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When I moved to an English speaking country a few years ago, I wanted to get better at writing. On a snowy day, I wrote an email to a guy who writes for The Ne
by thewizl 4y ago
When I moved to an English speaking country a few years ago, I wanted to get better at writing.
On a snowy day, I wrote an email to a guy who writes for The New Yorker and whose articles frequently appear on HN.
In that email, I asked for advice on how to become better at writing.
I thought he’d never reply but he actually did.
His reply had a bunch of good advice, and writing a lot was one of them.
The other recommendations I got were these books:
* A sense of style - Pinker
* Garner's Modern English Usage
Hope that helps someone else as much as it’s helped me.
- beezlebroxxxxxx 4y agoA really good book is Style: Toward Clarity and Grace by Joseph M. Williams (https://www.amazon.com/Style-Clarity-Joseph-M-Williams/dp/0226899152 https://www.amazon.com/Style-Clarity-Joseph-M-Williams/dp/02...), notable because it uses a lot of examples to move step by step through the process of improving and clarifying what you've written. Far too often people think the first draft has to be perfect, when in reality writing well is more like rewriting well.