Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences

writing.wisc.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 75 posts

Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences

#41

Post by jaywhy »

I agree with the article that good writing is concise and clear, but don't conflate clear and concise with simplistic and short, thinking the only good sentence is a short sentence, as if we should all write like Hemingway in a hurry.

"Vigorous writing is concise...this requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell." - Strunk and White "The Elements of Style"

Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences

#44

Post by davidmathers »

tptacek wrote: post #19

This 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.

Note, Joseph M. Williams now has 3 different 'Style' books:

Style: Toward Clarity and Grace

Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace

Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace

I can't speak to the first 2, but I purchased the 3rd and found it to be excellent.

Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences

#45

Post by ryanklee »

zwischenzug wrote: post #20
StavrosK wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. They managed to refute their own title in four words, I am impressed.

Exactly what I thought. I would have written "Writing clear and concise sentences"

They were attempting most likely to follow Strunk & White's idiotic dictum to omit all needless words. More often than not, when people trust Strunk & White to do their thinking for them, bad language occurs.

Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences

#46

Post by tptacek »

davidmathers wrote: post #44
tptacek wrote: post #19

This 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.

Note, Joseph M. Williams now has 3 different 'Style' books: Style: Toward Clarity and Grace Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace I can't speak to the first 2, but I purchased the 3rd and found it to be excellent.

... Toward ... is the one I have, and every time I reread it I feel like I should find a way to transcribe it into emacs lisp.

Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences

#47

Post by akkartik »

tptacek wrote: post #46
davidmathers wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note, Joseph M. Williams now has 3 different 'Style' books: Style: Toward Clarity and Grace Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace I can't speak to the first 2, but I purchased the 3rd and found it to be excellent.

... Toward ... is the one I have, and every time I reread it I feel like I should find a way to transcribe it into emacs lisp.

Hmm, you mean have emacs warn you when you violate the guidelines?

Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences

#48

Post by tptacek »

akkartik wrote: post #47
tptacek wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... Toward ... is the one I have, and every time I reread it I feel like I should find a way to transcribe it into emacs lisp.

Hmm, you mean have emacs warn you when you violate the guidelines?

Yeah, or give metrics.

There should be a startup in here. Paste bad writing in. Get good writing out. Improve income by 30%.

Post reply on HN