Did you ever read a letter from a nonprofit and feel that something was not quite right? Maybe you found it hard to read and weren’t sure why. When writing, you want your flow to be as “on” as possible. Here are five things to remember that will make your flow as smooth as possible.

1. Be Consistent

Inconsistency is one of my pet peeves. If you capitalize a noun in one place, make sure you capitalize that noun every time you mention it again. For example, The French Club shouldn’t evolve into the French Club or the French club throughout your piece. The same goes for abbreviations. If you introduce an abbreviation at the beginning of a letter, don’t start referring to it by its full name again half way through. People will get confused.

2. Don’t Liberally Toss Your Articles Around

I read a cooking article the other day that mentioned four things: The peppers, the onions, the carrots, and the garlic. Four words there are unnecessary. The whole thing is bulky. Keep it to peppers, onions, carrots and garlic. Only use articles like the, a, and an when they’re required.

3. Alliteration is Nice

If you can swing it, throw some alliteration into your piece. Clear, concise and compelling flows better than clear, brief and engaging. (By the way, you should be all of these things.)

4. Write in Threes

I’ve done a whole blog post dedicated to this topic, but I’ll summarize here. There is something about the number three that sticks in people’s heads and makes your writing or speaking sound better. If you have two and can come up with a third reason, adjective or example – do it. The same applies if you have four and can eliminate one.

5. Split Up Your Sentences

There’s no benefit to a sentence with three conjunctions, six commas, and endless words. When you can, split up your clauses into independent sentences. It will be easier to read and understand, I promise!

The post Want Your Writing to Flow Better? Try These Five Things. appeared first on Claxon Communication.

Yet so much of your nonprofit’s success depends on the words you use and how you use them. These words can come in the form of text on your website, donation appeals, annual reports – even the e-mail you send to a prospective donor. Writing is everywhere in your organization. Here are my five favorite online tools to help with various aspects of the writing process: finding content, having clarity, and staying focused.

1. HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator
   This one is for all you fellow bloggers out there. As you probably know well, sometimes it’s hard to find fresh content to write about. You want to be informative, relevant and valuable to your readers… but you sometimes you flat out don’t know what to say. The blog topic generator can help get your thought process started and give you topics ideas.
2. WordCounter
   No one likes to read a paragraph with the same word used over and over and over. WordCounter can take a block of text and tell you which words you’re using the most. You might be surprised at how you overuse a certain word or words. Then you can go back to your text and find more creative ways to tell your story.
3. Readability-Score.com
   This is an online version of the Flesch-Kindcaid readability tests feature of Microsoft Outlook and Word. It uses a formula to rate the readability of your text, using a scale from 0 to 100. The closer you are to 100, the easier your writing is to understand. It also gives you an average grade level score – for example, a grade level 8 means that someone with 8 years of education could easily understand your writing. If you find yourself writing for high school or graduate level audiences, you may want to ease up on the big words.
4. Cliché Finder 
   According to Merriam-Webster, clichés are: “1.  a phrase or expression that has been used so often that it is no longer original or interesting. 2. something that is so commonly used in books, stories, etc., that it is no longer effective.” Overused,uninteresting, and ineffective. That doesn’t seem like what you want. It’s okay to clichés every now and again, but don’t get into the habit of relying heavily on them. This tool will find all the clichés in your writing, so you can make the choice to choose a different, more unique, and more memorable phrase.
5. Written? Kitten!
   This one is my absolute favorite; I’ve actually blogged about it before. When you write a certain number of words (decided by you), you get rewarded with a picture of a cute cat. It’s a tool to keep you writing and keeps the ideas flowing. You can always edit later. What happens if you’re not a cat lover, you may ask? You can substitute the “kitten” for whatever you want. Do roses make you really happy? Add  /?search=roses after the Written Kitten URL, and this is what you get! Substitute “roses” for “puppies”, “sea creatures”, “mountains”, “cocktails” – whatever keeps YOU motivated!

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