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Write Simply

paulgraham.com

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Re: Write Simply

#251

Post by thanhhaimai »

Am I the only one not very fond of this style of writing? It's the constant pauses and hiccups that I'm reading. Four paragraphs into it, and I still don't get a lot of information about what the author is trying to convey.

In good essays, the first and last sentence in a paragraph are often enough to summarize the points. It helps set the context, and makes it much easier for the reader to make a mental map of the overall idea. In this article, its "hiccup" style of writing makes it much harder to build a mental map. You can't predict where it will go until you fully read the sentence.

I usually enjoy reading most of PG essays. For this one, I don't enjoy reading it, and I stopped reading after paragraph 4.

Re: Write Simply

#252

Post by ozim »

aabhay wrote: post #20

I think there are two sources of confirmation bias here: 1. People on HN are already primed to appreciate this style of writing. Simple. Precise. Direct. It suits a technical literal mind to have less ambiguity and fewer flourishes. 2. On the web, where each individual piece of writing is not meant to last as long, the writing style has become more casual. Consider the difference between your average Medium article v…

I also will defend PG point.

Most of us are not creating greatest works of English literature and me or many others are not James Joyce neither David Foster Wallace.

If you are writing some greatest work of literature please use all the tools that language gives you.

But for clear communication use simple language, please.

Re: Write Simply

#253

Post by whalesalad »

thanhhaimai wrote: post #251

Am I the only one not very fond of this style of writing? It's the constant pauses and hiccups that I'm reading. Four paragraphs into it, and I still don't get a lot of information about what the author is trying to convey. In good essays, the first and last sentence in a paragraph are often enough to summarize the points. It helps set the context, and makes it much easier for the reader to make a mental map of the o…

I normally have a very hard time reading his essays.

Re: Write Simply

#254

Post by ozim »

thanhhaimai wrote: post #251

Am I the only one not very fond of this style of writing? It's the constant pauses and hiccups that I'm reading. Four paragraphs into it, and I still don't get a lot of information about what the author is trying to convey. In good essays, the first and last sentence in a paragraph are often enough to summarize the points. It helps set the context, and makes it much easier for the reader to make a mental map of the o…

I have to agree there was something off with the tempo of this essay. There were too many too short paragraphs.

Re: Write Simply

#255

Post by yt-sdb »

lelanthran wrote: post #181
davidivadavid wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because James Joyce's style isn't "simple" by any stretch of the imagination, I would guess? And the essay presents its position as a general statement void of all context. What context are we supposed to assume here?

> And the essay presents its position as a general statement void of all context. Are you sure? From the blog (first sentence): > I try to write using ordinary words and simple sentences. Since the "I" in this case refers to someone who does not write poetry, speculative fiction, drama, tragedies, comedies ... and only ever writes for a technical audience, the context is clear: technical[1] audience not seeking poetr…

The title of the essay is "Write Simply." Furthermore, the second sentence is more general than the first:

> That kind of writing is easier to read, and the easier something is to read, the more deeply readers will engage with it.

That is a general claim. I agree that it is often good advice, but there are caveats which Graham does not provide.

Re: Write Simply

#256

Post by andy_ppp »

keiferski wrote: post #118
andy_ppp wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain that? As an engineer I think generally anything that can be done more simply is nearly always better.

Not the parent poster, but: think of speed bumps. They force you to slow down and pay more attention to the road. Some writers, particularly post-modern ones, aim at the same thing. By forcing you to read their works carefully, you'll (in theory) be forced to think about them more.

I don’t think this essay precludes that either, the 1% of 1% of books that are made better by being Proust rather than Vonnegut. And the chances of you being Proust are essentially zero.

Re: Write Simply

#257

Post by the_pwner224 »

cousin_it wrote: post #77

When something feels easy to read, it's not just a matter of using simple words. To maximize scanability, you need to use a mix of long and short words, and also mix long and short sentences, until you achieve a kind of "flow". Famously, Dovlatov's prose (in Russian) avoids having words that start with the same letter in the same sentence, which is unnoticeable to the reader but makes the words just fly off the page.…

Along the lines of what you point out, I've noticed that the word 'read' often causes misparsing - but you don't realize until you've read on for a bit more and realize that the sentence doesn't make any sense. At that point you read the sentence twice again and realize that it was using the other meaning of read.

This is something that I've run into commonly enough that I try to write 'read' only for the present tense 'read a book', and 'redd' for the past tense 'redd the email.'

Re: Write Simply

#260

Post by mattowen_uk »

Whereas I have no opinion about PGs style of writing, I do however wish he'd push out that table width from 435 to something between 700-800, for readability.

Sometimes, it's not just about the words, but the layout also.

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