No matter how well you think you write, there are always ways that you can improve. Whether it's reports or e-mail, we are likely to receive tremendous amounts of the information that we need in our lives through the written word. This article covers some important tips from Steven Pinker. Here is an introduction to him from the article:
Steven is a cognitive scientist and linguist at Harvard. He’s also on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary.
Steven was recently ranked as one of the top 100 most eminent psychologists of the modern era.
His latest book is The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. And it’s great.
I think the most important lesson is to take the time to incorporate these rules into a system that can help you convey your message to your target audience as quickly and efficiently as possible. Transferring ideas to others can often be one of the hardest things we attempt to do on a regular basis! Do your best to make that task as effective as you can.
Here is a quick summary of the article:
- Be visual and conversational. Be concrete, make your reader see and stop trying to impress.
- Beware “the curse of knowledge.” Have someone read your work and tell you if it makes sense. Your own brain cannot be trusted.
- Don’t bury the lead. Clarity beats suspense. If they don’t know what it’s about they can’t follow along.
- You don’t have to play by the rules, but try. If you play it straight 99% of the time, that 1% will really shine.
- Read Read Read. The English language is too complex to learn from one book. Never stop learning.
- Good writing means revising. Never hit “send” or “print” without reviewing your work — preferably multiple times.
Here is the link to the full article: How To Be A Better Writer: 6 Tips From Harvard’s Steven Pinker
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