Have a Case of Weak Wording? Revive Your Parts of Speech!
The Informal Writing BugIn a world where we’re accustomed to 140-character Tweets, simple text messages, spontaneous emails, and casual blog posts, we’re familiar with informal grammar. It’s not uncommon to shorten a message by omitting certain parts of speech. This style of writing certainly has its place, but it doesn’t belong in your content writing!
In order to establish your credibility as an Expert Author, it’s important to maintain proper grammar and sentence structure. In other words, avoid using “weak wording” in your writing.
What is Weak Wording?
Weak wording is written like this:
“Going to store to get dinner. Will be back in 15 minutes. Please have table set.”
In this example, the subjects and articles are omitted from the sentence. The proper version reads:
“I’m going to the store to get dinner. I’ll be back in 15 minutes. Please have the table set.”
Let’s cover what’s missing.
The Subject
When it comes to parts of speech, a subject is the person, place, thing that is performing the action or being described. In this case it is “I’m” and I’ll.”
The Article
An article is a short word that is added before a noun to signify the type of reference being made to the noun that follows. In English, these are:
- the
- a/an
The word ‘the’ is the definite article. It refers to a SPECIFIC thing.
Example: Set the table. (We are referring to a specific table).
The word ‘a’ is the indefinite article. It refers to an UNSPECIFIC thing.
Example: Set a table. (We are not referring to a specific table).
The Source of the Bug
When our Editors see articles that are missing proper subjects and articles, we realize it can happen for a variety of reasons. Some of those include:
- ESL Weakness: Sometimes non-native English writers aren’t familiar with certain parts of speech in English, such as “the” or “a” and will instead omit the article before the noun. In that case, we prescribe a full review of our Grammar Training found here: http://media.ezinearticles.com/pdf/ezinearticles/training/full/paragraph-grammar.pdf
- SEO Grammar Plague: Other writers have caught the plague of problematic SEO writing. Theses writers realize many people enter choppy, SEO-friendly keyphrases into search engines and then try to exploit those weaknesses. However, anytime a keyphrase is used, it needs to make sense in the context of the content, regardless of SEO purposes. You can refer to section 1a of our Editorial Guidelines (http://ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines/guideline/1a) for further information.
- Immunity! Finally, some of us do it simply because we’re used to typing in a shorthand form. In this case, we challenge you to be true to yourself and uphold your best writing style, no matter what you are writing! Get in the habit of reading your articles out loud prior to submission. This will help you catch any parts of speech that you inherently omitted.
When you’re writing an article to be shared with others, be sure to include all necessary subjects and articles in your sentences. While it might save time and it’s likely readers will be able to figure out your intent, your expertise as a writer will be lost.
There’s a time and a place for all styles of writing. When it comes to your content, establish your credibility by writing with correct technique. In turn, you will see less article rejections for problematic grammar.
It isn’t easy to become a strong writer; don’t throw your skills out the window and succumb to the weak wording that surrounds our everyday lives. Improve your writing health today!
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