Secret tricks for making your writing sound more compelling
The whole point of writing is to create something a great deal
better than we "really" talk - a great deal more interesting,
more thoughtful, and more effective in every way - but to make
it sound as natural and effortless as talk. What can help us?
Only one thing - the rhythm of speech. This is the one thing we
can borrow from it, the one thing we must borrow if our written
words are ever to achieve an air of naturalness.
All spoken language, no matter who the speaker may be or what
his subject is, has a natural rhythm. We hear this rhythm,
wherever we hear talk. Rhythm is the way how the writing sounds.
"It is considered to be a delicate and subtle aspect of writing,
which is felt deep inside, and is actually, quite tough to
teach." Michele Pariza Wacek
Rhythm is a powerful element in your writing, which helps you
generate sound images, sight, and feelings for your reader.
NB! The first principle of rhythm in writing, to capture the
basic rhythm of speech, is variation of sentence length.
The important thing to remember is that the length of sentences
in all speech is always erratic, always changing. One can notice
that in written language, quite on the contrary, every sentence
has exactly the same length. And as frequently happens when does
not vary, almost every sentence has the same monotonous
structure. Nobody talks like that.
* Hence, it's advisable to write with a talking rhythm varying
the length of sentences to suit the material. Generally the
short, choppy and sharp sentence gives emphasis; the long,
involved sentence provides depth and color. Together with the
medium-length sentence they give writing the tone and rhythm of
speech.
A cultivated awareness of rhythm inevitably increases the
reader's pleasure, and heightening an emotional experience.
* Another requirement for good sentence rhythm is regularity in
the larger design of the sentence. This is a most attractive and
effective rhetorical device, known as the balanced or parallel
constructions. The matching of phrase against phrase, clause
against clause, lends an unmistakable eloquence to your writing.
Daniel Kies asserts in his article "Sentence Euphony" that good
writing is euphonic, which is pleasing to the ear and affirms
that "...establishing and maintaining effective rhythm in
writing is a combination of using parallelism for balance and
controlling sentence endings for emphasis."
* One more significant requirement for rhythm is that it should
be appropriate to the context; a passage of exciting and vivid
nature demands a rapid rhythm, while a passage of quite
imaginative beauty - a slow one. Readers come to associate
certain rhythmic effects with certain intentions on the part of
the writer or speaker.
Rhythm, in other words, has its connotative value. In this
meaning connotation may be employed to affect emotions. Consider
the following example:
"Who can say at what point the revelations come? A man falls in
love..... or suddenly sees the growing character of his son.....
or knows the quick pride of being needed, although no longer
young. Each has his discoveries .... a series, making up the
sharp core of life. From birth and being.....through youth,
maturity, and lengthening years...each follows his own way, and
hopes to find it good. We believe that this is as it should
be... we believe, too, that this is as it should be... we
believe, too, that we can help plan to make your way a little
easier, whatever it may be."
* The key to the effective writing is the carefully wrought
sentences. Many of the devices of good writing are demonstrated
in this passage; these are the balanced clauses, the repetition
of sound to give the effect of alliteration or internal rhyme,
as well as the selection of words weighted with a certain kind
of connotation.
Here the dots are used as rhetorical method of suggesting
continuation of thought and mood even after the actual words are
spoken. The reader is expected to imagine more than the words
themselves convey.
Reading this passage a person is put into a meditative frame of
mind: he is asked to meditate, that is, on whether he has enough
insurance. This passage appears to be an extract from a book of
meditations, and only the last sentence identifies it as a
commercial appeal.
In short, written sentences should have the sound of speech, and
the means to the naturalness is through variety in sentence
length, avoiding long sentences, using parallel and balanced
constructions, and making your writing rhythm appropriate to the
context.