Approaching writing
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This document summarizes key principles for concise and effective writing from Strunk & White's writing guide "The Elements of Style". It recommends: 1) Writing simply and straightforwardly without pretension; 2) Using nouns and verbs over adjectives and adverbs; 3) Avoiding overwritten, elaborate, or pretentious prose and deleting excess words.
Approaching writing
- 1. Approaching Writing A concise primer from Strunk & White’s venerable – and entertaining – guide titled ‘The Elements of Style.’
- 2. 1. Write simply. Write in a way that is concise, informative, unpretentious. This kind of straightforward writing will never be out of fashion
- 3. 2. Write with nouns and verbs. Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. In general…it is nouns and verbs, not their assistants, that give good writing its toughness and color.
- 4. 3. Do not overwrite. Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating. Ruthlessly, delete the excess.
- 5. 4. Avoid fancy words. Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, the fancy and the cute. Avoid word like ‘beauteous,’ ‘curvaceous,’ ‘prodigious,’ if simpler words will do. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able.
- 6. 5. Use figures of speech sparingly. • The simile is a common device and a useful one, but similes coming in rapid fire, one right on top of another, are more distracting than illuminating. • When you use a metaphor, do not mix it up. That is, don’t start by calling something a swordfish and end by calling it an hourglass!
- 7. 6. Sharpen your ear. Read the following example: “A claw hammer, not an ax, was the tool he murdered her with.” This is preferable to “A claw hammer, not an ax, was the tool with which he murdered her.” Why? The first sentence is actually grammatically less correct than the second example. But it sounds more violent, more like murder. You see, it is a matter of ear.
- 8. 7. Avoid the use of qualifiers. Qualifying words like ‘rather,’ ‘very,’ ‘little,’ ‘pretty,’ make writing weak – avoid them!
- 9. 8. Use orthodox spelling. Do not write ‘nite’ for ‘night,’ ‘thru’ for ‘through,’ ‘pleez’ for ‘please.’
- 10. 9. Revise and rewrite. Revising is a part of writing. Even professional writers rewrite numerous times.