12 ms·

Writing well

279 points by do 6y ago

will_pseudonym 6y ago
The resource that has spurred me into thinking differently about effective writing was shared on HN, from UChicago Social Sciences' Leadership Lab - The Craft of Writing Effectively. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM
- vendiddy 6y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation. Watching it now. I like how he takes a top-down approach to writing.
- drykiss 6y ago
  Thanks for the recommendation. The point that more than anything, your writing should be valuable to the group of readers it is targeted at is fascinating.
- ayewo 6y ago
  Echoing the other comments that this was an excellent lecture on how to approach writing from the perspective of the reader, aka the top-down approach. He contrasted top-down with the bottom-up approach taught from elementary school to the undergraduate level which shows it as a superior approach to writing—if your goal is to introduce ideas that change the minds of your readers with your writing.
- bonoboTP 6y ago
  This is why I love HN. These rare moments of hearing someone articulate something that I haven't quite grasped yet, but have seen glimpses of and have struggled with, presented clearly, insightfully. Feeling my brain being rewired. I've watched this talk multiple times over the last days and it is transformative. It's not like anything he says is, by itself, that new or counterintuitive. But the whole talk, when fully digested, lets you view the world in an entirely different way. The talk isn't about writing. It's not about science. Not about careers. It's about everything. The same thinking can be applied to speaking, to dating, to everything human. What's in your head isn't intrinsically interesting to anyone except your mother. What value do you deliver? It's harsh. Harsh and cruel. It's not the cozy feel-good message you see everywhere nowadays. Maybe some would call the whole framing toxic. But would you rather taste the poison and then learn how to handle it, or would you stay ignorant and die of it (silently get ignored, nosedive your career, etc.). In a masterfully meta way, the talk manages to deliver immense value.
  - will_pseudonym 6y ago
    Absolutely. In that same vein, I've gotten a lot out of so many similar videos which are ostensibly about one thing, but to effectively use what they're teaching, you have to start learning/mastering something else entirely. "Indirect learning" is one way to put it, and a term I picked up from Randy Pausch's Last Lecture[0]. I've gained so much from watching that video, as well as his Time Management video[1]. So much so that I rewatch it about once a year, because every time you rewatch something, you're a different person in certain ways, and you often appreciate things much more the more you change and grow as a person. [0] https://youtu.be/ji5_MqicxSo https://youtu.be/ji5_MqicxSo [1] https://youtu.be/oTugjssqOT0?t=17 https://youtu.be/oTugjssqOT0?t=17
CaptArmchair 6y ago
This is a well written tutorial about writing well. It practices what it preaches. And it makes good points about clarity, succinctness and persuasiveness. This isn't a tutorial about "writing well" in general. It focusses on a particular way of writing: writing short articles that sell a specific idea, service or product to as many readers as possible. It's a practice that won't make great or enjoyable novels, though. And while Hemingway became famous for his terse and objective prose, so did the eclectic writing of James Joyce or the long winded storytelling of Proust. I feel that tone of voice and style are crucial in one's writing. The words you choose, ordering of your sentences, the construction of your argument, attention for positive or negative sentiment,... shape the perception with your audience. The author only briefly glosses over those points in his fourth section, before admitting it needs expansion. And yet, without developing those, your writing won't yield much life to the topic you want to brings across. This brings me back to the style of this tutorial. It's well written in a particular context, bring a point across as quickly and efficiently as possible, but it's written in a style which I don't enjoy at all. It's a purely functional, dry, uncompromising way of writing. It's a style that comes with risks and trade offs. This type of writing might come off as treating the reader as a passive agent that needs to be educated. And the key in doing so is applying well known devices to achieve that goal as quickly and efficiently as possible. Push the right buttons and you'll be able to build the desired sentiment with your audience. This shines through, for instance, in his second section - objectives - where his bullet points read as: > Open people’s eyes by proving the status quo wrong. > Identify key trends on a topic. Then use them to predict the future. While this isn't inherently wrong, these are bold tactics that create huge expectations at the start of the article. As an author, you better make sure you can deliver on your promise when you go down that road. Worst case, you may come of as presumptuous, even pretentious, and lose a big chunk of your target audience, while the readers that stick likely already are part of the parish you're preaching to. Writing only becomes better when you go on a journey of identifying your own intentions, and confronting your own trepidation. Why do you want to write? Who do you want to convince? Why do you want to convince them? What do you hope to achieve with your writing? What is your relationship with the reader and what defines your relationship with your readers? What is the importance to you, personally, in writing down your thoughts? What is it you want to express through your writing? Answering these questions as you practice your writing will provide the building blocks you need to define your style, your tone of voice, the pace of your writing and so on. Without a due amount of self reflection, authors might risk treating this type of writing into a golden hammer. Writing only becomes compelling if there's clear, genuine, personal investment in the content itself. Without it, "writing like Paul Graham or Derek Sivers" risks turning into a cargo cult like practice which produces boring, look-a-like writing.
