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Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

robinwieruch.de

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Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#41

Post by perseusprime11 »

BaronSamedi wrote: post #24
x1798DE wrote: post #3

I was so disappointed with this book. Some of the platitudes Zinsser goes into are reasonable, like try to be uncluttered, direct and to the point, but all the worked examples seem to just be arbitrarily chosen to his taste. For example, in the chapter on "clutter", Zinsser picks out this passage from Walden as his exemplar of "uncluttered English": "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front…

The IBM book "Developing Quality Technical Information" is the best I've read on technical writing. For writing style, pickup any novel by Hemingway and copy it. You can also Google "how to write like Hemingway" for some easy to follow basic rules. IMO, however, the biggest problem with most technical writing is not its style but rather the almost complete ignorance of what it should contain and how it should be stru…

Can you recommend some hemingway books?

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#42

Post by fgimenez »

x1798DE wrote: post #29
cgh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you've seen it before, but The Economist's style guide is my usual resource: http://www.economist.com/styleguide/introduction

This might not be so bad as a general guide to writing things like blog posts or whatever, but I'm specifically looking to get better at technical writing - e.g. writing software documentation. For example, the prohibition there on "jargon" words would probably come into conflict with the kind of precision you need in technical writing; I would expect the advice on something like that to be like, "where terms of art…

Check out Lyn Dupre's "Bugs in Writing." She was the department editor for Stanfords Biomedical Informatics program for several years and synthesized her work into that book. It's required reading for incoming students.

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#43

Post by brudgers »

x1798DE wrote: post #3

I was so disappointed with this book. Some of the platitudes Zinsser goes into are reasonable, like try to be uncluttered, direct and to the point, but all the worked examples seem to just be arbitrarily chosen to his taste. For example, in the chapter on "clutter", Zinsser picks out this passage from Walden as his exemplar of "uncluttered English": "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front…

For me, the most important piece of Zinsser's advice is reflected in the complaint and the other complaints in response and in my remark and in the article. They're all in the first person.

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#44

Post by drinkjuice »

x1798DE wrote: post #16
551199 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprising to see Pinker has written a book about writing. The way he writes makes even interesting topics feel deadly boring.

> The way he writes makes even interesting topics feel deadly boring. This sounds like a great endorsement to me. Another complaint I had about Zinsser's book was that he was giving you advice on how to "spice up" your writing, but IIRC (it's been some years), it was all about standard journalistic tricks to construct a narrative, have distinct characters and personalize the story. Obviously that sort of thing is mor…

> it was all about standard journalistic tricks to construct a narrative, have distinct characters and personalize the story. Obviously that sort of thing is more engaging to read

That sort of writing doesn't engage me at all. Too many articles begin with something "it was a foggy afternoon as Peter was waiting in line to buy ice cream", taking 5 paragraphs to first touch on the subject mentioned in the title, instead of just coming out with "Scientists recently confirmed that yum yum molecules can generate distinctive taste sensations depending on the amount and color temperature of the light they have been exposed to in the first few hours. This odd discovery began when scientist guy was hoping to grab some cones at his favourite ice cream Parlour in $city, etc. blah blah".

As you can tell, I'm not a writer. But I know the kind of writing I won't waste my time on, and the internet is full of.

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#46

Post by idlewords »

cachvico wrote: post #28

There's an amusing number of simple grammatical mistakes in this article.. ("english", "It is unnecessary words that don’t add meaning but complex sentence constructions.", "Write about “grass” except when (my insert) it has another color than green", "Avoid semicolons except when (my insert) you want the reader to make a pause", ...)

The author says he's not a native speaker. This is petty.

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#47

Post by blisse »

x1798DE wrote: post #38
blisse wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the rule is to avoid jargon if there's a better everyday equivalent, not to avoid jargon at all costs. There's no contradiction.

Yes, I didn't intend that there was a contradiction, just that "jargon" and technical words are actually used more in technical writing than in other kinds of writing, and it can be tricky to understand where the line is, how to introduce these terms such that the reader is not confused by the unusual term (or by a common word used in an unusual way, like how in programming contexts the word "string" refers to a sequ…

No problem. I really enjoy MSDN documentation so I think imitating good guides or tutorials is a good starting point.

As an aside I like the article How to Write Articles and Essays Quickly and Expertly[0] that was posted here a couple months back as well.

[0] www.downes.ca/post/38526

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#48

Post by straws »

x1798DE wrote: post #3

I was so disappointed with this book. Some of the platitudes Zinsser goes into are reasonable, like try to be uncluttered, direct and to the point, but all the worked examples seem to just be arbitrarily chosen to his taste. For example, in the chapter on "clutter", Zinsser picks out this passage from Walden as his exemplar of "uncluttered English": "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front…

Often recommended, but Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and Stephen King's On Writing are both autobiographies wrapped in textbook sheepskin. Writing advice that may seem obvious or trite is then backed up with beautiful vignettes.

Good writing is not necessarily good speech, as you've noted. Learning technical writing is a superpower — I would recommend The Essentials of Technical Communication. A chemistry teacher once introduced it alongside a Vonnegut quote:

"It would never occur to me, to look for the best minds of my generation in an undergraduate English department anywhere. I would certainly try the physics department or the music department first."

Technical writing and writing for emotional impact both have their place. Learn both, and learn when to employ them. You may find yourself appreciating that Thoreau quote one day.

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#49

Post by bootload »

"I am eager to improve my language and writing skills."

Fowler and Birchfield. "Kings English" (1906), "A Dictionary of Modern English" (1926) and "The English Language" (1985) make humorous reading. For example:

- Familiar words over the far fetched.

- Preference for concrete words.

- Prefer the single, short word.

- Preference to the Saxon over the romance word.

English has many roots and riddled with confusing syntax and rules. Well written English, shines when read. If you read pg essays you see these examples in action. [0] The Economist style guide mirrors F&B, pg. For instance, "Use the language of everyday speech".

[0] PH Wodehouse ~ http://www.paulgraham.com/heroes.html

"Writing briefly" ~ http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html

"Write like you speak" ~ http://paulgraham.com/talk.html

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#50

Post by bootload »

"I am eager to improve my language and writing skills."

Fowler and Birchfield. "Kings English" (1906), "A Dictionary of Modern English" (1926) and "The English Language" (1985) make humorous reading. For example:

- Familiar over the far fetched.

- Preference for concrete words.

- Prefer the single, short word.

- Preference to the Saxon over the romance.

English has many roots and riddled with rules. Well written English shines when read.

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