[HN Gopher] What I did not learn about writing in school
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What I did not learn about writing in school
Author : saeedesmaili
Score : 37 points
Date : 2023-02-22 07:11 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (eugeneyan.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (eugeneyan.com)
| jyriand wrote:
| In school, I learned that writing is like a game of bingo. Later
| I learned that writing is more like a game of solitaire.
| mold_aid wrote:
| [flagged]
| eatonphil wrote:
| The most useful lesson about writing I learned I did actually
| learn in school (in a mandatory writing-intensive course in
| college): to re-read and edit.
|
| I think it was specifically that reading what you wrote aloud (or
| mouthing it silently) is a way to get a fresh look at what you
| wrote. It helps you realize both 1) more natural sounding and 2)
| more logical ordering of words than the stream of thought you
| wrote down.
|
| My initial stream of thought when writing is always a garbled
| mess. So this technique made a big difference for me.
|
| The most that my favorite books on writing (mentioned in the
| article as well: Zinsser's On Writing Well) helped with was just
| cutting out unnecessary crap.
|
| Not to say it doesn't help to read these sorts of books. And I
| agree with the author that just writing (and continuing to write
| as practice) is best.
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _My initial stream of thought when writing is always a
| garbled mess. So this technique made a big difference for me._
|
| Yes! "The only kind of writing is rewriting." -- Ernest
| Hemingway
| the_af wrote:
| Borges also followed this point of view. He was allegedly so
| fussy about rewriting and fixing his writings, he sometimes
| thought of corrections for second editions, if it was too
| late because the text was already in print.
| korroziya wrote:
| I agree with most of the points but I will say (as someone who
| writes for a living) that it is "easy" once you've learned how to
| do it. Writing is hard as hell if you don't know the rules past
| high-school level requirements.
|
| Case-in-point: several of my non-work friends are ESL and some of
| them are taking technical writing courses. I've seen their
| assignments and have given them copyediting help. They're shocked
| that I can carve out the assignment in five minutes. Usually
| their problem is the first rule from Strunk and White: use less
| words.
| f5ve wrote:
| *fewer words, mr. professional writer
|
| jk ... but only sort of
| ghaff wrote:
| Yeah. These days I mostly do a _lot_ of writing and a _lot_ of
| editing. And I suspect I can sometimes coast a little bit
| because people assume that what I do (for me) is a lot harder
| than it actually is. Though it 's never really easy and does
| involve a lot of pacing to get through some writing "problem."
| zabzonk wrote:
| quite a lot of my career has been writing - reference material
| and training courses, and a few short stories. apart from the
| latter, all of which were crap, my advice would be:
|
| - know what you are writing about. it is very hard to write on a
| subject you have little knowledgr of
|
| - pick an example that you have seen and found helpful (i chose
| MS c++ help - the old stuff not the new crap) and model your text
| on that
|
| - if possible, get it reviewed, if it is a course then teach it
| from what you have written - the punters will not be kind to a
| badly-written course
|
| - use professional grade tools, if you are doing this for real
| money - i used framemaker for most of my technical writing
| nicbou wrote:
| I learned the "plan first" rule in high school, and a university
| teacher etched it into my brain a bit later.
|
| What I wish we were taught: plain, bottom-line-up-front writing.
| We were never told to use fewer, simpler words. Clarity was never
| a criteria.
|
| In the real world, people will wish you could get to the damn
| point.
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