episode0x01 6y ago
Would also recommend On Writing Well by William Zinsser. Amazing guide on writing nonfiction.
sixhobbits 6y ago
This looks amazing - added it to my collection of technical writing resources [0]. I'd also specifically recommend this talk by Larry McEnerney [1] which I discovered only recently in spite of actively looking for similar content - I guess I have a bias for written stuff. [0] https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing/blob/master/resources.md https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing/blob/master/... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM
prof-dr-ir 6y ago
Am I the only one who thinks that sinlge-sentence paragraphs should be the exception, not the rule?
- OskarS 6y ago
  Nope! You're definitely not the only one. For a page about writing well, this is a stupendously annoying thing to read.
  - theelous3 6y ago
    To cherry pick a "paragraph" from the text: > Ignore that advice. :)
- sanedigital 6y ago
  It's super trendy right now. Especially on LinkedIn. These single sentence paragraphs. Provocative. At least that's what they think they are. I find them annoying. Trite. Overdone. In all seriousness: this article reads more like an outline than an actual piece of writing. Good writing is all about pacing. Some of your sentences should be long and winding. While others are short. That variance in rhythm keeps your reader involved in the piece. It's not necessary to convey a point-information is just as easily digested in bullet-point form-but it's necessary if you want to maintain your audience's attention over time.
  - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
    Broetry: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/why-are-these-posts-taking-over-your-linkedin-feed-because https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/why-are-these-p...
- keiferski 6y ago
  If I see an article written this way, I immediately close the window.
  - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
jgrahamc 6y ago
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. What he seems to have lost with this approach is a rhythm. It's a staccato battering with ideas. I'd much rather be seduced and cradled by writing that made me feel I'm learning by osmosis and not trepanning. EDIT: The author illustrates how his writing goes wrong by saying that the following paragraph: 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. is better rewritten as: 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. It's not. The two sentence rewrite is ugly. The first sentence is weird because it uses "additional" (which sounds like adding something) for things that will be removed. The second sentence uses "talking points" which makes it appear the writer is aiming for sound bites and not to educate the reader. 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'm being instructed by a voice that sounds like it comes from a cold machine.
- JacobSuperslav 6y ago
  I work with SEO, CRO, UX and I can confirm that this style of writing - short sentences, tiny paragraphs - results in better outcomes: time on page is higher and bounce rate is lower.
  - jgrahamc 6y ago
    I wonder if those metrics are like that because this style of writing has the reader thinking that the author has something important to say and has to spend a long time figuring out what it is because the sentences have been cut to the bone.
    - JacobSuperslav 6y ago
      I honestly don't know, but the metrics rise on average, sending a positive signal to Google, which yields us higher rankings in Google, which equals more visitors. It's a constant battle between competitors -- finding out what the visitors want to read -- and how they want to read it.
social_quotient 6y ago
Unrelated: What style of icons and graphics are these? They seem hand drawn but I am wondering if stylistically there is a name so I can hunt down something similar or find more inspiration like this.
- capableweb 6y ago
  Just hand-drawn illustrations (or bought, but drawn by someone). Searching for "website illustrations" on Google Images or your favorite stock website will show you bunch of similar illustrations. All the rage today.
justforfunhere 6y ago
Reading works written by masters is one way in which one can organically internalize the art of writing well. Another thought that comes to my mind regarding writing is that why does one have to necessarily follow a particular set of rules? Writing is an art. You should be able to develop and hone your own style, your own signature, something that stands apart from others, yet is readable and lucid.
- meigwilym 6y ago
  > why does one have to necessarily follow a particular set of rules? I find rules are an excellent way to quickly get up to a reasonable level. One can discover these rules by trial and error, but this takes time and practice. When one is comfortable working within these rules, they can then be broken for effect. I think most great artists started as an apprentice, before becoming the master.
danuker 6y ago
Reminds me of How tech writing ruined me as a letter writer: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writing_ruined_me_as_a_letter_writer/ https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writ...
mattlutze 6y ago
There's a lot of people disagreeing here on the definition of "well," and it's interesting to see in real-time how the various assumed definitions result in assessments that are both valid and disagree with each other.
throwaway98797 6y ago
Too much clarity loses writing voice. Poor writers with substance can create compelling content. Sometimes I want the cliff notes and sometimes I want to be enamored with some lovely prose that leads me somewhere and makes me think.
- tartoran 6y ago
  Absolutely. But there are different writing styles for different purposes. Technical writing should be different than creative writing or you might lose some of the audience. But I read some great creative and technical writing that explains concepts through metaphors are imagery and do enjoy it.
cercatrova 6y ago
Note that Julian runs an SEO and growth marketing company, so the type of writing here is more for that purpose, to sell your product, than to become the next great author.
- rchaud 6y ago
