> Looking back, I always struggle with writing. Shouldn't it be "struggled"? (Sorry, I had to.)
> I can bear the pain of writing in high school, but I almost gave up in university And this should be "could"?
Fixed it :)
Steps to Improve Your Writing
21–30 of 76 posts
Re: Steps to Improve Your Writing
#22> “Regular patterns of drought and precipitation have been found to coincide with cycles of sunspot activity” > which can be simplified to: > “Regular patterns of drought and precipitation coincide with cycles of sunspot activity” > Not only the phrase “have been found” adds nothing to the prose, it also does not state the subject. Removing the phrase will make the prose above more concise. This, and by leaving out t…
That's not how science works. "Have been found" is not a weasel phrase, it's an accurate description of empirical observations.
It also implies you weren't the one to find it and are you relaying that information to the reader.
Re: Steps to Improve Your Writing
#23As a non native english-speaker, my struggles in my original language is finishing sentences early instead doing long ones. Sometimes I write long phrases, full of commas, semicolons, etc. I found that in enlish people tend to be more conservative when writing sentences.
This is also the case in my native language (French), I assume it's pretty common for Latin languages.
Re: Steps to Improve Your Writing
#24> “Regular patterns of drought and precipitation have been found to coincide with cycles of sunspot activity” > which can be simplified to: > “Regular patterns of drought and precipitation coincide with cycles of sunspot activity” > Not only the phrase “have been found” adds nothing to the prose, it also does not state the subject. Removing the phrase will make the prose above more concise. This, and by leaving out t…
That's not how science works. "Have been found" is not a weasel phrase, it's an accurate description of empirical observations.
It is a weasel phrase: It gets you out of citing your source for the information, which deprives the reader of judging its accuracy for themselves. I'd probably write it this way:
"Jones (2018) showed that regular patterns of drought and precipitation coincide with cycles of sunspot activity."
Re: Steps to Improve Your Writing
#25Definitely these two:
1. Good writing is clear 4. Good writing is concise
Use a simple, reduced vocabulary, as your readers are likely to have English as a second language (e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-44569277). And as Richard Feynman pointed out, try explaining it to a child. If you can't go back and rewrite it.
Don't use (modern) slang, and avoid writing 'conversational' English.
It's "lessons" not "learnings". How much have you eaten? How many eatings have you had? Ugh.
Don't use 'ping' or 'reach out' (you're not the Four Tops).
And what on earth is "welp/whelp" that people have started using in the last couple of years? It's "well, for one thing..."
Re: Steps to Improve Your Writing
#26Some good tips, but I read the section on nominalisation three times and I can't for the life of me tell you what nominalisation means or how to apply it (or not). However, it piqued my interest in the concept, and this article helped me get a little closer: https://unilearning.uow.edu.au/academic/3b.html
Pinker writes a useful explanation: > A process called nominalization takes a perfectly spry verb and embalms it into a lifeless noun by adding a suffix like –ance, –ment, or –ation. Instead of affirming an idea, you effect its affirmation; rather than postponing something, you implement a postponement. Helen Sword calls them "zombie nouns" because they lumber across the scene without a conscious agent directing thei…
Thanks!
Re: Steps to Improve Your Writing
#27As a non native english-speaker, my struggles in my original language is finishing sentences early instead doing long ones. Sometimes I write long phrases, full of commas, semicolons, etc. I found that in enlish people tend to be more conservative when writing sentences.
This is also the case in my native language (French), I assume it's pretty common for Latin languages.
I only speak English but share this hypothesis based on reading translated novels from Latin language writers. Jose Saramago (Portuguese) is a striking example. Beautiful stuff but characteristically different from how native English speakers structure things.
Re: Steps to Improve Your Writing
#28Definitely these two: 1. Good writing is clear 4. Good writing is concise Use a simple, reduced vocabulary, as your readers are likely to have English as a second language (e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-44569277 ). And as Richard Feynman pointed out, try explaining it to a child. If you can't go back and rewrite it. Don't use (modern) slang, and avoid writing 'conversational' English. It's "lessons" not "lear…
English is my fourth language. I hate seeing advice like "use simple, reduced vocabulary". Dumbing everything down is not a way to go.
Feynman said, that if you cannot explaind it to a child you do not understand it, not that you should communicate with everyone like they were kids.
Re: Steps to Improve Your Writing
#29I've been writing for several years, and the more I blog, write training materials, or just write to customers, three things keep helping me improve:
1) Less is more. A) Write all you like, and then cut out all the stuff that doesn't matter. Like the way you just said the same thing 3 times in a row. B) The less you say the less someone has to argue with. The opposite is also true C) Stick to main points and save gory details for later, unless you're in the "Gory Details" section already.
2) Read your writing out loud. What looks great on the page might sound terrible aloud. If it sounds terrible aloud, then it'll be awkward for others to read, too.
3) Just write. Get the words onto the page. This is the hardest but most important thing. Don't pay attention to form, redundancy, spelling, grammar, or redundancy. Just get the words down. These so-called brain dumps will help you get expressive. Then you can edit the heck out of yourself as mentioned in 1 and 2.
4) Okay, a fourth. No matter what you write, read Steven King's "On Writing" to find out what it means to "kill your darlings". Epic book.
Re: Steps to Improve Your Writing
#30Hi everyone, OP here. Writing has always been a struggle for me. I just started to post consistently on this blog two weeks ago. Didn't expect this to get to the front page of HN. I hope you guys find it helpful. I'd appreciate any feedback or comment on the post! P.S: Fixed all the grammatical errors in the post.
Hey Adam, the content itself is great and the tips are bang on. However, I think you should proof read the article again. An article on 'Improving Your Writing' loses a lot of credibility when it has sentences like:
> The character, 'hotel' has does an action 'wanted'.
which should be:
> The character, 'hotel', has an action, 'wanted'.
It also seems like you rely on a single source, Williams and Colomb (1990). Is this your personal summary of that book? Do you recommend reading it, or do you believe your post captures the most important points?