10 Way to improve Your Writing

10 Ways to Improve Your Writing
Erik Deckers — @edeckers

@edeckers
Sturgeon's Law:
90% of everything
is crud.
— Theodore Sturgeon

• Smith related that upon his return
to the aforementioned residence, he
made the observation that the
forwardmost point of entry was
unsecured.
• Smith said the front door was
unlocked when he got home.
@edeckers

Statistician: Each Geographical Statistical Output
(GSO)depicts an enumeration district.
Manager: Do you mean ‘each map’?
Statistician: No. We cannot call it a map because each
GSO also contains a table.
Manager: OK. It’s a map with a table.
— PlainLanguage.gov
@edeckers

Never use jargon
words like
reconceptualize,
demassification,
attitudinally,
judgmentally.
They are hallmarks
of a pretentious ass.
— David Ogilvy@edeckers

“We will leverage end user learnings
on a going forward basis.”
“We'll use what you learned
from now on.”
@edeckers

“We have created a frictionless
user onboarding experience.”
“Signing up is easy.”
@edeckers

3. Passive
Voice is
to be
avoided
@edeckers

• The meeting was called to order.
• The report was filed.
• Mistakes were made.
By zombie
@edeckers

4. Your
English
teacher is
not a
writer.
Elmore Leonard

If proper usage gets
in the way,
it may have to go.
I can’t allow what
we learned in
English composition
to disrupt the
sound and rhythm
of the narrative.
— Elmore Leonard
@edeckers

John Dryden
End your sentences with prepositions!

Robert Lowth
Split infinitives!

“For sale. Baby shoes. Never used.”
5. Omit things we know

“If a writer of prose knows enough
about what he is writing about,
he may omit things that he knows. . .
A writer who omits things because
he does not know them only makes
hollow places in his writing. ”
— Ernest Hemingway
@edeckers

“The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to
only one-eighth of it being above water.”
@edeckers

“The dignity of movement of an iceberg
is due to only one-eighth of (the iceberg)
being above (the) water(’s surface),
(and the other seven-eighths of it being
below the water’s surface).”
“The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due
to only one-eighth of it being above water.”
@edeckers

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert
when the drugs began to take hold.
I remember saying something like, "I feel a bit lightheaded;
maybe you should drive . . ."
And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the
sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and
screeching and diving around the car, which was going about
100 miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas.
And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these
g*ddamn animals?"
@edeckers
— HST, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

•Webster's defines "mediocre" as. . .
•If you've been living under a rock. . .
•Take 2 parts "blah," and 3 parts "meh," and
mix them up to create the worst ledes ever.
@edeckers
Never Use These!

@edeckers
7. Eliminate
adjectives
and adverbs.
@edeckers

@edeckers
The road to
hell is paved
with adverbs.
— Stephen King
@edeckers

Dear Mom,
Let me tell you
about this new GPS
app for pets we’re
building. . .
@edeckers

9. “Write Shitty First Drafts”
@edeckers

@edeckers
(Just don’t publish them.)

@edeckers
"If you have any young
friends who aspire to
become writers, the
second greatest favor
you can do them is to
present them with copies
of The Elements of Style.
"The first greatest, of
course, is to shoot them
now, while they’re
happy." – Dorothy Parker

Read me
ErikDeckers.com
ProBlogService.com
@edeckers
erik.deckers@gmail.com
Reach me
Thank you!Than

10 Way to improve Your Writing

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