  Considering he has others on "being rational" and "building muscle", I just thought he was one of those tech bros that loves Tim Ferriss and feels that same need to create prescriptive tutorials on topics they aren't domain experts in.
- asdffdsa 6y ago
  Maybe he should have put that in the title then, rather than proclaiming to know how to write well in general. Such an imprecise title is indicative of a poor writer, so I guess there is a good amount of irony to be had. Who knows; maybe he's a brilliant satirical writer.
lqet 6y ago
The style of this article reminds me of Wittgenstein: short, clinical, almost mathematical statements, with no poetical ambition whatsover. I understand that there might be situations in which such a style is appropriate, but this article is just very annoying to read. I would not definitely not call it "good writing". The kind of "clarity" presented here as good writing works well if you assume that everything that can be thought can be directly expressed in words, without substantial loss. This is clearly not the case. Language is a very poor medium to transmit throughts and feelings. So the "trick" every good writer uses is this: don't describe something directly, but instead try to construct some secondary clues, hints and a general atmosphere that will start a thought process in the reader's mind which leads to the conclusions you want to bring across. This is the poetic approach, it could also simply be called "writing between the lines". In my experience, this approach is a much more effective transmitter of ideas than trying to describe them directly, also for the simple reason that the reader will subconsiously assume that it is his own idea. You need beautiful prose, rhythm and images to achieve that, as those open up this additional dimension. The article undertakes considerable (even pedantic) effort to leave that dimension closed.
- mudita 6y ago
  Just as an aside: This seems like a very unfair characterisation of Wittgenstein to me. His writing can be almost mathematical, but it can also be very poetic, playful and funny. Appreciating his writing might be a matter of taste, but it seems clear to me that his writing had a lot of "poetical ambition". How we use language was one of his primary concerns and he clearly cared a lot about how he himself wrote. In Philosophische Untersuchungen I see a lot of warmth in his writing. Often it seems like he is talking very personally to the reader like he would to a friend. From quick googling it seems like I am not alone in my view of Wittgenstein as a poetic philosopher, see e.g. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199287505.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199287505-e-32 https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/978019... https://www.uib.no/en/news/101796/wittgenstein-poetic-philosopher https://www.uib.no/en/news/101796/wittgenstein-poetic-philos...
  - lqet 6y ago
sethgecko 6y ago
Didn't think much of the content but I am impressed he managed to get the julian.com domain and the @julian twitter handle. I would assume that it's a pretty common name.
matthewowen 6y ago
This reads like GPT-3
huijzer 6y ago
Great read with pleasing aesthetics. However, there is one point I do not agree with, namely: > That isn't to say children should understand your references and jargon. Do not over-simplify your language and weaken your ideas. Rather, children must be able to follow the logic of every argument. Richard Feynman argues that people often hide between jargon to hide the fact that one doesn't know. As a programmer, I often see jargon as an additional dependency and only introduce it if I really cannot avoid it.
young_unixer 6y ago
You know what I consider engaging writing? HN comments Good HN comments are longer than tweets but shorter than essays, they strike a perfect balance of expressing an interesting idea in a reasonable time. And they always have an underlying, implicit amount of playful pedantry that makes them even more fun to read. This very comment was fun to write because not even I know if I'm being sarcastic or not.
- DataGata 6y ago
  I assumed you weren't being sarcastic. Comments in general are pseudo-dialog. Whereas in real life, we stumble over our words and can't edit, in well-policed comment sections with sincere posters, we can all contribute to a Sorkian drama.
auganov 6y ago
> The Shakespeares, Twains, and Austens of the future won't emerge from the book publishing industry. They’ll come from YouTube, podcasts, and blogs. The author pushes for a cold technical writing style. Then he brings up a bunch of literary writers? The two worlds are very much at odds. The worship of the literary that's all too common in classrooms is, I believe, why so many people are scared of writing anything in the first place. And then there's the obsession with grammar.
adamfaliq 6y ago
I have written a similar blogpost on writing here [0], which was received well by HN community. I'd also recommend the book "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace" and this document [1]. These resources tremendously helped me to improve my writing. [0] https://adamfaliq.wordpress.com/2020/10/28/write-well/ https://adamfaliq.wordpress.com/2020/10/28/write-well/ [1] https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/5/7046/files/2014/10/UnivChic_WritingProg-1grt232.pdf https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/5/7046/files/20...
- definetheword 6y ago
  The link to [1] appears to be a subset of a larger document/program from University of Chicago (but this appears to be source from OSU). Do you have a link to all the book/materials? Thanks
  - adamfaliq 6y ago
    [1] is actually the reference material for this [2] lecture, which another commenter has already mentioned. [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM
j7ake 6y ago
This article on writing well seems to be missing basic paragraph structures, which is probably why some find it hard to read.
idlewords 6y ago
The first step to writing well is to avoid taking advice from people who write this poorly. I recommend Paul Zinnser's "On Writing Well" as an alternative to whatever this bad writer is shilling.
- johnharrison 6y ago
  This is the best book on writing I've come across. William Zinsser.
