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How do I learn to analyse and critique my own writing in this way? It’s broader than just grammar, more like rules for good writing which could almost be autom
by benjaminwootton 3y ago
How do I learn to analyse and critique my own writing in this way?
It’s broader than just grammar, more like rules for good writing which could almost be automated.
Are there a set of rules or a good book I can refer to?
- zerbinxx 3y agoEats, Shoots & Leaves is a good one on punctuation. Dreyer’s English is a good recent one. Woe Is I is a classic. There are a lot of style guides and fun little books about grammar and editing. My partner is a editor at a publishing house so she guides me a lot on things like this. I’m not sure it can be automated, but the best things I can say I’ve learned about writing are: don’t do anything obviously wrong (grammatically, syntactically, factually), be concise/specific, and keep your purpose/relationship to the reader at the front of your mind.
- zero_shift 3y agoThere is a great book called _Style: Towards Clarity and Grace_. Any of Joseph Williams' other books will do if you can't get hold of that.
- Noumenon72 3y agoSteven Pinker's _The Sense of Style_ is good at grounding style rules in the actual evolved structures of human grammar. I also recommend the left-to-right, "topic position -> stress position" approach described in https://www.americanscientist.org/blog/the-long-view/the-science-of-scientific-writing https://www.americanscientist.org/blog/the-long-view/the-sci.... I care more about whether I am making the reader do unnecessary work than whether I am entertaining to read or whether my commas are spliced.