The discoveries you make in the making Style is an expression of the interest you take in the making of every sentence. It emerges, almost without intent, from your engagement with each sentence. It's the discoveries you make in the making of the prose itself. Where ambiguity rules, there is no "style"—or anything else worth having. Pursue clarity instead. In the pursuit of clarity, style reveals itself. Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several Short Sentences About Writing The idea grows as they workFour principlesExpressing ideas helps to form them styleclaritymaking
Simple moments of clarity I have seen autistic children drawing at a terrific speed and I've always thought that my drawings should not be less rapid, because that speed gives them insignificance. In this speed lies their abandonment and it may cause them to be overlooked as mere doodles. However, I understand that they are like that pristine light that appears when they tell you that you have a tumour. In an instant, everything becomes clear and well-defined. All contours are cruelly illuminated as if it was worth taking a final look at the world. At such times, although the lines in the drawings clump into a skein of events that are indecipherable to ordinary mortals, they can be described in detail by the victim one by one. These are moments when weeds regain their nature as plants. Only now can I understand these drawings as simple moments of clarity. Smiljan Radić, Death at Home artclarity
Pellucidity A Definition www.thefreedictionary.com Free from obscurity and easy to understand; the comprehensibility of clear expression euphonyunderstandingthinkingclarity
The Elements of Style A Book by William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White www.gutenberg.org Choose a suitable design and hold to itMake the paragraph the unit of compositionUse the active voicePut statements in positive formSpecific, definite, concrete+9 More The Elements of Typographic StyleThe Elements of Graphing DataThe Sense of StyleThe superficial aspects of what someone else is doing writingcommunication
Choose a suitable design and hold to it A basic structural design underlies every kind of writing. Writing, to be effective, must follow closely the thoughts of the writer, but not necessarily the order in which those thoughts occur. This calls for a scheme of procedure. In some cases, the best design is no design, as with a love letter, which is simply an outpouring, or with a casual essay, which is a ramble. But in most cases, planning must be a deliberate prelude to writing. The more clearly the writer perceives the shape, the better are the chances of success. Such tortuous syntax
Make the paragraph the unit of composition As a rule, begin each paragraph either with a sentence that suggests the topic or with a sentence that helps the transition. More commonly, the opening sentence simply indicates by its subject the direction the paragraph is to take.
Use the active voice "I shall always remember my first visit to Boston” is better than "My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me."
Put statements in positive form Make definite assertions. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion. "He was not very often on time” becomes “He usually came late.” “She did not think that studying Latin was much use” becomes “She thought the study of Latin useless." Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; the reader wishes to be told what is. If your every sentence admits a doubt, your writing will lack authority.
Specific, definite, concrete Prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract. examples
Omit needless words When a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentence short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. Less, but better brevitysimplicityminimalism
The principle of parallel construction This principle, that of parallel construction, requires that expressions similar in content and function be outwardly similar. Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs in the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth. Structural parallelism form
Steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion Here we leave solid ground. Who can confidently say what ignites a certain combination of words, causing them to explode in the mind? Who knows why certain notes in music are capable of stirring the listener deeply, though the same notes slightly rearranged are impotent? These are high mysteries, and this chapter is a mystery story, thinly disguised. There is no satisfactory explanation of style, no infallible guide to good writing, no assurance that a person who thinks clearly will be able to write clearly, no key that unlocks the door, no inflexible rule by which writers may shape their course. Writers will often find themselves steering by stars that are disturbingly in motion.
Design informs even the simplest structure Design informs even the simplest structure, whether of brick and steel or of prose. Even the kind of writing that is essentially adventurous and impetuous will on examination be found to have a secret plan: Columbus didn’t just sail, he sailed west, and the New World took shape from this simple and, we now think, sensible design.
Do not overstate When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows it will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment or your poise. A single overstatement, wherever or however it occurs, diminishes the whole.
Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end The proper place in the sentence for the word or a group of words that the writer desires to make most prominent is usually the end. The principle that the proper place for what is to be made most prominent is the end applies equally to the words of a sentence, to the sentences of a paragraph, and to the paragraphs of a composition.
Writing is one way to go about thinking And the practice and habit of writing not only drains the mind but supplies it, too. Expressing ideas helps to form them thinking
Style is not separate from substance Young writers often suppose that style is a garnish for the meat of prose, a sauce by which a dull dish is made palatable. Style has no such separate entity; it is nondetachable, unfilterable. The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is an expression of self, and should turn resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style - all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity. The young writer should learn to spot them - words that at first glance seem freighted with delicious meaning but that soon burst in air, leaving nothing but a memory of bright sound. style