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Write Simply

paulgraham.com

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Re: Write Simply

#301

Post by mym1990 »

a4isms wrote: post #275

I have opinions about writing. So does Mr. Graham. What our opinions have in common is that they are not falsifiable . Unless we validate our conjectures with empirical evidence, we're really just sharing our taste. "Oh no," you may say, "I have tested it, and when I write a longer essay, my retweets and upvotes decline." Very well, but the plural of anecdote is not 'data.' Somewhere else on the Internet, there is so…

I saw a lot of irony in reading this comment, most of which I did not understand, after reading the OP.

Re: Write Simply

#303

Post by pgayed »

gojomo wrote: post #239

For grins I pasted PG's text into the demo readability tool at https://app.readable.com/text/?demo >. 'Write Simply' received an overall grade of 'A', and a very-approachable Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 5.9. It's said to be readable by 100% of the literate general public, which is only 85% of the full general public. But, out of the 507 words and 38 sentences, 4 sentences were flagged as "very long" (over 30 syllab…

Unnecessarily intellectual is unnecessarily intellectual. Autological, too.

Re: Write Simply

#304

Post by for_i_in_range »

Simply is not depth, but breadth.

Write truly, not simply.

“The great thing is to last and get your work done and see and hear and learn and understand; and write when there is something that you know; and not before; and not too damned much after.”

- Ernest Hemingway, Death In The Afternoon

Re: Write Simply

#306

Post by sanderjd »

For me, this is one of those things where the distributions have different skew. I think the median example of less simple writing is indeed worse than the median example of simple writing, but that the graphs cross at some point to the right of that, such that better examples of less simple writing are better than better examples of simple writing, and great examples of less simple writing are much better than great examples of simple writing. (I recognize that this is all subjective, but this is how I think about it.)

The genre also matters a lot. For sure I think simple writing is the better choice for Graham's topics, but I think it's much more open for fictional writing, and that some kinds of non fiction essays also benefit from less simplicity (again, keeping in mind the distribution effect discussed above).

For instance, one of my favorite essays is David Foster Wallace's "This Is Water". It is not simple, but it is much more effective than an essay using simple language to make the point that we often don't realize the things that we are immersed in. But I come across examples of this by good writers who do not usually use simple language who I believe are usually more compelling than writers like Graham.

Re: Write Simply

#307

Post by clwk »

villasv wrote: post #294
clwk wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't get through Pinker's book. He cites 'Clear and Simple as the Truth' as inspiration, but his acorn falls so far from the tree.

I think he mostly does as he preaches. My biggest complaint is the occasional contradiction, but if you read other writing style guides, he is not more contradictory than the average.

It’s more that the former book sets a very high bar I don’t think he clears in the attempt to make the topic more accessible.

Re: Write Simply

#308

Post by okareaman »

wellpast wrote: post #297
a4isms wrote: post #275

I have opinions about writing. So does Mr. Graham. What our opinions have in common is that they are not falsifiable . Unless we validate our conjectures with empirical evidence, we're really just sharing our taste. "Oh no," you may say, "I have tested it, and when I write a longer essay, my retweets and upvotes decline." Very well, but the plural of anecdote is not 'data.' Somewhere else on the Internet, there is so…

Many a “writer’s” audience is a majority their mother. Sure, producers and consumers “find each other” but that’s no where near the end of the story. You have a flaw in your reasoning here. Not all that is true is falsifiable.

I saw a writing tip on Twitter the other day that said write like your parent are already dead, which is another way of saying write with less inner critic

Re: Write Simply

#309

Post by okareaman »

Kurt Vonnegut wrote simply. He did this to create a feeling of being a lost child in a lost world (Billy Pilgrim, Slaughterhouse 5 for example.)

On the other hand, arguable the greatest sentence in the English language, the opening paragraph from Moby Dick is not written simply, yet Melville makes it flow.

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodologically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball... I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

Vonnegut and Melville were great writers. Paul Graham is a great programmer turned businessman who likes to dabble at writing.

Re: Write Simply

#310

Post by ilrwbwrkhv »

mym1990 wrote: post #301
a4isms wrote: post #275

I have opinions about writing. So does Mr. Graham. What our opinions have in common is that they are not falsifiable . Unless we validate our conjectures with empirical evidence, we're really just sharing our taste. "Oh no," you may say, "I have tested it, and when I write a longer essay, my retweets and upvotes decline." Very well, but the plural of anecdote is not 'data.' Somewhere else on the Internet, there is so…

I saw a lot of irony in reading this comment, most of which I did not understand, after reading the OP.

haha so true
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