A major role in producing high quality writing is to "flesh" out the strengths of your writing and to "flush" out the weaknesses through the process of revising. This means rewriting, rethinking, re-seeing, and re-saying your ideas to improve what you have written. Effective writing consists of clear, concise, well-written sentences in which all the words contribute to the message and all unnecessary words are eliminated.

Use the following to "flesh" out the strengths of your writing:

Develop a Lively Style

• Use Specific, Descriptive Verbs
• Use Specific, Precise Modifiers
• Emphasize People When Possible
• Vary Sentence Style Avoid Overuse of Any One Kind of Construction in the Same Sentence
• Don't Change Your Point of View Between or Within Sentences

Develop an Emphatic Style

• Vary Arrangement of Words to Emphasize Important Words
• Use Coordinating Conjunctions to Join Two Closely Related Sentences
• Use Subordinating Conjunctions to Show Time, Cause, Condition, or Place

Use the following to "flush" out the weaknesses of your writing:

• Give Your Sentences Content Containing Information Pertinent to Your Point
• Make Your Sentence Specific With Clear Details
• Keep Your Sentences Simple and Direct
• Pay Attention to Word Order to Avoid Confusion
• Avoid Mixed Constructions and Faulty Predication

• Avoid Deadwood Constructions by Eliminating All Unnecessary Words, Phrases, and Clauses
• Avoid Redundancy by Not Using Words That Repeat the Same Idea
• Avoid Using Passive Verbs as Much as Possible
• Avoid Pretentiousness by Writing as Clearly and Plainly as Possible