionary to look up a word like “prodigious.”

So we might think of “extensive” as the kind of semiprecious words we want to steadily add to our repertoire. We don’t need diamonds to be an ace writer; clear, semiprecious words will do.

Intensive works nicely in #2. As noted in other posts, the word “very” can often tip us off that the next word is inadequate, and “intensive” eliminates the need to write “very thorough.”

Note also that “intensive” is slightly tricky because its meaning is so close to “intense.” What’s the difference? The dictionary points out that “intensive” is a more exterior or objective description. “Intense” is more interior or subjective. So if we weather a firm’s intensive interview process, we are likely to find the experience intense.

You can go to http://www.normfriedman.com/index.shtml to learn more about my workshops on writing in the workplace, individual coaching, editing, and handbook – 100+ Instant Writing Tips. Thank you.

See if you can read my mind to come up with a basic yet invaluable word that improves both of the following.

1. (Not initially clear.) Since Kim’s family bought a summer home on the lake, we ought to see if she’ll host our mini-reunion there.

2. (Could be smoother.) Apex’s stock price has fared well even in times as difficult as the Great Recession. Its services are not closely linked to economic shifts. 

And the winner is …

Although neither example contains an error, we can slightly refine each with “because” at the beginning – a word many of us hesitate to use there. Why? Apparently, some of us remember, or think we remember, a teacher telling us not to do that. Well, maybe, but that instruction might have occurred because in third grade we didn’t always recognize sentence fragments, and we wrote something like this: “Because our dog ate my homework.” That came back with a red circle around it.

But now that we’re more mature writers – who instinctively know a complete sentence from a fragment – we’re missing out by rejecting “because” as a sentence starter. See if you agree.

1. Since Kim’s family bought a summer home on the lake, we ought to see if she’ll host our mini-reunion there. Yes, “since” can sub for “because,” but here that backfires because the reader probably thinks we are using “since” to set up a “before and after,” such as: Since Kim’s family bought a summer home on the lake, I have played tennis with her only twice. Then, in mid-sentence, our reader realizes we were going in a different direction. Using “Because” instead of “Since” would have avoided the momentary misreading.

2. Apex’s stock price has fared well even in times as difficult as the Great Recession. Its services are not closely linked to economic shifts. This is fine, but a “because” would help fuse these two thoughts further, and in this case leading with “because” is effective: Because Apex’s services are not closely linked to economic shifts, its stock price has fared well even in times as difficult as the Great Recession. 

Leading with the reason for something can add variety to our sentence structure and often enhance comprehension and impact. We orient the reader with the “because part” and complete our thought with the “therefore part.”

You can go to http://www.normfriedman.com/index.shtml to learn more about my workshops on writing in the workplace, individual coaching, editing, and handbook – 100+ Instant Writing Tips. Thank you.