<story><title>How to Write English Prose</title><url>https://thelampmagazine.com/2023/01/09/how-to-write-english-prose/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>red_admiral</author><text>Instead of asking, is this true or not, it is often better to ask &amp;quot;What is this true of?&amp;quot; Hyaline seas are a great thing in literature, and a terrible idea in a public service leaflet about what to do if you hear the tsunami warning sirens.&lt;p&gt;I have read lots of student projects and dissertations where, although the student could explain themselves perfectly fine in spoken English, once they were in front of a keyboard and TeXworks they fell into a style of writing that was as tortured as the syntax for fancy LaTeX tables. Orwell&amp;#x27;s advice would have been very good advice for these students!&lt;p&gt;As to writing specifically for small children: J.R.R. Tolkien&amp;#x27;s childrens&amp;#x27; story Roverandom contains a character called Psamathos Psammethicus, and Tolkien made quite clear in other writing of his that he doesn&amp;#x27;t think much of &amp;quot;writing down&amp;quot; even to children. A. A. Milne similarly has a scene in which Owl says &amp;quot;The atmospheric conditions have been very unfavourable lately.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;The what?&amp;quot;, Pooh asks. &amp;quot;It has been raining.&amp;quot;, Owl explains. That&amp;#x27;s all at once an example of making fun of pretentious writing, giving an example of the kind of writer who should read some Orwell, and something that even very young children can handle just fine (along with words like Heffalump).</text></comment>
<story><title>How to Write English Prose</title><url>https://thelampmagazine.com/2023/01/09/how-to-write-english-prose/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>bmj</author><text>Ah, David Bentley Hart.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;To propose a list of rules for writers is probably a very presumptuous thing to do. The only authority it can possibly have is one’s own example, and so offering it to the world is something of a gamble. One has to assume that one’s own writing is impressive enough to most readers to provide one with the necessary credentials for the task. If one is wrong on this score, issuing those rules will invite only ridicule. I mean, for goodness’ sake, Steven Pinker (of all people) published a book on style. How can anyone take that seriously?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Few writers do such a fine of job of puffing themselves up while at the same time cutting others down.&lt;p&gt;But, he is a gifted thinker and, at times, pleasant writer.  For example: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.firstthings.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;2010&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;a-perfect-game&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.firstthings.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;2010&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;a-perfect-game&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>