Ironically, I like this author's style. It has a nice rhythm.
The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
#12I completely disagree with the author's point. I cannot absorb dry writing, I need to be engrossed in reading to take in the content of a book. The context that the author choose to write the book in allows you to understand the way they think about the topic. Understanding they way an expert thinks about the topic allows you to understand that topic.
Writing facts is not writing, it is listing facts.
Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
#13So instead of emulating the style of more successful people, I should instead take style guidance from this guy with a blog because he says that's how things should be? While his opinion may be interesting, I believe we can safely say that the market has spoken.
I am not making an appeal to authority here, my point is that the writers he is criticizing are far more successful than he is - and it is not a stretch to connect some of that success to their engaging style of writing.
"Am I out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong." -Seymour Skinner
Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
#14> The first advice you need to give to an academic writer is not to read a book on stylish writing but rather to read how people in their field are writing.
I was once assigned the difficult task of having discussions with students about potential cases of plagiarism. There were some interesting cases, but one stood out because it was too well written. The student had quite a remarkable answer when they were asked about it: they looked at how their source material was written and emulated the style.
This is a very important point for a couple of reasons:
1. The expectations of the audience in a given discipline can only be understood by examining other writing in that discipline.
2. There are some good academic writers out there.
Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
#15Ironically, it's hard for me to take this manifesto seriously because of the author's poor grammar. I found the awkward and/or incorrect structure of many sentences distracting and ultimately gave up after the second or third section. This doesn't invalidate the author's ideas, but it does suggest that writing style matters to at least some degree.
Right. I read the first paragraph and already found multiple grammar issues.
Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
#16As an exercise, I spent hours and hours and hours re-writing a chapter of my PhD thesis strictly according to Sword's principles. The eventual result was shorter, clearer and more readable. But it was hard work, and I'm not sure the effort justifies the reward for academic writers. For example, this post would score poorly if marked according to Sword's principles. Better to aim just for clear, short sentences.
Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
#17Writing-advice is tricky.
The people who need it most are on the far side of a chasm they can't bridge without learning to read their own writing.
Doing so takes a mix of interest/dedication and practice that I suspect are hard to hack. The closest you can get, I think, is to spend some time breaking down, analyzing, critiquing, and "fixing" things others have written. You may also fare better, in calendar time, if you like writing and reading as ends.
If someone has learned to read themselves, you can give them all sorts of great advice. If they haven't, the best you can do is give straightforward "rules" they'll have some hope of spotting and fixing in their own work.
Edits:
- Yes--I think this holds for programming.
- Taking a newswriting class is my stock recommendation for ~working people who ask me "how write?"
Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
#18Ironically, it's hard for me to take this manifesto seriously because of the author's poor grammar. I found the awkward and/or incorrect structure of many sentences distracting and ultimately gave up after the second or third section. This doesn't invalidate the author's ideas, but it does suggest that writing style matters to at least some degree.
Right. I read the first paragraph and already found multiple grammar issues.
Which are?
Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
#19I took a technical writing course in engineering school and much later a legal writing course in law school.
After LS when I started writing stuff that mattered, I studied Bryan Garner's Lawprose work. At one law firm they invited him in to give a class. I really learned a lot from his books.
One thing I hold on to closely is to respect the time of your reader. (Especially busy people like judges.)
Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right. I read the first paragraph and already found multiple grammar issues.
Which are?
Well, if we wanted to get picky, we could point out the following:
Comma splice [0]:
> I am not reading them for enjoyment, that’s what fiction is for.
Run-on sentences [1]:
> I am reading them to learn what they have to say and I have to wade through a morass of stories, pointless metaphors, geysers of words.
> They are aiming for eloquence but effluence would be a better term for what their reader gets.
But these are minor problems that are common in online writing and probably don’t distract many readers. The more important issues with this essay are pointed out in other comments here.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma_splice
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_clause_structure#Run-...