One of the most cited books for better writing: Elements of Style: http://www.bartleby.com/141/. It's available for free.
There are many "manuals of style" available as well like: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html.
Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
11–20 of 75 posts
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#12It would be wise to refer to these guidelines while filling out an application for YC.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#13I'm positive the second comma shouldn't be there. (I wouldn't normally comment on commas, but it seems on-topic...)
It depends on what you mean by "shouldn't". The Oxford comma is optional and considered syntactically correct if used. If you mean that it is more concise to leave it out, then thats another issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma
EDIT: Ignore this. I thought he was referring to the first line of the post. "Follow the principles below to write sentences that are clear, to the point, and easier to read."
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#14Keep these points in mind when generating error messages to your end users.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#15I'm positive the second comma shouldn't be there. (I wouldn't normally comment on commas, but it seems on-topic...)
It depends on what you mean by "shouldn't". The Oxford comma is optional and considered syntactically correct if used. If you mean that it is more concise to leave it out, then thats another issue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma EDIT: Ignore this. I thought he was referring to the first line of the post. "Follow the principles below to write sentences that are clear, to the point, and easier to read."
This is not a case of Serial commas. The title "Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences" has two adjectives and one noun. It's not a list of three.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#16> Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
With a title like this, I won't even read the thing. So many things are wrong with this first sentence. 1. Why The Capitals For Each Word? That screws with my human word recognition algorithm. 2. The title implies three things: Writing clear, do something concise and something with sentences. That's all but clear to me. "Writing clear": you mean writing the word clear? Does not sound interesting to me. What do you want with "Sentences" and "Concise"? Not clear at all to me. 3. Probably, the author meant something like "How to write clear & concise sentences". That gives the sentence instantly another meaning.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#17It's amusing that the "Avoid unnecessarily inflated words" section misspells "implement" as "impliment."
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#18> Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences With a title like this, I won't even read the thing. So many things are wrong with this first sentence. 1. Why The Capitals For Each Word? That screws with my human word recognition algorithm. 2. The title implies three things: Writing clear, do something concise and something with sentences. That's all but clear to me. "Writing clear": you mean writing the word clear? Does not sou…
Having not even read the thing, you might consider whether a detailed critical comment about the thing adds or subtracts to the discussion on HN.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#19This advice seems to mimic much of what's in _Style: Towards Clarity and Grace_, which I found out about from Richard Gabriel (achievement unlocked: LISP connection) and which is probably the most hacker-friendly writing book ever written.