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Show HN: Improve Your Writing – Grammar and Writing for Creators

grammarandwritingforcreators.com

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Re: Show HN: Improve Your Writing – Grammar and Writing for Creators

#11

Post by seanmcdirmid »

janderson77 wrote: post #8
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rhythm is all messed up. Not eloquent at all.

Perhaps we should take a moment and remember that Grammar can be fun (or so they tried to convince us between Saturday morning cartoons) ( http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NkuuZEey_bs )

Writing can be fun, grammar is just one constraint we leverage during writing, and easily bent to meet primeval rhythm requirements. Writing is like composing music, it is written conversation that flows as if you were talking through the paper, with additional constraints to match the medium.

The best way to become good at writing is to do it a lot and receive lots of critique. Style and grammar guides aren't very useful.

Re: Show HN: Improve Your Writing – Grammar and Writing for Creators

#12

Post by ztratar »

I dislike things like this. There are tons of FREE, valuable resources online about grammar and writing.

Why pay for this book? There is no reason. There isn't anything special about writing for "creators" -- and if there is, this author hasn't shown capability. Just look at the bullet points. They all end with a semi-colon. While that can be grammatically correct, there are many accepted versions here and a semi-colon won't do anything but simply confuse most users.

Follow best practices from the big players' splash pages. This book looks unworthy of a reading even if it was free.

Re: Show HN: Improve Your Writing – Grammar and Writing for Creators

#13

Post by bpackard »

ztratar wrote: post #12

I dislike things like this. There are tons of FREE, valuable resources online about grammar and writing. Why pay for this book? There is no reason. There isn't anything special about writing for "creators" -- and if there is, this author hasn't shown capability. Just look at the bullet points. They all end with a semi-colon. While that can be grammatically correct, there are many accepted versions here and a semi-col…

You mean...'even if it WERE free.'

Re: Show HN: Improve Your Writing – Grammar and Writing for Creators

#14

Post by seanmcdirmid »

ztratar wrote: post #12

I dislike things like this. There are tons of FREE, valuable resources online about grammar and writing. Why pay for this book? There is no reason. There isn't anything special about writing for "creators" -- and if there is, this author hasn't shown capability. Just look at the bullet points. They all end with a semi-colon. While that can be grammatically correct, there are many accepted versions here and a semi-col…

The semicolons only work for short sentence fragment bucket points; the last points are a bit long for semi colons. It is generally started by a colon (you will learn: not what you will learn), and the last semicolon should include an "and.' They should have just used complete sentences for each point here with periods rather than semicolons.

I agree that the leading text doesn't provide me with much confidence, but I'm not in the market for such a book. It might be useful for those grasping at something to get started, but free sources are available...or one could invest in a well used writing style guide (my advisor suggested this approach, it didn't work for me).

Re: Show HN: Improve Your Writing – Grammar and Writing for Creators

#15

Post by mturmon »

sloak wrote: post #2

The first bullet point reads "Learn all the important elementary to advanced rules and errors." How many of you had to re-read it at least once, or rescan mid-sentence, to understand? I won't even discuss the second bullet point: "Write skilfully, and write powerful and eloquent blog posts, books, and more." It's quite disturbing to see this language in a guide that is all about grammar, writing, and the importance o…

I was bothered by that too.

I also noticed that the adverb form indicating skill is spelled two different ways on this page.

There is also a lack of parallelism in the bullet lists.

Re: Show HN: Improve Your Writing – Grammar and Writing for Creators

#16

Post by macintux »

bpackard wrote: post #13
ztratar wrote: post #12

I dislike things like this. There are tons of FREE, valuable resources online about grammar and writing. Why pay for this book? There is no reason. There isn't anything special about writing for "creators" -- and if there is, this author hasn't shown capability. Just look at the bullet points. They all end with a semi-colon. While that can be grammatically correct, there are many accepted versions here and a semi-col…

You mean...'even if it WERE free.'

Better: 'even were it free'

Re: Show HN: Improve Your Writing – Grammar and Writing for Creators

#19

Post by icambron »

sgdesign wrote: post #5
sloak wrote: post #2

The first bullet point reads "Learn all the important elementary to advanced rules and errors." How many of you had to re-read it at least once, or rescan mid-sentence, to understand? I won't even discuss the second bullet point: "Write skilfully, and write powerful and eloquent blog posts, books, and more." It's quite disturbing to see this language in a guide that is all about grammar, writing, and the importance o…

I agree the first sentence is a bit awkward (I would suggest something like "Learn all the important rules and errors, from elementary to advanced"), but what's wrong with the second example?

It's pretty bad, IMO.

> Write skilfully, and write powerful and eloquent blog posts, books, and more.

* The repetition of "write" is annoying.

* The use of multiple adjectives to describe a list of things is awkward and wordy.

* "Blog posts" shouldn't be the first item, because it's easy to read "blog" as modifying "books" too.

* "And" is a weird conjunction here. Is writing powerfully and eloquently separate from writing skillfully?

I'd have two separate bullets:

* Write skilfully.

* Create eloquent books, blog posts, and more.

I'd also make the other bullet points start with a verb ("Receive two books in one" etc). I don't think I'd ever be that picky about the writing if it weren't the marketing copy for a book full of writing advice.

As an aside, the "skilfully" spelling is pretty jarring for Americans (or at least for me), but it's apparently correct in the rest of the English-speaking world. TIL.

Re: Show HN: Improve Your Writing – Grammar and Writing for Creators

#20

Post by hkmurakami »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #11
janderson77 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps we should take a moment and remember that Grammar can be fun (or so they tried to convince us between Saturday morning cartoons) ( http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NkuuZEey_bs )

Writing can be fun, grammar is just one constraint we leverage during writing, and easily bent to meet primeval rhythm requirements. Writing is like composing music, it is written conversation that flows as if you were talking through the paper, with additional constraints to match the medium. The best way to become good at writing is to do it a lot and receive lots of critique. Style and grammar guides aren't very u…

The best example of this that we're all likely to know is "Think Different" vs "Think Differently".

> The best way to become good at writing is to do it a lot and receive lots of critique.

Don't forget to read a lot! (and from a diverse set of writers too!)

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