A Guide To Writing Well

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A Guide to Writing Well
Table of Contents

* Before You Start Writing
* General Principles
* Usage Principles
* The Introduction
o General Principles
o Questions to Ask Yourself
* The Conclusion
* Rewriting
* Genre Specific
o Interviews
o Travel
o Memoir
o Science and Technology
o Reviews
o Humor
* Questions
o How do I get better at writing?
o Where should I write?
o What should I write?
o I?Tm stuck on a sentence, what should I do?
* Bibliography
* Appendix 1: Orwell?Ts Six Rules of Clear English
* Appendix 2: Mark Twain?Ts Rules of Story Writing
* Revisions

Before You Start Writing

Before you start writing an article, ask the following questions:

1. How will I address the reader?
(Reporter? Provider of information? Average man or woman?)
2. What pronoun and tense will I use?
(Impersonal reportorial? Personal but formal? Personal and causal?)
3. What attitude will I take toward the material?
(Involved? Detached? Judgmental? Ironic? Amused?)
4. How much of the subject do I want to cover?
5. Have I done enough research and/or have enough experience with the subject to write intelligently?
6. Is there anyone I can interview to gather more information on the subject and to quote?
7. What is the one point I want to make?
1. ?oEvery successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn?Tt have before. Not two thoughts, or fivê?"just one.? (Zinsser, 53)

General Principles

1. Be yourself. Don?Tt alter your voice for a subject. Relax and write with confidence and in a way that comes easily and naturally. Sometimes this will mean discarding the first few paragraphs until you start writing naturally. ?oNever say anything in writing that you wouldn?Tt comfortably say in conversation? (Zinsser, 27). When possible, use the first person ?" it usually comes out more natural.
2. Write for yourself ?" that will make it interesting to the reader.
3. Write with humanity and warmth.
4. Omit needless words. Write simply and without clutter. Don?Tt add words for ?ostyle.?
1. ?oA sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.? (Strunk and White, 23)
2. ?oStrip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that?Ts already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what?"these are the thousand and one adulterations that weaken the strength of a sentence.? (Zinsser, 8)
3. ?oRich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating.? (Strunk and White, 72)
5. Be clear. Clear writing comes from clear thinking. Know logic, rhetoric and your subject.
1. ?oMuddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyer of life, of hope: death on the highway caused by a badly worded road sign, heartbreak among lovers caused by a misplaced phrase in a well-intentioned letter, anguish of a traveler expecting to be met at a railroad station and not being met because of a slipshod telegram. Think of the tragedies that are rooted in ambiguity, and be clear! When you say something, make sure you have said it.? (Strunk and White, 79)
2. ?oJaw-breaking words often cover up very sloppy thinking.? (Thomas Sowell)
3. ?oRemember this: a well-written book with bad arguments will have more influence than a poorly-written book with endless nuance and lifeless prose. Remember this too: lifeless prose comes from lifeless minds.? (Scot McKnight)
4. ?oGood writers write in such a way that one can read them aloud and know what they mean. Bad writers have to be studied and re-read and pondered.? (Scot McKnight)
6. Avoid fancy words.
1. ?oNever use a long word where a short one will do.? (George Orwell)
2. ?oAvoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able. Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo-Saxon words. In this, as in so many matters pertaining to style, onê?Ts ear must be onê?Ts guidê?? (Strunk and White, 77)
3. ?oLook for all fancy wordings and get rid of them.? (Jacques Barzun)

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