

The Importance of Writing Well - teej
http://particletree.com/notebook/writing-resources/

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TomOfTTB
I agree with what the author is saying but take a slightly different approach
to it. I think writing well is important but I think more focus should be put
on writing succinctly. Because if you write succinctly it forces you to be
clear.

This is the theory of William Zinsser's On Writing Well
([http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-
Nonficti...](http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-
Nonfiction/dp/0060891548)).

It's one of my favorite books and its primary point is that verbosity is the
enemy of clarity and therefore the clearest sentence is also the smallest one.
I think that concept is a 1,000 times more important than having perfect
grammar.

Oh, and to bring this back to tech, I think this concept is even more
important given the sheer amount of data available to use today. Everyone
should be trying to write as succinctly as possible just so their readers can
fit it all in.

~~~
kalid
I agree. I've long chased-after a notion of "information density" -- you want
to get the best bang for your (written) buck. Zinsser's book is one of my
favorites.

~~~
petercooper
One needs to be careful, however, of being _too_ concise or focused on density
alone. There are many lessons that are better relayed (and learned) in the
form of a story or anecdote than in dry, factual form.

Of course, if you do use stories, then being concise _within_ that form is,
naturally, still an important consideration, but storytelling mustn't be ruled
out simply because it tends to rely on using more words (I know you weren't
saying that, but I think it's a key point.)

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derefr
As a writer myself, I consume these sort of guides religiously, but they
always have a journalistic bent; fiction rarely seems to be considered. [1]
This is usually excused by these guide-writers with a remark that "there's no
one true way to tell a story well."

Indeed, there are _many_ ways, perhaps an infinite number, but there are just
as many ways to tell a story badly, and it would be helpful to at least ponder
upon _some_ of them, rather than telling each author to start from scratch.
I'd love to see a guide that just works through the corpus of the standard set
of famous authors, and points out the various choices of narrative
construction and prosody they made along the way.

Sadly, not even the university courses I took _on this specific subject_ did
this well; they seemed more to be "here, look at this author; he writes well,
does he not? You should read him, and perhaps osmose what he knows, somehow."
This is not the scientific method; we do not teach people about gravity by
repeatedly dropping things on them. We experiment with variations, seeing how
each change affects some variable--in this case, the experience of reading--
and then declare that some or another technique has certain statistical
effects on readers.

\---

[1] Fiction is not orthogonal to HN--narratives in general, and the allegory
in particular, can be just as valid methods of information delivery as plain
speech--but that's another rant.

~~~
TomOfTTB
With all due respect I think you might be missing the point.

When you write non-fiction you are trying to convey facts. That's why all
these guides focus on non-fiction because, in truth, you are conveying
information more than anything. So rules like the ones in these guides bring
you closer to the ideal because they strip away anything that is not relevant
to relaying the information.

Fiction on the other hand is really the act of conveying your own persona to
the reader. Even though you are telling a story its a story born out of your
mind and is therefore a representation of you. So in contrast the more rules
you put on that the further you get away from your intended purpose.

At least, that's the way I see it.

~~~
petercooper
_When you write non-fiction you are trying to convey facts. That's why all
these guides focus on non-fiction because, in truth, you are conveying
information more than anything. So rules like the ones in these guides bring
you closer to the ideal because they strip away anything that is not relevant
to relaying the information._

Even if something is non-fictional, it can still be a story. The most
engrossing non-fiction content (such as investigative journalism or essays)
has more in common with fiction (in the sense that stories are relayed and
emotions are worked) than it does with dry parroting of facts.

Learning at least the basics of storytelling and being _able_ to write good
fiction are essential skills for non-fiction writers who aim to be engrossing.

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petercooper
I totally agree with the sentiment but strongly disagree with the provided
resources. Studying style guides to learn how to write well is like studying
the syntax of a language to learn how to build good algorithms. There’s a
connection, but it’s missing that the art of “writing well” is split into two
parts.

Firstly, yes, you have syntax, grammar and spelling - the “technicalities” of
the task. These are less important than.. the actual message. There’s enough
technically fine but dull and easily ignored text out there. To be successful,
the words must first mean something to the reader and be able to inspire them
to read on - learning syntax and style is not going to help with that at all.

Unfortunately, writing what the reader wants to read can be both very easy and
very difficult. It’s very easy if you have the ability to get out of your own
head and place yourself into the readers’ shoes, but some people find that, in
itself, difficult. This is essential before you start thinking about style
though - otherwise you’ll be to English what a code monkey is to programming.

(Figured I should post this here as well, just because more discussion tends
to take place :))

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rayvega
Is it still 1996? Clicking on one of the reference sites listed in the article
feels like stepping into a time machine:

<http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/>

"Guide to Grammar & Writing" should have a knowledge exchange with "Guide to
Web Site Design & Style".

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baddox
You mean "The Importance of Writing Good"?

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viggity
ummm... Shouldn't it be "The Importantance of Writing Good"?

;)

