Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#1

Post by hundredwatt » Tue, Jul 06, 2010, 8:54 PM UTC

I learned to write from English literature classes and lab reports, but haven't had any additional formal training in several years.

I am planning on spending some focused time improving my writing over the next few months. Besides frequent practice, are there any techniques/books/exercises/etc that you have used to improve your writing?

Re: Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#2

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Jul 06, 2010, 9:39 PM UTC

I read a lot, that certainly seems to improve my writing. As a non-native speaker the biggest thing for me to watch out for is repetition of words or sentence fragments in a short piece. Native speakers/writers usually have a much richer vocabulary and set of idioms they can tap in to, for me it's more like lego, build complicated stuff out of endless repetition of simple blocks. That can make text very boring to read.

Re: Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#3

Post by kroger » Tue, Jul 06, 2010, 10:12 PM UTC

I recommend On Writing Well by William Zinsser:

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-Nonficti...

Re: Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#4

Post by drallison » Tue, Jul 06, 2010, 10:24 PM UTC

BUGS in Writing, Revised Edition: A Guide to Debugging Your Prose (2nd Edition) [Paperback] Lyn Dupre (Author)

This is a useful and sometimes inspiring book. Lyn Dupre was copy editor for some of Don Knuth's books.

Also, take a look at this outstanding list on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R2ECKRZ...

Reading through that list has sent me off to find a out-of-print paper copy of Don Knuth's Mathematical Writing (Mathematical Association of America Notes), much of the content of which can be found on his website.

And if you really want to improve your writing, spend a bit of money and hire a good editor and track the changes. Good editors are hard to find and worth their weight in gold; if you need a recommendation, let me know off-line.

Re: Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#5

Post by seaotter » Tue, Jul 06, 2010, 10:32 PM UTC

It seems a little strange, but get thee to a dictionary, and learn every word you can, the meanings, etc. Sometimes just having an excellent sense of word power can really take you far. It sure helped me growing up. :-)

Re: Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#6

Post by joeld42 » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 12:29 AM UTC

The best way to improve any type of writing is workshopping. Find other people writing similar material, and offer to give them feedback on pieces they are working on if they will do the same.

There are plenty of established online workshops for fiction, but with a bit of searching you can find people willing to do this for any type of writing, non-fiction, essays, reporting, technical writing, etc.

All the practice and theory or technique books in the world won't help you much if you don't have an audience to let you know what's working and what isn't.

Re: Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#7

Post by inetsee » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 3:14 AM UTC

kroger wrote: post #3

I recommend On Writing Well by William Zinsser: http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-Nonficti...

I think Writing to Learn by William Zinsser:

(http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Learn-William-Zinsser/dp/00627...)

would also be a good choice.

Re: Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#8

Post by parka » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 3:51 AM UTC

I recommend "Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer" by Roy Peter Clark.

Expect improvement immediately.

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Tools-Essential-Strategies-Wri...

Re: Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#9

Post by mattgratt » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 4:08 AM UTC

Elements of Style by Strunk and White

If you want to learn copywriting, there's a correspondence course from AWAI that's pretty useful. I learned some things when I took it. (It's sold in a very "yellow highlighter/red underline/internet marketing" way, but it's very valuable.)

Re: Ask HN: Effectively improving your writing ability

#10

Post by drats » Wed, Jul 07, 2010, 6:12 AM UTC

seaotter wrote: post #5

It seems a little strange, but get thee to a dictionary, and learn every word you can, the meanings, etc. Sometimes just having an excellent sense of word power can really take you far. It sure helped me growing up. :-)

Embiggen your vocabulary. It's a pity the full OED isn't free, it's a beautiful resource.