Place Words With Care - How to Avoid Misplacing Words
Lesson 13 from: From Structure to Style: Master Your CopywritingShani Raja
Place Words With Care - How to Avoid Misplacing Words
Lesson 13 from: From Structure to Style: Master Your CopywritingShani Raja
Lesson Info
13. Place Words With Care - How to Avoid Misplacing Words
Lessons
Chapter 1: Copywriting Fundamentals
1Class Introduction - Overview of the Course Content
03:50 2The Five Aspirations of a Superior Copywriter
05:28 3The Importance of Defining Your Intention & Audience
06:02 4The “Secret Sauce” of Good Copywriting
04:29 5Quiz - Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Simplicity
6Introduction - The Power of Simplicity
02:06Tight Writing - How to Make Your Writing Snappy
05:43 8Tell it Straight - How to Write Plainly & Straightforwardly
03:36 9Don’t Overcomplicate - How to Avoid Unnecessary Complexity
04:59 10Quiz - Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Clarity
11Introduction - The Power of Clarity
01:33 12Nailing Down Your Ideas - How to Fix Fuzzy Ideas In Your Copy
04:07 13Place Words With Care - How to Avoid Misplacing Words
03:49 14Be Specific - How to Avoid Ambiguity, Jargon & Abstract Writing
09:09 15Quiz - Chapter 3
Chapter 4: Elegance
16Introduction - The Power of Elegance
01:57 17Present Elegantly - How to Make Your Writing Look Good
04:10 18Narrative Flow - How to Structure Your Copy Beautifully
04:09 19Musical Writing - How to Give Your Writing Rhythm
05:31 20Quiz - Chapter 4
Chapter 5: Evocativeness
21Introduction - The Power of Evocativeness
02:28 22Add Variety - How to Reduce Monotony in Your Writing
03:10 23Be Bold - How to Steer Clear of Weak Words
03:34 24Create Pictures - How to Make Your Writing Jump Out
06:23 25Quiz - Chapter 5
Chapter 6: Editing With Style
26Introduction - Get Ready to Edit
01:31 27The Quick-Smart Editing System
16:11 28Quiz - Chapter 6
Chapter 7: The Road Ahead: What’s Next?
29How to Nurture Your New Skills
03:06Final Quiz
30Final Quiz
Lesson Info
Place Words With Care - How to Avoid Misplacing Words
in this lesson, you're going to learn the importance of taking extreme care with how you place words within a sentence. Now afterwards you'll be able to firm up your writing so that readers can always follow your thoughts effortlessly. Now the question of where you place words in a sentence is a really big one in the realm of clarity. For instance, you may have heard before of something referred to in grammar as a misplaced modifier. Well, let me try to explain it to you here in as commonsensical away as possible. A modifier basically is a word or a set of words that alter another term in the same sentence. So in this example Sonali walked joyfully to the shop. We have one word that modifies another word in the same sentence which is the modified word. That's right. The modified word is walked because we've got that other word joyfully which is adding something to the meaning of walked so joyfully is modifying, walked. If that's the meaning of a modifier. What then, is a misplaced modi...
fier? Well, it's where the modifying word is placed within a sentence in a way that makes it unclear which word is actually modifying. Now the problem can occur simply because the modifying word is a bit too far away from the word or phrase that is trying to modify. As here Sonali walked to the shop with her handbag tucked under her arm joyfully. Now of course it's not too difficult to figure out the author's meaning, but placing the word joyfully at the end, there makes it a bit unclear as to whether joyfully is referring specifically to the act of walking or to the act of holding a handbag. Now you can fix that problem pretty easily right simply bring joyfully closer to the word that you intend for it to modify. For instance, like this. Sonali walked joyfully to the shop with her handbag tucked under her arm and that's a lot clearer right now, consider this next sentence. Our friendly staff will neatly collect and pack your items. What's the problem here? That's right. The sentence is out of focus and thus unclear because the modifier neatly is only meant to apply to the term pack, whereas here it appears to apply to the term collect as well. So have a go at rewriting the sentence to place the modifier neatly correctly. Okay, here's one way the sentence could read for better clarity. Our friendly staff will collect your items and pack them neatly. Now, little manipulations like this are going to improve the power and the beauty of your prose considerably. Not only that by placing words with care, You can sometimes avoid major misunderstandings. Just look at this sentence. Marcus almost studied 10 hours for the exam. Well, if Marcus almost studied for 10 hours, it could mean that he didn't in fact study at all. Right, So where would you move the modifier almost to give the sentence more clarity. That's right. Marcus studied almost 10 hours for the exam. Now, taking this kind of care with the meaning of your sentences will ensure you always deliver a smooth reading experience to your audience. And very often, as you've seen in this lesson, it can simply be a matter of the order in which you place words in a sentence. Okay, now that we've seen the tremendous harm that misplaced motive eyes can do to your writing, we're going to look at another big clarity killer. It's called ambiguity.