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

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

#51

Post by FreakLegion »

austingunter wrote: post #38

As 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…

Yep, leaving a preposition at the end of the sentence is grammatically incorrect

No it isn't. Latin-based grammars trumpeted this "rule" for many years[1], but those days and that theory of English grammar are long gone. In Churchill's words: "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."

Edit: I don't disagree with the gist of your advice, of course. This is just a bizarre illustration of "know your audience," and would be even if the grammatical rule you chose were correct. "Know your audience" is about much more than grammar.

1. The reasoning being that in Latin it's impossible to end a sentence with a preposition, and thus, obviously, to do so in English is simply badwrong.

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

#52

Post by qeorge »

Buy Dragon Naturally Speaking and start dictating. You can pump out an amazing amount of words when you don't have to write them down.

Then edit your giant pile of words into something better, instead of starting from a blank page.

The more you "write" the better you'll get. This is a hack for writing faster so you can speed up your progress.

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

#53

Post by jhund »

verdverm wrote: post #14

The article "The Science of Scientific Writing" (www.unc.edu/~haipeng/teaching/sci.pdf) forever change my writing. It's writing for the unconscious psychology of the reader's expectations. It also has a great list of points to keep in mind while writing. 1. Follow a grammatical subject as soon as possible with its verb. 2. Place in the stress position the "new information" you want the reader to emphasize. 3. Place t…

Based on this recommendation I read the article and found it extremely insightful. The authors claim that you can re-structure your writing to make it easier to understand without dumbing it down or even removing jargon. Just by following the recommendations listed in the parent comment. They also have good before/after examples for illustration.

I highly recommend the article for anybody who has to convey complex ideas with words.

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

#57

Post by rezendi »

Bona fides / credibility: I'm an award-winning novelist and occasional journalist. (Though I'm also a TechCrunch columnist, which presumably cripples my credibility if you're a knee-jerk hater of all things TC...)

The single best way to improve your writing is to read a lot of great writing. For nonfiction, I recommend, in particular:

- George Orwell - John McPhee - Ryszard Kapuscinski - Gail Collins

The second best way to improve your writing is to learn how to see what is wrong with it. (Or, as Hemingway once said, "The one thing a writer needs most is a first-rate bullshit detector.") Don't focus on writing well, at least not at first. Focus on learning how to read like a first-time reader, and on _editing_ well. In time the writing will follow.

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

#58

Post by DigitalJack »

qeorge wrote: post #52

Buy Dragon Naturally Speaking and start dictating. You can pump out an amazing amount of words when you don't have to write them down. Then edit your giant pile of words into something better, instead of starting from a blank page. The more you "write" the better you'll get. This is a hack for writing faster so you can speed up your progress.

I do this, though I don't have dragon (yet). I just record on my iphone, and then use a free app (ExpressScribe) for transliterating it.

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

#59

Post by jessedhillon »

austingunter wrote: post #38

As 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…

Brevity and succinctness are much-valued and underappreciated traits of good writing.

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

#60

Post by wallflower »

Writing can be dissected analytically but there is always a component of emotional appeal that makes writing connect.

One of the best examples I can think of is the story of Sugru:

http://sugru.com/story

To practice writing with emotional appeal, I suggest you practice public speaking. For instance, go to a public forum like a lecture or zoning board meeting where there is a formal Q&A period (with a microphone set up). Listen to the discussion/lecture and wait in line for the mic and attempt to articulate an argument/point of view that is short and draws on a personal story and makes a point.

I also recommend Stephen King's "On Writing"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Writing

Good luck!

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