- idlewords 6y ago
  Gah, William Zinnser, my bad
projectileboy 6y ago
“Writing well” often takes different shapes in different contexts. The author’s example seems fine, maybe, for product copy, but it certainly isn’t applicable everywhere. If you (or the author) disagree, then you have to explain what Jane Austen doesn’t understand that you do.
johnharrison 6y ago
Brevity and concision on their own are monotonous. You may have stumbled on this before but Gary Provost talks about writing 'music': "This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals—sounds that say listen to this, it is important. So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music." Stripping a sentence to its cleanest components is a worthy aim but not at the cost of composition. Because, writers are part composers. In gmail, you're not prompted to 'write' an email. You're prompted to 'compose' it. Brevity for its own sake isn't sustainable.
- taphangum 6y ago
  Absolutely sublime comment. Educational, thought-provoking and entertaining. Thank you very much johnharrison!
redelbee 6y ago
This reminds me of my first unsuccessful job interview. I came away from it with totally unexpected lessons about writing and life. I had just moved across the country after leaving my job at a newspaper. The job posting was for a copy editor at an in-house trade magazine at a Texas education nonprofit. They called me in for an interview, likely because I had copy editing experience on my resume. Nothing unexpected happened. I talked to a few folks and the hiring manager, completed a copy editing exercise meant to test my competence at finding and addressing various spelling/grammar/AP style issues, and made my way back to the hiring manager before the final meeting with a few higher level executives. The whole day went to shit when I found myself giving an honest answer to an off-hand question posed by the hiring manager. I heard myself talking about my fascination with writers, and especially those who made convincing and beautiful arguments while ignoring seemingly every rule and convention of the grammar and style books I had mastered in journalism school. As the words wound out of my brain through my mouth I knew there was no getting back to the promising path to a full-time copy editing job I had been on for the last few hours. Based on our conversation thus far I knew this hiring manager was unlikely to be interested in my point of view, or in hiring me, now that the truth was out. A few minutes after we met she told me about how important the copy editor role was, especially since the educators who read the magazine tended to be sticklers when it came to matters of grammar and style. She knew this to be true because her first title at the company was, you guessed it, Copy Editor. It was as if I was running the final stages of a FAANG interview gauntlet, only to find myself loudly extolling the benefits of working for small startups. She reacted as negatively as you would expect, and we moved on to the final portion of the day with the executives. By now I knew my job search would have to continue. The day wasn’t a total waste, however, because the CEO and founder of the nonprofit asked me the final question of the day. “Is there anything else you want to know about me or the nonprofit I started before we wrap up?” I knew there would be no job offer, so I decided to ask about something I was actually interested in knowing. I asked him if he had any regrets in his life, and told him I wanted to know because he was clearly successful and I rarely had the opportunity to ask about the pitfalls of success. He looked at me for a few moments and I wasn’t sure if I had managed to step in another pile of shit. When he finally responded it was to tell me slowly, then quickly, about the neglected relationships in his life, especially those with his children. We talked about the nature of family and friendships for a few minutes and I came away feeling much better about the whole situation. I didn’t get the job (they gave it to a freshly minted English PhD) but I’ll never forget what I learned that day. Grammar and style don’t really matter, even when you’re interviewing for a job ostensibly concerned with nothing else. People and our connections absolutely do matter, and it’s those relationships by which we should judge our success in life.
olufnaese 6y ago
Why is there a new paragraph for every sentence?
geocrasher 6y ago
If you want to write, stop worrying about writing. Worrying about writing isn't writing. It's just spending time and energy that could otherwise be used as writing. So, write something. Then read it back to yourself out loud. If something sounds stupid, change it. Now do that every day at least once. Congratulations. You're a writer. [Edited because I read it out loud to myself and some parts sounded stupid]
- young_unixer 6y ago
  Also read it 5 hours later and you'll see your mistakes more clearly.
2143 6y ago
Just get The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and read it cover to cover. It's cheap, small (less than 70 pages.. don't remember exactly) and full of useful actionable tips.
StormofBytes 6y ago
I don't know why but blog post comes off as a bit pretentious to me.
Cyberthal 6y ago
> Welcome Wasted heading. What website doesn't welcome readers? An offline one. > To write well is to think clearly. No, it's to communicate well. There is beautifully-written nonsense. > If you can think clearly, you can find something worth saying. Meaninglessly asserts a relationship between two ambiguous thresholds. A vague thought not worth saying! > An ideal place to start is thinking through what bothers you most in life. No. That problem is likely too difficult. The correct essay topic is whatever thought won't go away until it's written down. > The best writing is therapy that you publish for the world to learn from. False: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books That's where I stopped reading. I know what Julian's trying to express. My Pubmind-T3 blogs are for publishing early and often, which is a best practice. But without Textmind (or David Allen's GTD), thinking in essays would be a frustratingly overloaded affordance. Good writing, like clear thought, is reliably produced only via sound process.

