Why You Should Diversify Your Writing Style

When it comes to writing, you probably have your forte or preferred way of doing things. Maybe you only write for academic purposes, and you stick to the 5 Paragraph model every time. Maybe you write creatively and only like to write limericks or haikus. But no matter what you like writing, your style of writing is probably always pretty consistent!

One style of writing does not necessarily fit all, so it's always a good idea to have a few different tactics when it comes to approaching writing. In this post, we'll talk about why you should consider diversifying your writing style and the different ways you can go about doing so!

1. Diversify your sentence structure in your paragraphs.

Just like you should try to expand your word choice, by using varying grammatical compositions/structures, you'll have a better chance of engaging readers in your writing. What do I mean by this? Here's an example: instead of just consistently using a subject + verb + object sentence structure, you can try mixing compound/complex sentences while inserting intermittent simple sentences! This will help keep your writing from becoming monotonous. Also, a good rule of thumb is to make sure that your sentences aren't all the same length, regardless of their construction.

2. Watch out for Repetitive Phrasing.

Have you ever read an article or paragraph that uses the same word 3+ times? Just like you probably don't like reading that, your readers won't like it either. Constantly seeing the same pattern can get boring and can cause readers to lose their focus! Try using a thesaurus to say the same thing but in a more interesting way.

3. Shorten your sentences.

If you're one of those people who likes to write super long, 19th century-length sentences, you may want to think about shortening those! While it's more customary for academics to write longer sentences, you don't want to risk writing something that is hard to read or follow. A good tip is if your sentence has more than 20 words, go ahead and break it up. Also, save your most powerful/important concepts and phrases for more concise sentences to help pack more of a punch.

4. Let the Writing Center help you brainstorm for content, development, and organization of ideas.

If you want to diversify your writing style but aren't sure where to start, you can always come to the Writing Center to brainstorm or get some feedback from our talented and capable tutors! To make either an online or in person appointment, just click here!