5 Ways to Enhance Your Writing Style for Better Engagement

5 Ways to Enhance Your Writing Style for Better Engagement

Today’s readers want something that will hold their attention. Whether you're crafting a novel, a business report, or a marketing email, an engaging writing style can be the difference between a captivated audience and a quickly closed tab. At Purposeful Prose, we believe in the power of words to connect, inform, and inspire. 

Here are five practical ways to elevate your writing style and keep your readers hooked.

1. Know When to Use Active Voice and Passive Voice

Active voice makes your sentences clearer, more direct, and more dynamic. Instead of "The report was written by the team," try "Our team wrote today’s report." This sounds more confident and immediately tells the reader who is performing the action, making your prose more energetic and easier to follow.

If the subject is unknown or would prefer to be vague, passive voice can help you. In scientific writing, passive voice is the standard. The voice you use depends on what you want to emphasize. 

Rules are made to be broken.

2. Vary Your Sentence Structure

A string of sentences that all start the same way or are of similar length can affect your pacing and tone. When we speak, we use a combination of short and long sentences. Incorporate short, punchy sentences for emphasis, longer ones to build detail or suspense, and sentences that begin with different parts of speech (adverbs, prepositions, etc.). This rhythmic variation keeps your readers engaged, and it helps them understand what mood you want to convey.

3. Know When to Show and When to Tell

Anton Chekhov once said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Many writers have taken this word as gospel. “Show, don’t tell” has its uses, but great writers, including Chekhov, know when to do both. Sometimes, readers have to draw their own conclusions and make their own comparisons. That’s the effect of telling. When showing, a reader enters the author’s imaginations. 

Sometimes, you need to be succinct, to say what’s happening, where, and why. People read books to enter into conversation with the author, to understand themselves and the world before them. So, before you make a decision about whether to show or tell, think of what you’re writing and to whom. 

What does your readership need from you?

4. Be Economical with Your Words

Every word should earn its place. Avoid unnecessary jargon, redundant phrases, and overly complex sentence constructions. Notice the word, “unnecessary”. Words exist for a reason, and if they are the best word in the best place, then choose that word. If you’re using a complicated or beautiful-sounding word just to use it, then the word loses its value. The same is true for filler words like “just,” “very,” and “really.” Sometimes, they are the best possible words to use, but they aren’t always. Respect your writing and your readership at the level of the word.

5. Develop a Distinctive Voice

This can take a lot of time for the best of writers. Mimicking your author idols can be a great start, but the purpose of doing that is to learn what feels right to you by exploring the writing styles that resonate most. To develop and adapt your voice to your needs, one exercise we like to share is the Writer’s Room. This is a method writers can use to compartmentalize and expand on the strategies they identify most with.

By implementing these five strategies, you’ll forge a stronger connection with your readership and with yourself as a writer. Always endeavor to grow in your writing, even if you feel as though you’re an expert at your craft. Practice makes progress.

Feeling overwhelmed by the nuances of stylistic refinement? Wanting to build on your knowledge of writing and the strategies that suit you? At Purposeful Prose, we specialize in helping authors and businesses perfect their voice and captivate their readers. 

Reach out to us today to discuss how our expert editing services can transform your words into powerful tools for engagement.