Read literary works written by a variety of authors across different genres. This gives you an idea of how other writers keep their audiences engaged. Notice how you feel as you read novels by classic authors such as George Orwell or modern authors such as Willy Lamb. Experiencing poetry by Maya Angelou and Emily Dickinson can expose you to vastly different styles and help you define your own.
Keep your language engaging and concise. Avoid creating complex sentence structures and using overly technical vocabulary. Realize that the reader has to be able to understand your writing before he can relate to your story or act on your advice.
Read your work aloud. This helps you gauge how well your writing "flows" and allows you to catch more mistakes. Your eye can grow tired from reading the same copy multiple times, so using your ears along with your eyes increases your chance of submitting logical, powerfully constructed material.
Refrain from using empty adjectives. Words such as "fun," "bad" and "good" are overused and lack the depth necessary to explain your true meaning. Replacing these dull words with more creative ones can greatly enhance your writing. Using a thesaurus can help you find new ways to describe people, places and events while capturing the attention of your audience.
Leave clichés, jargon and gobbledygook to less-experienced writers. Although it's easy to pad your writing assignments with catchy slogans and meaningless verbiage, your words can quickly lose meaning when surrounded by this uninspired writing. Powerful writing requires you to express your ideas in a new way without sounding as if you copied your material.