31–40 of 135 posts
Reading works written by masters is one way in which one can organically internalize the art of writing well. Another thought that comes to my mind regarding writing is that why does one have to necessarily follow a particular set of rules? Writing is an art. You should be able to develop and hone your own style, your own signature, something that stands apart from others, yet is readable and lucid.
I find rules are an excellent way to quickly get up to a reasonable level. One can discover these rules by trial and error, but this takes time and practice.
When one is comfortable working within these rules, they can then be broken for effect.
I think most great artists started as an apprentice, before becoming the master.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People don't read on the internet, they only skim. Short sentences are better for that.
You promote short sentences but I asked about single-sentence paragraphs. Maybe you only skimmed my comment? :)
I found this very hard to read. There are so many short sentences and bullet points that it looks like a PowerPoint presentation masquerading as prose. What he seems to have lost with this approach is a rhythm. It's a staccato battering with ideas. I'd much rather be seduced and cradled by writing that made me feel I'm learning by osmosis and not trepanning. EDIT: The author illustrates how his writing goes wrong by…
I personally find that style very annoying. It’s especially popular on LinkedIn. When I notice that I’m reading some vertically-set essay, it’s my cue to stop scrolling and stay off LinkedIn for the next month.
https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writ...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s not a “wall of text.” The typography, layout and paragraphs are done in a fashion that makes them quite readable in digital format. Note that the paragraphs are not indented, space-separated, and the text is left-justified. The use of a serif font is somewhat unusual for a digital medium, but it’s a very crisp, “light” font, presented with maximum contrast, on a pure white background. That is a concession to d…
Ah, perhaps I misunderstood. You said "I still believe in short paragraphs," which I did not understand to mean "I believe in excellent typography".
Basically, I think we've all encountered sites that have huge blocks of text that could be broken into discrete sections (AKA "paragraphs").
Paragraphing is a bit of an "artform." All of the rules are heuristics, not "hard and fast." I feel that it helps my prose to be more readable, if I break it up.
One reason is that, even though I am fairly prolific, I am not a "top notch" writer, so I need all the help I can get.
Poor writers with substance can create compelling content.
Sometimes I want the cliff notes and sometimes I want to be enamored with some lovely prose that leads me somewhere and makes me think.
I found this very hard to read. There are so many short sentences and bullet points that it looks like a PowerPoint presentation masquerading as prose. What he seems to have lost with this approach is a rhythm. It's a staccato battering with ideas. I'd much rather be seduced and cradled by writing that made me feel I'm learning by osmosis and not trepanning. EDIT: The author illustrates how his writing goes wrong by…
I find it harder to understand as well. I do get it but I see that a lot of my fellow non-native speakers will struggle with this kind of writing. Second sentence is way more complex then the whole original paragraph. "Succint", "filler", "buries", "bores into quitting" - whoah. Give me a breath, please! Is this an articatle on how to write good looking text, or easy to understand text? At first glance I though it was supposed to ilustrate the exact opposite of what it tries to ilustrate.
The whole first page is composed of only bullet points and it requires a lot of focus and effort to go through. I had no urge to click to the next page after that introduction. Is it grandiose (had to google that), or do they treat me like an idiot? Bizarre.
It's like reading a list of quotes from famous people. If you would read it aloud after 3 or 4 of these I'm done. Next ones could be a dinner recipe - I might not notice.
When I write to much and too fast (like now I am, sorry!) I like to remind myself how authors write on sites for beginners in a particular language [0][1]. It's clean and doesn't treat me like an idiot.
Unrelated: What style of icons and graphics are these? They seem hand drawn but I am wondering if stylistically there is a name so I can hunt down something similar or find more inspiration like this.