Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?

Here is a well-reviewed book on this topic:

    http://www.amazon.com/Style-Clarity-Chicago-Writing-Publishing/dp/0226899152/

From the editorial reviews:

"Telling me to 'Be clear,' " writes Joseph M. Williams in Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, "is like telling me to 'Hit the ball squarely.' I know that. What I don't know is how to do it." If you are ever going to know how to write clearly, it will be after reading Williams' book, which is a rigorous examination of--and lesson in--the elements of fine writing.

Practice writing that has an observable effect. For example, write Facebook statuses and see who "likes" or "comments" on them. Think about how you write emails and to whom. See what styles and contents tend to be effective. Try different variations.

(Don't draw conclusions too soon; there is a lot of random variation in responses.)

Also I agree with what everyone else recommends. But, in my experience, there's no substitute for these real-world experiments that appear in my day-to-day life.

For an ironic take on rhetorical devices have a look at this blog (in particular the older posts):

http://writebadlywell.blogspot.it/

Each post is an example of a writing technique... overdone. I find it brilliant in how it manages to be hilarious and insightful at the same time.

Agree, this is the way to do it. Backed by actual scientific research on how people read (surprisingly/sadly rare).

If you can actually follow all of those rules in a written document, it will be clear and easy to read. It's harder to do than it might look.

(Also, I believe Gopen has a couple books expanding on this article.)