Why ‘I did it myself’ won’t do

Delete this

As promised, this week begins a series of five posts that will improve your writing without you writing a word.

Ctrl+f Delete: The secret to better writing

My favorite literary gibe of all time is Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac:

If he were around to ask, Capote would likely concede he wasn’t knocking the (after all, essential) act of typing; rather, he was pointing out that putting words on the page isn’t enough.

To attain to polished prose, one has to spend a lot of time taking them off again.

This is anathema to a lot of writers. Even experienced ones. Even, apparently, Kerouac.

But it is the easiest way I know to sharpen one’s prose and communicate efficiently, which is, in the end, the whole point of this writing malarky.

Without further ado, your first quick fix.

Redundant personal pronouns

• Where it’s found: Largely first-person writing such as essays, applications, emails, etc

• How it happens: Writers are overly concerned about clarity, or inattentive

• Why delete? They add clutter, not meaning

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1. when I joined my high school – this is a simple subject + verb + object sentence; there is no reason to specify ‘my’ as the grammar makes it axiomatic 

Edit options: upon entering high school or when I started high school

2. I glanced into the darkness ahead of me – again, this is a SVO sentence where the subject/object relationship is crystalline, making ‘of me’ pointless

Edit options: I glanced into the gloom ahead or I looked into the darkness ahead

3. I spent ample time brushing up on my theory – the pronoun here is unnecessary and implies something which untrue: the writer is studying other people’s theories, therefore ‘my theory’ is misleading 

Edit options: I brushed up on theory or I studied theory

4. he had a boss at his work – he could hardly have a boss at someone else’s work

Edit options: he had a boss at work or he had a boss 

5. I discovered for myself – the first-person subject pronoun makes it clear who made the discovery, the reflexive ‘for myself’ is redundant

Edit option: I discovered

Practice tip

Pull up a couple of documents you’ve written recently — email, school report, work proposal, whatever.

Save a copy, so you have the original, then ctrl+f delete starting with personal pronouns.

If you haven’t any strays, congratulate yourself, if you have remove them.

Next week, repeat with the next tip.

Keep that up for five weeks and see how much your original writing has transformed.