6 Ways Your English Teacher Wrecked Your Writing

Your teacher didn’t always know best. The bad writing habits that we picked up from our teachers are one reason people’s writing is so weak.

If you want to improve your blog copy, you have to unlearn some of the bad writing habits you picked up at school.

Here’s 6 ways your English teacher wrecked your writing.

1. They made you take ages to ‘get to the point’

Remember your teacher insisting that essays needed a rambling introduction and a lengthy conclusion? If you actually had anything to say, you were meant to hide it somewhere in the middle.

This taught you that it’s okay to hold off on ‘getting to the point’. That’s why so many blog posts and emails take forever to warm up.

Today’s internet doesn’t give you the luxury of carefully setting the scene, or creating a warm, fuzzy preamble.

Readers are busy! So jump straight in and make your point. Get in, get out.

2. They always made you write too much

Homework assignments were always doled out with a minimum word count implied. You knew if you didn’t show up the next day with at least two sides of A4, you were in big trouble. Your teacher just wanted to expand your thinking, and give more thought to your answers. But what happened is that you learned to write too much.

Don’t forget – less is more. When you’re writing for the web, people want you to get straight to the point. Prune, don’t pad.

3. They made you use big words

At school, using big words got you better marks. This helped to increase your vocabulary, which is good. But it also taught you to garnish your writing with pretentious words and corporate jargon.

Here’s the thing: nobody’s stood over your desk handing out house points for being a words-worth anymore. But these big smart-ass words are letting you down. In blogging, your goal is to be clear and persuasive – not score points for using a thesaurus.

4. They made you write passively

The ultimate English teacher no-no? Daring to refer to yourself or the reader.

You basically couldn’t write ‘you’ or ‘I’. So, “the liquid in the test tube was heated to 80 degrees” was ok, but the active form (“I heated the liquid in the test tube to 80 degrees”) wasn’t.

Your school taught you that using the passive form made you sound formal and objective.

Time to wise up, because today the opposite is true in successful blog writing. When you address people as “you”, they’re more likely to tune into your words. And when you refer to yourself as “I”, it makes you sound accountable.

5. They made you expect a captive audience

Did you notice how, when you handed in your homework, it always came back marked. That’s because your teachers cared deeply about your progress.

The lesson you learned was that everything you wrote would be carefully perused by a trained professional.

The reality could not be more different. Your readers are busy, distracted people with infinite demands on their time. Unlike your teachers, they aren’t paid to read your stuff.

In blogging, it’s a battle to be read. Make sure you’re known for short, clear communication. Use headers, bullets and tight writing!

6. They made you hedge your bets

Teachers used to ask for ‘balanced’ essays. If you argued one way, you’d have to even it up with a counter-argument. The idea was to teach you that writing should be fair.

Your readers don’t come to your blog to read a ‘legal opinion’ – they want you to tell them what’s happening, and what they should do about it. Don’t get splinters in your ass sitting on the fence.

Ian Harris is director of RockstarComms, a blog about hassle-free internal communication for organisations.

Image by redcargirl.