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English Writing Style and Usage Links
For many years, my writing help websites focused primarily on providing direct “how to” information in the form of actual real-life sample documents and templates. My belief has always been that the very best way to write any type of document is to use an actual sample of a similar document as a starting point. My view on that has not changed at all.

That’s why this Writing Help Central website contains more than 250 actual real-life sample templates of letters, reports, proposals, essays, business forms, and other documents. In addition, I have supplemented those examples with more than 100 pages of practical writing tips for the writing of each type of document.

Accordingly, my approach to providing writing help to people has always been to focus on the practical approach to day-to-day home and business writing, through actual examples. I have always steered clear of getting into the technical vagueness of formal English grammar terminology and definitions. In my opinion, by far the best way to understand how English is written is to actually see, visually, through real-life examples, how it is really done. This is much more effective than learning the definitions of such esoteric terms as “gerund”, or the difference between the “transitive” and “intransitive” forms of the verb. Rather, I would prefer to demonstrate how “… most indefinite pronouns should be treated as singular”, rather than trying to explain what that means!

Nevertheless, over the years I have received many questions from my website and blog subscribers asking me about “writing style” in the sense of how to properly phrase something in English. In fact, when I posted a series of articles on my writing help blog, The Write Place, on the subject of “commonly confused words and terms”, the positive reaction from my blog readers was instant and strong. It turns out that, in addition to sample templates, people are also looking for practical “writing style tips” to help them with their day-to-day writing tasks, at work, at home, and in school.

Below are links to a number of pages I have put together to help you with the “style” side of writing; without getting into the technical details of English grammar. The subjects I have chosen to cover are what I consider to be the most common stumbling blocks encountered by people when trying to improve their written English for day-to-day usage.

Redundant Words and Phrases
These are words and phrases that tend to make the language more complicated and cumbersome than necessary.


Transition Words and Phrases
There are many words, terms and phrases that can be used to help your writing flow more logically and smoothly.


Proper Use of Prepositions
Prepositions are those little connector words that join words and/or phrases to other words and/or phrases.


Homonyms and Similar Sounding Words
Words of the same (or similar) spelling or sound can be easily confused and unintentionally change the meaning of something.


Plural Forms of Common Nouns
The plural form of some common nouns is non-standard and not obvious.


Frequently Misspelled Words
Some words cannot be spelled correctly by sounding them out phonetically.

Gender-Neutral Words and Phrases
The use of gender-specific language has (is becoming) a thing of the past.


I have tried to keep the above lists reasonably short by limiting them to what I consider to be the “essential” items for practical writing usage in most daily writing activities for home, school, and business.

If you ever want to go into further details than these usage lists, there are any number of English usage style guides available, both online and offline.

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Transition Words and Phrases

One of the most frequent problems that I see in day-to-day writing these days is the lack of natural logical flow linking one sentence to another, and one paragraph to the next.

In fact, smooth, orderly and logical transitions from one thought to another, one sentence to the next, and one paragraph to the other, are key to creating a professional quality document that makes sense. Appropriate use of transition words and phrases will achieve this for you in your business letters and other documents.

There are many words, terms and phrases that can be used to help your writing flow more logically and smoothly. Following, is a list of typical transition words and phrases.

Cause and Effect then as a result for this reason the result was what followed in response therefore thus because of consequently the reaction In Contrast To unlike different in spite of on the other hand on the contrary opposing however contrary to nevertheless Sequence & Relativity then in addition to enumerate next next in the series besides that subsequently following Similarity & Comparison like the same similar close likewise also near Explanation & Example for example one such for instance to illustrate also that too to demonstrate

Sample sentence… Then, he moved to the next work station. As a result, the team lost the game. For this reason, she always rested later. The result was always predictable. What followed was painful but necessary. In response, he upped the ante. Therefore, the aircraft overshot the runway. Thus, it was just a matter of time. Because of this, the results were always the same. Consequently, he was no longer friends with Frank. The reaction to this event was swift and decisive. Unlike last year, this one was highly profitable. Different from this, was our approach to charity. In spite of the dot com bust, the company prospered. On the other hand, earnings per share have increased. On the contrary, the impact was less than expected. Opposing that idea was the move to new technologies. However, that approach may actually prove better. Contrary to his findings, the revenue picture is good. Nevertheless, something still appears to be missing. Then, each one stopped in numerical order sequence. In addition, a fourth material was added to the mix. To enumerate, first there was the accident, then … Next in line for cuts was the marketing division. Next in the series was the “outrigger” brand line. Besides that, there were two other possible sources. Subsequently, they moved on to the next phase. Following the concert, the reception was in the lobby. Just like that, he reversed his earlier decision. The new approach was almost exactly the same. Similar things were known to happen at other times. The latest results were close, but far from perfect. Likewise, they made similar changes in the factory. Also, there were the worker’s families to consider. Near that one, was the faulty component. For example, last year’s model was underpowered. One such occurrence was last week’s power outage. For instance, earnings this year are higher than last. To illustrate, he went to Chicago to make his point. Also, there is a new approach to tax accounting. That too, just goes to make my point even stronger. To demonstrate, I will use the new model throughout.

As shown in the examples, these words and phrases are usually inserted at the beginning of a sentence. They normally refer directly back to the previous sentence and/or paragraph without repeating the specific subject.

The above are just examples. There are many other such transition words and phrases used in everyday conversation and writing. I believe that appropriate use of such words and phrases is the number one technique for making any type of writing flow more logically and clearly.