Read great novels of all era's.
Also, cultivate good email relationships with people from far away that you love and respect.
Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
41–50 of 86 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
#42Avoid cliches. A cliche being a phrase that is familiar but content-free or even contradictory. Like, "I don't mean to be a jerk, but ..."
This helps tune your focus on making each word participate in creating meaning in the head of your reader.
Also, avoid creative analogies.
Re: Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
#43Jakob Nilsen guarantees that if you don't follow these rules only your mom will read your text.
- Use words that make sense to your audience.
- Convey one idea in each paragraph.
- Introduce the paragraph’s idea in the first sentence so people can quickly decide whether to read the paragraph.
- Use meaningful headings.
- Highlight keywords.
- Use bullet lists.
- Keep text short, simple, and informal.
- Start text with conclusions, and include a summary of its content.
Re: Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
#44Here's a great guide to writing clearly/concisely:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y8862uack1he3f9/How%20to%20Write%2...
Re: Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
#45Step 1: Don't use unexpanded acronyms or anything like "USP."
...Unless your target audience knows those acronyms. (And, by the way, "USP" is technically an abbreviation; it's not an acronym until it is pronounced as a word rather than as the letters that comprise it.)
Writing well is not about the writer; it's about the writer knowing their audience. The more you know about the people you're writing for, the better what you write will resonate with those readers.
Re: Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
#46In high school, I was lucky to have multiple teachers who were sticklers for imparting the essential building blocks of strong writing. We spent a lot of time "in the weeds," rote-learning vocabulary, sentence patterns, paragraph construction, and finally, structures for the expository essay (above and beyond the academic essay we mastered in school.) The surprising thing, even to someone like me who considers hersel…
I'll add to this list my all-time favorite writing companion: Virginia Tufte's "Grammar As Style". It's been out of print forever, which is tragic, and, when you can find it, it usually sells for over $100 - even in rough shape. "Artful Sentences" is meant to replace "Grammar As Style", but I prefer the original. If you want to tie all the rules together so you can understand why we even have grammar in the first place and how truly magical grammar can be to shaping a sentence or paragraph, track down this book.
Interesting: Virginia Tufte is the mother of data visualization guru Edward Tufte.
(Other good books for writers and writers-in-training: "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamont, Stephen King's "On Writing" and a collection of letters on writing by F. Scott Fitzgerald, also called "On Writing". Oh, and please don't hate on White's "Elements of Style" --- it may be old, but it's foundational.)
Re: Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
#47KISS. Too much writing in the non-fiction world, whether it be academic, scientific, or related to business, is far too complex for its own good. This is seemingly to overwhelm, to simultaneously weed out and impress those who are not deeply versed in the subject, but in almost no cases is that a positive development. For academia and science, the point of your work should be to encourage knowledge and learning, which complex language in no way helps. In business, the last thing you want to do is assume a level of expertise from a customer, except in very specific and rare circumstances.
I am aware that there are certain fields and types of works that have to use difficult phrasing and structure for the purpose of limiting ambiguity, but often such writing is found in cases where such strictness is not necessary. So, Keep It Simple, Stupid.
P.S. - Not trying to be rude, but your initial post is a great example of writing at a more complex level that is in anyway necessary. Micro- and macrostructure, the usage of an undefined and unnecessary acronym in USP? It doesn't matter whether it is a safe assumption that your audience knows what you are talking about, as you never know when that audience may shift without your knowledge.
Re: Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
#48As a person whose core skillset is writing, not programming, I feel more qualified to comment on this particular HN thread than most others which I prefer to demure on. I love the question about how to write well. It's the craft I've dedicated my life to, and I'm grateful to see a group of really smart people investing time in the skill. It validates the effort I've poured into becoming the writer I am today. Particu…
I could keep writing about this, apparently, since my ideas keep flowing
I'd love to hear more.
Re: Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
#49In high school, I was lucky to have multiple teachers who were sticklers for imparting the essential building blocks of strong writing. We spent a lot of time "in the weeds," rote-learning vocabulary, sentence patterns, paragraph construction, and finally, structures for the expository essay (above and beyond the academic essay we mastered in school.) The surprising thing, even to someone like me who considers hersel…
bloggergirl, you are hellbanned. For no particular reason, near as I can tell.
Re: Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?
#50Use short sentences. And break traditional rules. Like using "and" or "but" at the beginning of a sentence. Favor verbs. Avoid superfluous adjectives.
Paragraphs can be brief.
Bring people into your writing, wherever possible. That is, express your ideas through relatable stories involving people, wherever possible.
Many of these tips were yanked from Cliff Stoll, author of "The Cuckoo's Egg". As well as a book called, "The Art of PlainTalk", by Rudolph Flesch. Stoll was responding to criticism that his first book had been ghostwritten -- few could believe the guy could actually write.
Lastly, write frequently. A writing teacher of mine used to have us "free write" every morning for fifteen minutes. That's where you start writing about the first thing that pops in your head, and you don't stop writing until the time is up. Give it a try.