<story><title>Writing well</title><url>https://www.julian.com/guide/write/intro</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nobody9999</author><text>William Safire&amp;#x27;s Rules for Writers:&lt;p&gt;Remember to never split an infinitive.&lt;p&gt;The passive voice should never be used.&lt;p&gt;Do not put statements in the negative form.&lt;p&gt;Verbs have to agree with their subjects.&lt;p&gt;Proofread carefully to see if you words out.&lt;p&gt;If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.&lt;p&gt;=========&lt;p&gt;The above, plus Strunk &amp;amp; White[0], should be enough for most folks IMNSHO.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gutenberg.org&amp;#x2F;ebooks&amp;#x2F;37134&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gutenberg.org&amp;#x2F;ebooks&amp;#x2F;37134&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>jgrahamc</author><text>I found this very hard to read. There are so many short sentences and bullet points that it looks like a PowerPoint presentation masquerading as prose.&lt;p&gt;What he seems to have lost with this approach is a rhythm. It&amp;#x27;s a staccato battering with ideas. I&amp;#x27;d much rather be seduced and cradled by writing that made me feel I&amp;#x27;m learning by osmosis and not trepanning.&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;p&gt;The author illustrates how his writing goes wrong by saying that the following paragraph:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;To be brief on the sentence-level, remove words that don’t add necessary context. Extra words cause readers to slow down and do extra work. That makes it harder for them to recognize the sentence’s point. And when you bore readers, they quit reading.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;is better rewritten as:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Your sentence is brief when no additional words can be removed. Being succinct is important because filler buries your talking points and bores readers into quitting.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not. The two sentence rewrite is ugly. The first sentence is weird because it uses &amp;quot;additional&amp;quot; (which sounds like adding something) for things that will be removed. The second sentence uses &amp;quot;talking points&amp;quot; which makes it appear the writer is aiming for sound bites and not to educate the reader.&lt;p&gt;I much prefer the first paragraph above. Partly because it makes me empathize with the trouble readers might have and makes me want to work for them. When I read the first paragraph I imagine myself, the reader; when I read the second I&amp;#x27;m being instructed by a voice that sounds like it comes from a cold machine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fanf2</author><text>On the wrong-headed advice of Strunk &amp;amp; White
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.languagesoftheworld.info&amp;#x2F;bad-linguistics&amp;#x2F;on-passive-aggressive-and-other-wrong-headed-advice-of-strunk-whites-style-manual.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.languagesoftheworld.info&amp;#x2F;bad-linguistics&amp;#x2F;on-passi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Strunk and White: fifty years of stupid grammar advice
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;chronicle.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar&amp;#x2F;25497&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;chronicle.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar&amp;#x2F;2549...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Land of the Free and the Elements of Style: everything in strunk and White is wrong
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ling.ed.ac.uk&amp;#x2F;~gpullum&amp;#x2F;LandOfTheFree.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;ling.ed.ac.uk&amp;#x2F;~gpullum&amp;#x2F;LandOfTheFree.pdf&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Writing well</title><url>https://www.julian.com/guide/write/intro</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nobody9999</author><text>William Safire&amp;#x27;s Rules for Writers:&lt;p&gt;Remember to never split an infinitive.&lt;p&gt;The passive voice should never be used.&lt;p&gt;Do not put statements in the negative form.&lt;p&gt;Verbs have to agree with their subjects.&lt;p&gt;Proofread carefully to see if you words out.&lt;p&gt;If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.&lt;p&gt;=========&lt;p&gt;The above, plus Strunk &amp;amp; White[0], should be enough for most folks IMNSHO.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gutenberg.org&amp;#x2F;ebooks&amp;#x2F;37134&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gutenberg.org&amp;#x2F;ebooks&amp;#x2F;37134&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>jgrahamc</author><text>I found this very hard to read. There are so many short sentences and bullet points that it looks like a PowerPoint presentation masquerading as prose.&lt;p&gt;What he seems to have lost with this approach is a rhythm. It&amp;#x27;s a staccato battering with ideas. I&amp;#x27;d much rather be seduced and cradled by writing that made me feel I&amp;#x27;m learning by osmosis and not trepanning.&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;p&gt;The author illustrates how his writing goes wrong by saying that the following paragraph:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;To be brief on the sentence-level, remove words that don’t add necessary context. Extra words cause readers to slow down and do extra work. That makes it harder for them to recognize the sentence’s point. And when you bore readers, they quit reading.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;is better rewritten as:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Your sentence is brief when no additional words can be removed. Being succinct is important because filler buries your talking points and bores readers into quitting.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not. The two sentence rewrite is ugly. The first sentence is weird because it uses &amp;quot;additional&amp;quot; (which sounds like adding something) for things that will be removed. The second sentence uses &amp;quot;talking points&amp;quot; which makes it appear the writer is aiming for sound bites and not to educate the reader.&lt;p&gt;I much prefer the first paragraph above. Partly because it makes me empathize with the trouble readers might have and makes me want to work for them. When I read the first paragraph I imagine myself, the reader; when I read the second I&amp;#x27;m being instructed by a voice that sounds like it comes from a cold machine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eganist</author><text>&amp;gt; William Safire&amp;#x27;s Rules for Writers:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Remember to [preserve the full] infinitive.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; [Always use] the [active] voice.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; [Always] put statements in the [positive] form.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Verbs have to agree with their subjects. (nobody9999 corrected this one already - was &amp;quot;has&amp;quot; in place of &amp;quot;have&amp;quot;)&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Proofread carefully to see if you [leave] words out.&lt;p&gt;For those not in on the joke. Not sure if this would be how Safire would correct it, but I made an effort.</text></comment>