279 points by do 6y ago

The resource that has spurred me into thinking differently about effective writing was shared on HN, from UChicago Social Sciences' Leadership Lab - The Craft of Writing Effectively. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM

vendiddy 6y ago
Thanks for the recommendation. Watching it now. I like how he takes a top-down approach to writing.
drykiss 6y ago
Thanks for the recommendation. The point that more than anything, your writing should be valuable to the group of readers it is targeted at is fascinating.
ayewo 6y ago
Echoing the other comments that this was an excellent lecture on how to approach writing from the perspective of the reader, aka the top-down approach. He contrasted top-down with the bottom-up approach taught from elementary school to the undergraduate level which shows it as a superior approach to writing—if your goal is to introduce ideas that change the minds of your readers with your writing.
bonoboTP 6y ago
This is why I love HN. These rare moments of hearing someone articulate something that I haven't quite grasped yet, but have seen glimpses of and have struggled with, presented clearly, insightfully. Feeling my brain being rewired. I've watched this talk multiple times over the last days and it is transformative. It's not like anything he says is, by itself, that new or counterintuitive. But the whole talk, when fully digested, lets you view the world in an entirely different way. The talk isn't about writing. It's not about science. Not about careers. It's about everything. The same thinking can be applied to speaking, to dating, to everything human. What's in your head isn't intrinsically interesting to anyone except your mother. What value do you deliver? It's harsh. Harsh and cruel. It's not the cozy feel-good message you see everywhere nowadays. Maybe some would call the whole framing toxic. But would you rather taste the poison and then learn how to handle it, or would you stay ignorant and die of it (silently get ignored, nosedive your career, etc.). In a masterfully meta way, the talk manages to deliver immense value.
- will_pseudonym 6y ago
  Absolutely. In that same vein, I've gotten a lot out of so many similar videos which are ostensibly about one thing, but to effectively use what they're teaching, you have to start learning/mastering something else entirely. "Indirect learning" is one way to put it, and a term I picked up from Randy Pausch's Last Lecture[0]. I've gained so much from watching that video, as well as his Time Management video[1]. So much so that I rewatch it about once a year, because every time you rewatch something, you're a different person in certain ways, and you often appreciate things much more the more you change and grow as a person. [0] https://youtu.be/ji5_MqicxSo https://youtu.be/ji5_MqicxSo [1] https://youtu.be/oTugjssqOT0?t=17 https://youtu.be/oTugjssqOT0?t=17

CaptArmchair 6y ago

This is a well written tutorial about writing well. It practices what it preaches. And it makes good points about clarity, succinctness and persuasiveness. This isn't a tutorial about "writing well" in general. It focusses on a particular way of writing: writing short articles that sell a specific idea, service or product to as many readers as possible. It's a practice that won't make great or enjoyable novels, though. And while Hemingway became famous for his terse and objective prose, so did the eclectic writing of James Joyce or the long winded storytelling of Proust. I feel that tone of voice and style are crucial in one's writing. The words you choose, ordering of your sentences, the construction of your argument, attention for positive or negative sentiment,... shape the perception with your audience. The author only briefly glosses over those points in his fourth section, before admitting it needs expansion. And yet, without developing those, your writing won't yield much life to the topic you want to brings across. This brings me back to the style of this tutorial. It's well written in a particular context, bring a point across as quickly and efficiently as possible, but it's written in a style which I don't enjoy at all. It's a purely functional, dry, uncompromising way of writing. It's a style that comes with risks and trade offs. This type of writing might come off as treating the reader as a passive agent that needs to be educated. And the key in doing so is applying well known devices to achieve that goal as quickly and efficiently as possible. Push the right buttons and you'll be able to build the desired sentiment with your audience. This shines through, for instance, in his second section - objectives - where his bullet points read as: > Open people’s eyes by proving the status quo wrong. > Identify key trends on a topic. Then use them to predict the future. While this isn't inherently wrong, these are bold tactics that create huge expectations at the start of the article. As an author, you better make sure you can deliver on your promise when you go down that road. Worst case, you may come of as presumptuous, even pretentious, and lose a big chunk of your target audience, while the readers that stick likely already are part of the parish you're preaching to. Writing only becomes better when you go on a journey of identifying your own intentions, and confronting your own trepidation. Why do you want to write? Who do you want to convince? Why do you want to convince them? What do you hope to achieve with your writing? What is your relationship with the reader and what defines your relationship with your readers? What is the importance to you, personally, in writing down your thoughts? What is it you want to express through your writing? Answering these questions as you practice your writing will provide the building blocks you need to define your style, your tone of voice, the pace of your writing and so on. Without a due amount of self reflection, authors might risk treating this type of writing into a golden hammer. Writing only becomes compelling if there's clear, genuine, personal investment in the content itself. Without it, "writing like Paul Graham or Derek Sivers" risks turning into a cargo cult like practice which produces boring, look-a-like writing.

episode0x01 6y ago

Would also recommend On Writing Well by William Zinsser. Amazing guide on writing nonfiction.

sixhobbits 6y ago

This looks amazing - added it to my collection of technical writing resources [0]. I'd also specifically recommend this talk by Larry McEnerney [1] which I discovered only recently in spite of actively looking for similar content - I guess I have a bias for written stuff. [0] https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing/blob/master/resources.md https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing/blob/master/... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM

prof-dr-ir 6y ago

Am I the only one who thinks that sinlge-sentence paragraphs should be the exception, not the rule?

