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Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

robinwieruch.de

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Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#51

Post by transposed »

straws wrote: post #48
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 i…

Agreed. Improving my writing from countless essays and writing heavy classes has been a tremendous help in my life.

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#52

Post by mishchea »

perseusprime11 wrote: post #41
BaronSamedi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The Sun Also Rises

For Whom the Bell Tolls

A Farewell to Arms

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#53

Post by fgandiya »

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…

Try this one [0]. It's written by the CEO and Lead Writer of iFixit.

[0] - http://www.dozuki.com/Tech_Writing

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#54

Post by SNACKeR99 »

AckSyn wrote: post #36
jimmaswell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see anything wrong with the sentence besides maybe the use of "front" that you pointed out. I got it easily the first time reading it and I'm certain it would be just as clear to me spoken as long as I was paying attention.

I remember this story and the only (personal preference) issue I can take with it were the comma placements. Yikes. Shatner anyone?

I think the commas very well placed. If it reads like Shatner to you, then perhaps you are reading as if they were ellipses?

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#55

Post by combatentropy »

open-source-ux wrote: post #18

The Plain English campaign in the UK has some free guides on writing clear and easy-to-read English. Well worth a read whether you are a native speaker or not. "So what is plain English? It is a message, written with the reader in mind and with the right tone of voice, that is clear and concise." : http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/free-guides.html

Cool! The U.S. has an informal group for federal employees: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#56

Post by panic »

lunchladydoris wrote: post #2

This is my favourite book about writing. It's not only filled with insight but itself serves as a perfect example of what the author is recommending you do.

Yeah, the examples in the book are almost unnecessary next to its own text. You can tell how much work Zinsser put into every phrase.

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#58

Post by CamelCaseName »

Normal_gaussian wrote: post #31
lacampbell wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Dense, incredibly difficult to parse, with a non-standard use of "front" as a verb and what seems to be a triple-negative. If I said that sentence to you, out loud, I doubt you would catch the meaning of i…

I completely agree. As another native English speaker I find the highlighted passage parses incredibly naturally. It feels like a single cohesive thought without the need for back-referencing despite encompassing several 'ideas'.

It's also important to note the difference in how text is consumed online vs in a book.

I am a native English speaker and I was confused on the first pass when reading quickly and ignoring punctuation.

Reading slower and taking pauses at the commas allowed me to understand.

I think that minimizing the use of negatives and pauses helps the reader absorb the information quickly.

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#59

Post by ktRolster »

munificent wrote: post #39
ktRolster wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you pronounce it in your mind, you'll pronounce what you thought you wrote, not what you actually wrote With a little practice, that won't be a problem. If you find it is still a problem, then the solution you gave of reading it out loud is fine, too.

> With a little practice, that won't be a problem. I've written quite a bit of prose over the past decade or so. I still find a lot of things in the third draft (read out loud) that I didn't notice in the first two.

ok, keep it up then :)

Re: Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”

#60

Post by ChristianGeek »

BaronSamedi wrote: post #25
liangzan wrote: post #7

I've read "On Writing Well". I then discovered "Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace" by Joseph Williams. "Style" is better than "On Writing Well". "On Writing Well" opened my eyes to what bad writing is, while "Style" explained how to write clearly. He took an impossible topic - writing clearly, showing you the elements of clear, consistent and impactful writing, distilling down into actionable lessons. The advice…

I completely agree. "Style" is a great book--short and practical.

Why is it so expensive?!
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