
How We Write - venantius
https://blog.griffin.sh/2020/06/05/how-we-write/
======
slashink
The tip that someone gave me a couple of years back that has changed my
writing is to once the document is finished, print it (or transfer to another
shaped device/change the font) and read it out loud for yourself. Transferring
the writing to another environment and medium (speech), errors that you've
missed for days suddenly become very obvious.

Doesn't take that much time and the quality of the writing goes up when
hearing the prose as I perceive it differently, which allows me to feed this
back into the final edit.

~~~
RNCTX
The best professor I remember from my undergrad days in terms of teaching the
vocation of writing gave similar advice. His was to write, read, delete, and
re-write from memory. The idea being, that you'll wind up cutting what needs
cut without bias that way. That clever sentence you're trying to save isn't so
clever if even you can't remember it after reading it.

Writing isn't hard, it's just work like anything else. I think people have a
false perception of it requiring some sort of talent, when in fact anyone can
eventually hit a home run if you let them take 50 swings.

PS: the reason reading it out loud helps is that certain multiples of
syllables per sentence tend to sound better. People tend to pair stressed /
unstressed syllables rhythmically (iambs, using the ancient word, and hence
the iambic notation mentioned in reference to Shakespeare's iambic rhymes, for
instance). Recreating the same rhythmic patterns in writing makes the phrases
on the page stand out as your mind voices them internally. So, always finish
paragraphs with short, strong, 5 or 10 syllable phrases and you'll have people
hanging on your every word and thinking you're singing the gospel to them.

~~~
pdm55
Some advice from Gary Provost, author of "Make Every Word Count".

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences
are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening.
The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck
record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing
sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And
I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader
is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a
sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a
crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say
listen to this, it is important.

So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a
sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.”

Quoted in
[http://www.timcasasola.com/blog/writing](http://www.timcasasola.com/blog/writing)

~~~
RNCTX
Bingo

> , it is important

5 syllables ;).

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soneca
Ok, I understand the value of writing, but it feels uncomfortable to me that a
company creates a _" Tone of Voice guide"_ for its employees.

I am not saying that is necessarily wrong (maybe it is), nor that is not
useful, but it just seems like another small step in removing the
individuality of the people working there. It doesn't feel right to me.

The writing advice that I follow and that I like to give is that your writing
style should reflect your personality. Your individuality should be with you
on some level even if you are representing your company in a meeting with a
client, or to the press, or internally. Writing style should be unique to you,
not to your company. An exception should be someone whose job is to be the
spokesperson or a lawyer creating a document that declares the position of the
company. But that's a very different use case from the one declared at this
guide.

The way it says _" How we write"_, _" Our voice is who we are"_, _" We are
clear/honest/transparent"_, _" We are empowering"_; it looks uncannily
familiar to the Borg.

eidt: Another thing. When they say _" Swap formal words for normal ones.
There's a whole lexicon of British "business-speak" that one can use to sound
professional, but also needlessly distant. We try to avoid that:_

It reminds of another cultural change where the principles remained just the
same, like: _" Remember when everybody on business had to wear a suit and
people would make fun of anyone who showed to work on a plain t-shirt? We are
not like that. Here we make fun of people who want to wear a suit"_.

~~~
RNCTX
I'm all for individualism in most contexts but having been the person
responsible for the bulk of an organization's message to its customers (email,
social media, and phone call etiquette), it's not a malicious intent here. The
only way you can accomplish a consistent message is by rules like these, and
the people outside of the organization who are dealing with it _want_ a
consistent message.

When you're speaking on behalf of an organization, be it a business or non-
profit or government or whatever, you're obligated to use their words. When I
pick up a novel I know I'm reading the novelist's ideas, but when I call tech
support I'm not looking to talk to Joe or Jane, I'm looking to talk to AT&T
about why their DSL equipment in my neighborhood is broken. They aren't
personally responsible for it, they're speaking for the company.

This even extends to political press. If you go read the submission guidelines
for virtually any news or political publication that accepts freelance
inquiries, you'll find that they all suggest reading a lot of their prior
articles "to get a feel for our tone and style," if they don't just outright
hand you a style guide to read such as the one linked.

You can be you standing in plain clothes on a street corner by yourself. You
can't be you when you're answering the company's phone. It's not nefarious
mind control, it's just business.

~~~
venantius
That's exactly right. We don't want /products page to noticeably have been
written by Jessica while /pricing is noticeably by Andrew.

We want a consistent corporate voice - partly because otherwise we don't have
an actual brand identity, but also because if Jessica or Andrew leave then
that voice leaves with them, which also just services to confuse.

~~~
soneca
None of all these examples seem to be what the guide is talking about. I agree
official communication and the website should be the company identity.

