Kill the unnecessary Romance
This may be a really controversial point, but I very strongly believe (so do many people) that, as much as and whenever possible, you really should try to avoid the use of words that have origins from the Romance languages (langs that have their roots in French, Romanian, Latin – Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). This language grew over the years by taking a lot of bits and pieces from many other languages – some Romance, and some Germanic; and as a matter of fact, a lot of Romance words have a Germanic counterpart. Germanic words really do tend to feel much stronger and give a lot more weight to your writing. Take this fine example:
The British attempted to (still goes on) destroy the Colonial uprising in America. (Attempt, and destroy (still goes on) both have romance origins.)
A better sentence would be:
The British fought to crush (still goes on) the Colonial uprising in America. (Fought, and crush are both (still goes on) Germanic in origin.)
The second sentence is waaay stronger than the first garble. Sometimes it really can be difficult to find a Germanic equivalent, but you can sometimes normally do so with a really good thesaurus in hand.
Filed under: Few tips for better writing