OskarS 6y ago
Nope! You're definitely not the only one. For a page about writing well, this is a stupendously annoying thing to read.
- theelous3 6y ago
  To cherry pick a "paragraph" from the text: > Ignore that advice. :)
sanedigital 6y ago
It's super trendy right now. Especially on LinkedIn. These single sentence paragraphs. Provocative. At least that's what they think they are. I find them annoying. Trite. Overdone. In all seriousness: this article reads more like an outline than an actual piece of writing. Good writing is all about pacing. Some of your sentences should be long and winding. While others are short. That variance in rhythm keeps your reader involved in the piece. It's not necessary to convey a point-information is just as easily digested in bullet-point form-but it's necessary if you want to maintain your audience's attention over time.
- tonyedgecombe 6y ago
  Broetry: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/why-are-these-posts-taking-over-your-linkedin-feed-because https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/why-are-these-p...
keiferski 6y ago
If I see an article written this way, I immediately close the window.
- tonyedgecombe 6y ago

jgrahamc 6y ago

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. What he seems to have lost with this approach is a rhythm. It's a staccato battering with ideas. I'd much rather be seduced and cradled by writing that made me feel I'm learning by osmosis and not trepanning. EDIT: The author illustrates how his writing goes wrong by saying that the following paragraph: 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. is better rewritten as: 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. It's not. The two sentence rewrite is ugly. The first sentence is weird because it uses "additional" (which sounds like adding something) for things that will be removed. The second sentence uses "talking points" which makes it appear the writer is aiming for sound bites and not to educate the reader. 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'm being instructed by a voice that sounds like it comes from a cold machine.

JacobSuperslav 6y ago
I work with SEO, CRO, UX and I can confirm that this style of writing - short sentences, tiny paragraphs - results in better outcomes: time on page is higher and bounce rate is lower.
- jgrahamc 6y ago
  I wonder if those metrics are like that because this style of writing has the reader thinking that the author has something important to say and has to spend a long time figuring out what it is because the sentences have been cut to the bone.
  - JacobSuperslav 6y ago
    I honestly don't know, but the metrics rise on average, sending a positive signal to Google, which yields us higher rankings in Google, which equals more visitors. It's a constant battle between competitors -- finding out what the visitors want to read -- and how they want to read it.

social_quotient 6y ago

Unrelated: What style of icons and graphics are these? They seem hand drawn but I am wondering if stylistically there is a name so I can hunt down something similar or find more inspiration like this.

capableweb 6y ago
Just hand-drawn illustrations (or bought, but drawn by someone). Searching for "website illustrations" on Google Images or your favorite stock website will show you bunch of similar illustrations. All the rage today.

justforfunhere 6y ago

Reading works written by masters is one way in which one can organically internalize the art of writing well. Another thought that comes to my mind regarding writing is that why does one have to necessarily follow a particular set of rules? Writing is an art. You should be able to develop and hone your own style, your own signature, something that stands apart from others, yet is readable and lucid.

meigwilym 6y ago
> why does one have to necessarily follow a particular set of rules? I find rules are an excellent way to quickly get up to a reasonable level. One can discover these rules by trial and error, but this takes time and practice. When one is comfortable working within these rules, they can then be broken for effect. I think most great artists started as an apprentice, before becoming the master.

danuker 6y ago

Reminds me of How tech writing ruined me as a letter writer: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writing_ruined_me_as_a_letter_writer/ https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dmufm/how_tech_writ...

mattlutze 6y ago

There's a lot of people disagreeing here on the definition of "well," and it's interesting to see in real-time how the various assumed definitions result in assessments that are both valid and disagree with each other.

throwaway98797 6y ago

Too much clarity loses writing voice. Poor writers with substance can create compelling content. Sometimes I want the cliff notes and sometimes I want to be enamored with some lovely prose that leads me somewhere and makes me think.

tartoran 6y ago
Absolutely. But there are different writing styles for different purposes. Technical writing should be different than creative writing or you might lose some of the audience. But I read some great creative and technical writing that explains concepts through metaphors are imagery and do enjoy it.

cercatrova 6y ago

Note that Julian runs an SEO and growth marketing company, so the type of writing here is more for that purpose, to sell your product, than to become the next great author.

