Stephen Fry ranting on language nazis:
Season 2, Episode 3: Language: http://www.stephenfry.com/category/media/audio/
I don't really know who he is, but he make some very convincing arguments.
Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
51–60 of 75 posts
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#52[deleted]
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#53Also related, feeling lazy? Use Steve Hanov's word-removal tool to remove unnecessary words from your sentences: http://stevehanov.ca/blog/index.php?id=52
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#54Are there any software packages or web services that help with this? Writing is a huge part of my job but because I'm english second language I'm lacking the intuitive sense for such rules. Especially since I learned most of my english in my formative years on internet forums...
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#55Some of the comments I've read seem to misunderstand the purpose of this page. This isn't the objectively best writing style, this is a concise writing style. No, it might not be the most pleasant to read, because extremely to-the-point short sentences sound blunt. The guidelines provided for writing short and concise sentences are very useful, if that's the style you are aiming for.
This is a good default style. If you can write clearly, you can also write in other styles for artistic effect. It's like learning scales for your instrument. If you can't play scales well, you can't play Beethoven or George Crumb well either.
To look at it another way, these are the rules that are made to be broken in the service of stylized writing. If you don't know the rules, you won't know when to break them.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#56The principles listed here are sound and helpful. If you follow them, your writing style will undoubtedly improve. But do not adhere to them as rigid rules or you will suffer in your ability to express yourself. Passive voice exists for a reason. Long words can add variety, rhythm, and color to your prose. Elongated sentences can help give your writing a flow that a mere parade of short sentences can never hope to ac…
Reading this reminded me of some of the parallels one can make between writing and jazz. Ask any jazz musician and they will say that there are tons of "rules" and "suggestions" for what to play over specific harmonic movements. This is important, vital stuff for a jazz musician.
However, they will also say to forget all that and go beyond, because expression shouldn't be confined by rules.
I've always thought you abide by the rules just long enough to spot their usefulness and then your throw them out the window and create something new.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#57I'm positive the second comma shouldn't be there. (I wouldn't normally comment on commas, but it seems on-topic...)
Unless the intent was: Writing clear sentences. and then 'concise' was added. As if to mean: Writing clear (concise) sentences.
The "concise" in "Writing clear, concise, sentences" is a non-restrictive adjective, tacked on as secondary information, and spoken between two pauses, with a different pitch to the other 3 words. The sentence could mean the speaker or author thinks sentences must be concise to be clear.
The "concise", like the "clear", in "Writing clear concise sentences" is a restrictive adjective, primary to the meaning of the sentence, with all words spoken at the same pitch. Clarity and conciseness are orthogonal. Perhaps there's a slight pause between clear and concise, which could be shown with a single comma.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#58The principles listed here are sound and helpful. If you follow them, your writing style will undoubtedly improve. But do not adhere to them as rigid rules or you will suffer in your ability to express yourself. Passive voice exists for a reason. Long words can add variety, rhythm, and color to your prose. Elongated sentences can help give your writing a flow that a mere parade of short sentences can never hope to ac…
Much truth here. Years ago I took a summer school course in technical and scientific writing involving intense exercises in ruthlessly eliminating passive voice (regardless of the gymnastics involved in doing so) and many other common tropes of academic writing. The course was like a cell-obliterating chemotherapy against whatever creative writing voice I had managed to put together at that age, and it took years to overcome the effects.
Toss in a good measure of courses involving study of Hemingway and Vonnegut and I was a wreck for years. A passive construction, a ten-dollar word, the odd adverb--all had me in doubt and writing the most vanilla prose.
So it goes.
It was only when I started participating in NaNoWriMo that the forced march of cranking out 1666 words a night for a month combined with the permission to produce a shitty first draft allowed me to being my recovery.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#59I'm positive the second comma shouldn't be there. (I wouldn't normally comment on commas, but it seems on-topic...)
We're being needlessly cheeky here. It isn't on every page and it isn't on the pdf. I propose it's an accident which happend when the document was moved from Word to the web. Notice the comma makes sense in How to Write Clear, Concise, and Direct Sentences. They just removed and Direct to shorten the title and someone, not necessarily the authors, mistakenly left the comma.
Re: Writing Clear, Concise, Sentences
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That is a moronic dictum. I've always followed Fowler's Modern.