Ask HN: What are good writing tips for software developers?

I suggest plugging all of your writing into Grammarly and HemingwayApp!

Writing improves from improved comprehension resulting from increased reading, writing, conversation.

So, make sure you are getting better at understanding the needs of the user and communicating them.

Have conversations with users - Solve problems that you have and make it available to others.

Solve others problems by learning about them and helping them.

A preposition is a very bad word to end a sentence with.

But only a fool would begin or end a sentence with the word but.

And only a total idiot would begin or end a sentence with the word and.

Anyway, you should never use the word 'anyway'. Even worser to use 'anyways'.

And never utilize the word 'utilize' when you could utilize the word 'use' instead.

Your doing it wrong if you're sentences confuse the words your and you're.

There are two many people doing it wrong too get to upset about confusion over to, too and two.

"Can you tell if "your favorite SF novel" represents good writing without having a grasp on what constitutes good writing to begin with?"

I think for the purposes at hand, you don't need any expertise in writing to tell whether you want to write short emails with some stuff lifted from a given author.

The larger structural aspects of writing a good novel are overlooked by a lot of people, and a lot of people will declare someone a "good author" when every character in their stories are an author stand-in, things appear and disappear for no reason, there is no symbolic or mythic resonance in the story, and every other major structural error that can be made, simply because they like the sentence-by-sentence style of the author or the author has snappy wordplay that they like. That taste is more rare, but also only slightly relevant to the question of whether you can write a 500-word email to the executive team about how important it is to not cut your project.

Pretend like you're explaining things to a smart 10 year old. Keep your sentences well structured, only use jargon and abbreviations when necessary, and don't be afraid to repeat yourself for clarity. It helps to give as much background knowledge as possible.