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Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

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Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#61

Post by CaptSpify »

pjungwir wrote: post #47

In college I helped a lot of people write papers, and almost always they were trying to "sound academic", and the sentences were so complex they didn't even parse. So I'd ask, "What does this mean?", and whatever they said, I'd reply, "Write that down!" Basically they were trying too hard. It reminds me of the common advice to edit your work by reading it out loud. If you are a great writer your prose might be better…

To be fair, I think schools encourage this sort of behavior. I've had countless "$x number of words/pages, minimum" writing assignments. Eventually, you start to be convinced that every teacher wants it that way.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#62

Post by walshemj »

jbob2000 wrote: post #3

Eh, I think he's mistaken. Journalists aren't good at writing because they took a course, they're good at writing because they write. A lot. You want better memos, hold memo-writing practice sessions every week and give constant feedback. Ripping a memo up and saying "take a course" is ignorant.

Actually the subs rewrite most of the journalists copy and fix all the grammar and spelling

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#63

Post by n0us »

jbob2000 wrote: post #3

Eh, I think he's mistaken. Journalists aren't good at writing because they took a course, they're good at writing because they write. A lot. You want better memos, hold memo-writing practice sessions every week and give constant feedback. Ripping a memo up and saying "take a course" is ignorant.

Its the same as coding. People are good at writing code because they write a lot, however a person who is at the top of their game still might be benefited by taking a computer science course or two.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#64

Post by dangerlibrary »

retbull wrote: post #59
paul wrote: post #41

This also is good advice for anyone applying to YC. I'm not going to read your 10,000 word manifesto -- just tell me what it is you are building! :) We've actually found that the ability to provide clear and concise answers strongly correlates with success, so this is a major factor when evaluating founders. I'm also reminded of my favorite C. A. R. Hoare quote: "There are two ways of constructing a software design:…

So pitches should follow coding practices? No pitch is longer than one screen. Line width is 80 characters. Sentences should be about one thing and one thing only. Names should clearly describe what the thing they name do.

You could do a lot worse...

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#65

Post by kwhitefoot »

dionidium wrote: post #40
heydenberk wrote: post #21

Read your writing out loud to yourself, carefully observing the punctuation. You won't become Hemingway, but you will find the most obvious flaws in your writing.

The only problem with this technique is that people start dropping in commas everywhere they'd take a breath. It's a pretty good approach, otherwise.

Excess commas seems to be an especially US problem. Here in Norway one of my sons had Norwegian teacher of English who studied in America. We often had to point out that half the commas she wanted in his writing were unnecessary.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#66

Post by kwhitefoot »

jbob2000 wrote: post #3

Eh, I think he's mistaken. Journalists aren't good at writing because they took a course, they're good at writing because they write. A lot. You want better memos, hold memo-writing practice sessions every week and give constant feedback. Ripping a memo up and saying "take a course" is ignorant.

I suspect confirmation bias here. Most journalists don't write well at all.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#68

Post by justin_vanw »

joshu wrote: post #17

For the startup world: Approximately 80% of the pitches I get are between garbled and incoherent. Even higher in the unsolicited ones. Consider that your recipient is reading on a small screen and utilize pyramid structure. And don't bury the lede. Many pitches ask for money without saying anything at all about what they are about.

Right. Most pitches are by losers. Learning to write won't make their ideas less stupid, and it won't make their execution any less pathetic. You will get a very clear picture of what they are trying to do though?

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#69

Post by ryw90 »

jackschultz wrote: post #11

Wow all the comments here seem negative. The guy is just saying that people should be clearer with their writing and getting to the point right away to avoid confusion. If they're writing about a topic that's more complex, sure, the writing will need to be more complex. But there's nothing wrong with communicating simply if the subject allows it.

It's even possible to write simply about complex topics. Nobel Prize announcements are especially good at this, see e.g. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/201.... Obviously nobody's going to walk away from a summary with a full understanding of a deep subject, but some of the key ideas have been conveyed.

Re: Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

#70

Post by zo1 »

dionidium wrote: post #40
heydenberk wrote: post #21

Read your writing out loud to yourself, carefully observing the punctuation. You won't become Hemingway, but you will find the most obvious flaws in your writing.

The only problem with this technique is that people start dropping in commas everywhere they'd take a breath. It's a pretty good approach, otherwise.

I have that habit, though not because I read my stuff out loud and use pauses as an indicator for comma placement. It just reads better to me, with having "semi-separators" that I don't quite feel justify a separate sentence, but help with the flow of what's being said.

Looks like I did it twice just now.

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