rchaud 6y ago
Considering he has others on "being rational" and "building muscle", I just thought he was one of those tech bros that loves Tim Ferriss and feels that same need to create prescriptive tutorials on topics they aren't domain experts in.
asdffdsa 6y ago
Maybe he should have put that in the title then, rather than proclaiming to know how to write well in general. Such an imprecise title is indicative of a poor writer, so I guess there is a good amount of irony to be had. Who knows; maybe he's a brilliant satirical writer.

lqet 6y ago

The style of this article reminds me of Wittgenstein: short, clinical, almost mathematical statements, with no poetical ambition whatsover. I understand that there might be situations in which such a style is appropriate, but this article is just very annoying to read. I would not definitely not call it "good writing". The kind of "clarity" presented here as good writing works well if you assume that everything that can be thought can be directly expressed in words, without substantial loss. This is clearly not the case. Language is a very poor medium to transmit throughts and feelings. So the "trick" every good writer uses is this: don't describe something directly, but instead try to construct some secondary clues, hints and a general atmosphere that will start a thought process in the reader's mind which leads to the conclusions you want to bring across. This is the poetic approach, it could also simply be called "writing between the lines". In my experience, this approach is a much more effective transmitter of ideas than trying to describe them directly, also for the simple reason that the reader will subconsiously assume that it is his own idea. You need beautiful prose, rhythm and images to achieve that, as those open up this additional dimension. The article undertakes considerable (even pedantic) effort to leave that dimension closed.

mudita 6y ago
Just as an aside: This seems like a very unfair characterisation of Wittgenstein to me. His writing can be almost mathematical, but it can also be very poetic, playful and funny. Appreciating his writing might be a matter of taste, but it seems clear to me that his writing had a lot of "poetical ambition". How we use language was one of his primary concerns and he clearly cared a lot about how he himself wrote. In Philosophische Untersuchungen I see a lot of warmth in his writing. Often it seems like he is talking very personally to the reader like he would to a friend. From quick googling it seems like I am not alone in my view of Wittgenstein as a poetic philosopher, see e.g. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199287505.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199287505-e-32 https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/978019... https://www.uib.no/en/news/101796/wittgenstein-poetic-philosopher https://www.uib.no/en/news/101796/wittgenstein-poetic-philos...
- lqet 6y ago

sethgecko 6y ago

Didn't think much of the content but I am impressed he managed to get the julian.com domain and the @julian twitter handle. I would assume that it's a pretty common name.

matthewowen 6y ago

This reads like GPT-3

huijzer 6y ago

Great read with pleasing aesthetics. However, there is one point I do not agree with, namely: > That isn't to say children should understand your references and jargon. Do not over-simplify your language and weaken your ideas. Rather, children must be able to follow the logic of every argument. Richard Feynman argues that people often hide between jargon to hide the fact that one doesn't know. As a programmer, I often see jargon as an additional dependency and only introduce it if I really cannot avoid it.

young_unixer 6y ago

You know what I consider engaging writing? HN comments Good HN comments are longer than tweets but shorter than essays, they strike a perfect balance of expressing an interesting idea in a reasonable time. And they always have an underlying, implicit amount of playful pedantry that makes them even more fun to read. This very comment was fun to write because not even I know if I'm being sarcastic or not.

DataGata 6y ago
I assumed you weren't being sarcastic. Comments in general are pseudo-dialog. Whereas in real life, we stumble over our words and can't edit, in well-policed comment sections with sincere posters, we can all contribute to a Sorkian drama.

auganov 6y ago

> The Shakespeares, Twains, and Austens of the future won't emerge from the book publishing industry. They’ll come from YouTube, podcasts, and blogs. The author pushes for a cold technical writing style. Then he brings up a bunch of literary writers? The two worlds are very much at odds. The worship of the literary that's all too common in classrooms is, I believe, why so many people are scared of writing anything in the first place. And then there's the obsession with grammar.

adamfaliq 6y ago

I have written a similar blogpost on writing here [0], which was received well by HN community. I'd also recommend the book "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace" and this document [1]. These resources tremendously helped me to improve my writing. [0] https://adamfaliq.wordpress.com/2020/10/28/write-well/ https://adamfaliq.wordpress.com/2020/10/28/write-well/ [1] https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/5/7046/files/2014/10/UnivChic_WritingProg-1grt232.pdf https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/5/7046/files/20...

definetheword 6y ago
The link to [1] appears to be a subset of a larger document/program from University of Chicago (but this appears to be source from OSU). Do you have a link to all the book/materials? Thanks
- adamfaliq 6y ago
  [1] is actually the reference material for this [2] lecture, which another commenter has already mentioned. [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM

j7ake 6y ago

This article on writing well seems to be missing basic paragraph structures, which is probably why some find it hard to read.

idlewords 6y ago

The first step to writing well is to avoid taking advice from people who write this poorly. I recommend Paul Zinnser's "On Writing Well" as an alternative to whatever this bad writer is shilling.

