Friday, April 22, 2005

On Writing Well

Do you need some tips on good writing? Andreas Kostenberger—in an editorial for JETS a couple of years ago—provided some advice:

1. Always avoid the apt art of alliteration.

2. Avoid clichés like the plague.

3. Never, ever generalize.

4. Do not be redundant or use more words than necessary.

5. One-word sentences? Eliminate.

6. Don’t use contractions.

7. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

8. Foreign words are usually not apropos.

9. The passive voice is to be avoided.

10. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

For tips on becoming a better writer, see Marvin Olasky’s The Write Stuff and Andree Seu’s On Writing. Also worth consulting is R. Scott Clarks On the Writing of Essays.

At a minimum, everyone should own Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. (If you don’t own it, repent and order it.) More detailed and more helpful in some ways is Zinsser’s On Writing Well. If you would have titled this book On Writing Good, this may be one for you to consider.