But the guide seems to talk about regular day-to-day communication on a
startup. Jessica emails to a customer should have Jessica writing style in
them, in my opinion. Just like any salesperson carries their own personality
to a sales meeting.

Or internal emails between employees. You don’t write to Andrew to clarify
some doubts about a report in the same tone of the company website. Or any
standard tone. You write in your own style. At least I think you should.

------
dghf
Two invaluable guides to clear, unfussy English, one short and one long:

* George Orwell's essay 'Politics and the English Language' [0], which includes his six rules for writing

* Sir Ernest Gowers' _The Complete Plain Words_ [1], originally a style guide for the notoriously prolix British Civil Service, in which he offers this memo from the ancient Egyptian ministry of finance as a paragon:

> Appollonius to Zeno, greeting. You did right to send the chickpeas to
> Memphis. Farewell.

[0]
[https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_poli...](https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Plain_Words](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Plain_Words)

~~~
ChrisMarshallNY
One writing rule that I often see, is “don’t use cliché phrasing/terminology.”

I don’t like “hard and fast” rules, in general. I prefer a more “heuristic”
approach.

This rule, in particular, sticks in my craw, because, as a former art teacher
once told me: _”Things are cliché for a reason.”_

I write about that here (but for design):
[https://medium.com/chrismarshallny/the-road-most-traveled-
by...](https://medium.com/chrismarshallny/the-road-most-traveled-
by-9a66249bbfd6)

------
ChrisMarshallNY
I enjoyed that!

I also enjoyed this: [https://blog.griffin.sh/2020/04/17/making-
decisions/](https://blog.griffin.sh/2020/04/17/making-decisions/)

I know it’s basically promotional material, but it’s pretty classy stuff. I
wouldn’t mind if most corporations did the same.

I think a good exercise for me would be to do something similar.

I do have this, but it is not really the same kind of thing:
[https://medium.com/chrismarshallny/leaving-a-
legacy-1c2ddb0c...](https://medium.com/chrismarshallny/leaving-a-
legacy-1c2ddb0c8014)

I try to have a casual voice in the vernacular. It pains me to use technical
documentation as a soporific.

I got used to breaking up my writing into small paragraphs; often single
sentences, when I worked for a Japanese company.

Another exercise that I have started doing in my writing, is to exchange the
word “you” with “I” or “we.” I have found that people tend to react a bit
negatively to a dictatorial tone.

Editing, for me, is a kind of ongoing process, and I will revise a document
continuously after publication; sometimes, finding typos or suspect grammar
weeks later.

I often continue to fact-check, and will do things like correct links, or add
“after the fact” updates with additional information, errata, or elucidation.

------
itsmemattchung
> Writing also forces us to be more precise and structured than we might be
> when speaking, which aligns well with our core value of Thoughtfulness. This
> is why Amazon has its famous culture of writing memos over using Powerpoint.

Not only that but writing (instead of a Powerpoint) levels the playing field
for non native English speakers. That in itself is a huge bonus for having a
culture of writing, especially when you have folks from all walks of life
working at Amazon.

------
fredfjohnsen
> "We are clear." "We are transparent." "Don't repeat yourself."

Uh.

------
rahimnathwani
Some overlap with Monzo's tone of voice guide, which was posted here recently:
[https://monzo.com/tone-of-voice/](https://monzo.com/tone-of-voice/)

~~~
venantius
It's heavily inspired by Monzo's TOV - hence the shout-out at the top :)

------
MarkusQ
> One space after sentences. Two spaces is heresy!

I was loving it up til this point.

~~~
perl4ever
I find it weird that this is controversial in 2020. In the mid-80s when I
first used a Macintosh, it seemed like two spaces had been swept into the
dustbin of history, along with monospace fonts and non-WYSIWYG word
processing. Then again, I tried emacs[1] for the Amiga around then, and was
bewildered at why anybody would bother with such an obviously obsolete editor
on a modern computer, and yet here we are.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Fish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Fish)

------
auggierose
Hate the type face. If you get that so wrong, the content is probably not that
good either, especially when it is about writing...

~~~
ChrisMarshallNY
I’m not a “typeface dictator.” Some platforms, like Medium, prescribe
typeface, so when in Rome...

On my own sites, I tend to use sans-serif fonts, but sometimes convert to
serif in print CSS. I also use very common typefaces in my CSS, even if a
unique one is more to my taste. Browsers are quite plebeian, and will display
my beautiful prose using whatever crayons are in their toybox. If I keep my
demands simple, it’s a lot more likely that I’ll be able to exert some control
over the presentation.

I generally don’t like serif fonts too much, even in printed material, but
that is completely personal.