johnharrison 6y ago
This is the best book on writing I've come across. William Zinsser.
idlewords 6y ago
Gah, William Zinnser, my bad

projectileboy 6y ago

“Writing well” often takes different shapes in different contexts. The author’s example seems fine, maybe, for product copy, but it certainly isn’t applicable everywhere. If you (or the author) disagree, then you have to explain what Jane Austen doesn’t understand that you do.

johnharrison 6y ago

Brevity and concision on their own are monotonous. You may have stumbled on this before but Gary Provost talks about writing 'music': "This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals—sounds that say listen to this, it is important. So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music." Stripping a sentence to its cleanest components is a worthy aim but not at the cost of composition. Because, writers are part composers. In gmail, you're not prompted to 'write' an email. You're prompted to 'compose' it. Brevity for its own sake isn't sustainable.

taphangum 6y ago
Absolutely sublime comment. Educational, thought-provoking and entertaining. Thank you very much johnharrison!

redelbee 6y ago

This reminds me of my first unsuccessful job interview. I came away from it with totally unexpected lessons about writing and life. I had just moved across the country after leaving my job at a newspaper. The job posting was for a copy editor at an in-house trade magazine at a Texas education nonprofit. They called me in for an interview, likely because I had copy editing experience on my resume. Nothing unexpected happened. I talked to a few folks and the hiring manager, completed a copy editing exercise meant to test my competence at finding and addressing various spelling/grammar/AP style issues, and made my way back to the hiring manager before the final meeting with a few higher level executives. The whole day went to shit when I found myself giving an honest answer to an off-hand question posed by the hiring manager. I heard myself talking about my fascination with writers, and especially those who made convincing and beautiful arguments while ignoring seemingly every rule and convention of the grammar and style books I had mastered in journalism school. As the words wound out of my brain through my mouth I knew there was no getting back to the promising path to a full-time copy editing job I had been on for the last few hours. Based on our conversation thus far I knew this hiring manager was unlikely to be interested in my point of view, or in hiring me, now that the truth was out. A few minutes after we met she told me about how important the copy editor role was, especially since the educators who read the magazine tended to be sticklers when it came to matters of grammar and style. She knew this to be true because her first title at the company was, you guessed it, Copy Editor. It was as if I was running the final stages of a FAANG interview gauntlet, only to find myself loudly extolling the benefits of working for small startups. She reacted as negatively as you would expect, and we moved on to the final portion of the day with the executives. By now I knew my job search would have to continue. The day wasn’t a total waste, however, because the CEO and founder of the nonprofit asked me the final question of the day. “Is there anything else you want to know about me or the nonprofit I started before we wrap up?” I knew there would be no job offer, so I decided to ask about something I was actually interested in knowing. I asked him if he had any regrets in his life, and told him I wanted to know because he was clearly successful and I rarely had the opportunity to ask about the pitfalls of success. He looked at me for a few moments and I wasn’t sure if I had managed to step in another pile of shit. When he finally responded it was to tell me slowly, then quickly, about the neglected relationships in his life, especially those with his children. We talked about the nature of family and friendships for a few minutes and I came away feeling much better about the whole situation. I didn’t get the job (they gave it to a freshly minted English PhD) but I’ll never forget what I learned that day. Grammar and style don’t really matter, even when you’re interviewing for a job ostensibly concerned with nothing else. People and our connections absolutely do matter, and it’s those relationships by which we should judge our success in life.

olufnaese 6y ago

Why is there a new paragraph for every sentence?

geocrasher 6y ago

If you want to write, stop worrying about writing. Worrying about writing isn't writing. It's just spending time and energy that could otherwise be used as writing. So, write something. Then read it back to yourself out loud. If something sounds stupid, change it. Now do that every day at least once. Congratulations. You're a writer. [Edited because I read it out loud to myself and some parts sounded stupid]

young_unixer 6y ago
Also read it 5 hours later and you'll see your mistakes more clearly.

2143 6y ago

Just get The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and read it cover to cover. It's cheap, small (less than 70 pages.. don't remember exactly) and full of useful actionable tips.

StormofBytes 6y ago

I don't know why but blog post comes off as a bit pretentious to me.

Cyberthal 6y ago

> Welcome Wasted heading. What website doesn't welcome readers? An offline one. > To write well is to think clearly. No, it's to communicate well. There is beautifully-written nonsense. > If you can think clearly, you can find something worth saying. Meaninglessly asserts a relationship between two ambiguous thresholds. A vague thought not worth saying! > An ideal place to start is thinking through what bothers you most in life. No. That problem is likely too difficult. The correct essay topic is whatever thought won't go away until it's written down. > The best writing is therapy that you publish for the world to learn from. False: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books That's where I stopped reading. I know what Julian's trying to express. My Pubmind-T3 blogs are for publishing early and often, which is a best practice. But without Textmind (or David Allen's GTD), thinking in essays would be a frustratingly overloaded affordance. Good writing, like clear thought, is reliably produced only via sound process.