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Seven Sins of Writing

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Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#21

Post by raincole »

martinjacobd wrote: post #6

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

Tell ChatGPT to rewrite your article. See why it's output is longer than the original text. That's wordiness.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#22

Post by [deleted] »

martinjacobd wrote: post #6

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

[deleted]

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#23

Post by HumblyTossed »

martinjacobd wrote: post #6

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

Don't read much Stephen King, do you?

I jest. But seriously...

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#24

Post by mistercheph »

Gunax wrote: post #17

My disappointment in my education is how much these rules were emphasized over content. The hard part of writing is content--not syntax. Just like programming is about logic, and syntax is a minor nitpick one needs to know. But I think the real reason these rules were emphasized so much is that they are easy to grade and explain.

I agree with this, people seriously underestimate the degree to which minimum viable effort is the guiding principle of the education stack. Making students engaged in writing critically and creatively and communicatively is a much more difficult and poorly defined task than inventing or choosing at random (from style guides that have never been used by any impactful writers ever) rules of English grammar and style and then mechanistically applying them. This generates an exceedingly great amount of profit for the textbook writers and professional development folks that reinvent and retrain teachers in ad-hoc ineffective techniques every two years. Teachers, administrators, curriculum, textbook authors, school boards, edtech, local politicians, and students all conspiring to make education as mechanistic and unimpactful as possible because it satisfies the requirements of the world external to education while demanding the least possible effort and interest from all who participate. There are many, many exceptions of course, especially among the two classes that have a primary existence instead of a rent-seeking one (teachers and students), but this is the rule in the United States today.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#25

Post by Nevermark »

smilespray wrote: post #12
version_five wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be an (n+1)th rule for these lists that's break the rules when you want, just know you're breaking them and do it because you like the result better, not out of sloppiness.

My teachers told me this is true for almost all lists of rules. YMMV.

Rules (which don’t involve courts & prisons) are just shorthand for reasons.

The better you understand the reasons behind the rules, the easier it will be to know when to break them.

Or, in an artistic sense, how best to dramatically or subtly break them in service to some creative perspective.

Any of them! All of them!

This is as true in architecture, rocket design, fashion and etiquette, as it is in prose.

—-

And this is why organizations that impose process without delegating and encouraging an organization-wide agency to make intentional exceptions, smother innovation so effectively.

They lose most of their creative and adaptive abilities.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#26

Post by [deleted] »

enkid wrote: post #13
grahamlee wrote: post #2

“Avoid the passive voice” is a rule that annoys me. Sometimes, the rule that’s annoying is more important than the person that’s being annoyed.

The problem is that most people who say this don't know what the passive voice means. What they want to say is make the most important noun in the sentence the subject and keep the subject near the beginning of the sentence. That concept is only tangentially related to the grammatical voice being used.

[deleted]

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#27

Post by matwood »

martinjacobd wrote: post #6

I wish I understood what "wordiness" means. Perhaps it's restating the same simple point three times in as many loose sentences. People who harp on this point usually point to the writing of Hemingway and similar writers (Carver comes to mind). All of these men are better writers than I am, but I still prefer to read Nabokov. Could Nabokov have "made his point" in fewer words? Almost certainly, but I wouldn't have en…

I recently read Smart Brevity and it had a number of tips to deal with wordiness.

Use simple words and be direct.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#28

Post by creata »

cebert wrote: post #5

I’ve always seen recommendations to avoid passive voice in writing. However, when I encounter passive voice it doesn’t bother me. It also is one of my more frequent writing mistakes. Is this still considered bad practice?

Yes. Some people (especially when they're trying to sound formal or impartial) use the passive voice way too much.

Re: Seven Sins of Writing

#29

Post by kazinator »

Sin 7: introducing a small number of categories each of which promises to cover one point, and sticking to the format until the last category, which is stuffed with 17 more independent points.
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