Clear Writing Notes

September 25, 2019 ☼ Notes

Lessons from George Orwell, Scott Adams, Paul Graham and Strunk & White

• Make the paragraph the unit of composition, one idea per paragraph
• Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence
• Use the active instead of the passive voice wherever possible
• Put statements in positive form
• Omit needless words (Relentlessly prune bullshit)
  • Remove “the fact that” from every sentence
  • “Who is”, “which was” etc. are often superfluous
• In general, write short sentences. However, sometimes many short sentences can be made more concise by amalgamating into a longer one.
• Avoid a succession of loose sentences. Break up monotonous, long sentences into shorter ones.
  • Especially a construction involving two clauses joined by a “which/and/but”
• Express coordinate ideas in a similar form
• Keep related words together
  • The subject of a sentence and the principal verb should not be separated by a phrase or clause that can be transferred to the beginning.
• Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end

Words to avoid, according to Strunk and White:

• “All right”
• “As good or better than” — split up
• “As to whether” — “whether”
• Bid
• “Case” — usually unnecessary
• Certainly
• Character — often redundant
• Clever
• “Due to”
• Effect — promotes vagueness
• Factor — promotes vagueness
• Feature — promotes vagueness
• “He is a man who” — redundant
• “Along these lines” — promotes vagueness
• Nature — often redundant, like character
• “One of the most” — boring
• Respectively — can usually be omitted
• So — leads to repetitive sentences
• System — often used needlessly
• Very
• While — avoid using for “and”, “but”, and “although”. Can often be replaced by a semi-colon.

Paul Graham on essays.