Sam Leith gave a great talk at WeWork Moorgate this morning about writing.
Know your audience
An alternative version would be
Drive the van safely and considerately
When writing, consider the reader:
When you go fishing, use the bait the fish like, not what you like
- Fit your arguments to what they know and understand
- Fit your model to the reader's mental model
3 ways to persuade – aristotle
- Logos – logic
- Ethos – who you are
- Pathos – emotion
Plain English can be considered a negative quality – you notice it when it’s not there. Simplicity requires work by the writer but makes reading better. As an example, the iPhone is far more complex than a VCR – but comes with no manual and is easy to use. VCRs came with long manuals and where so difficult to use, very few used lots of the features.
If a reader's energy is taken up parsing your language, they can’t focus on your idea. Because complicated, pompous words can confuse, they require follow up. In a business setting, these clarifications cause delay which increase costs. One of the reasons Sam identified for use of pompous language was the fear that the idea being described is simple so it needs to be dressed up.
Orwell's rules
Sam's thoughts
- Cliches – careful use is fine
- Long words – it’s not the length that is a problem but familiarity of the reader. For example, accommodation is long but well understood; gluon is short but not widely understood
- Cut words – Don’t when it ruins structure
- Passive – Don’t be phobic about it
- Foreign or scientific – When use of word is obvious, it’s ok – but avoid pomposity
Cultivate an ear
Everybody speaks one on one effectively and Writing is an extension of this.
Think about sentence structure
If the reader struggles to find the context of a sentence, needs to remember everything so it can apply if to the context.
How not to do it
You are 8,9 sentences in before you know the subject. This is called list branching. Try and be right branching.
Thriller writers, Lee child in this case, are incredibly good at right branching sentences. Subject — verb scouse to the start of your sentence as possible.
One thing after another — no branching, no parenthesis, very effective.
Correctness
Lots of discussion about shibboleths of writing. This has been happening since the printing press was invented. Prescriptivists say what should be. Descriptivists saw how it should be used
Going back to Bait the hook — if formal language is expected by the reader, use formal language.
Grammar is there to help explain how the language is used not to set rules.
Steven pinker — follow on commas — try and avoid them.
Dangling modifier — generally doesn’t impact understanding, but it does annoy.
Avoid question marks on statements.
Train your ear
You have natural sense of how things should hear — trust it
- If you are getting out of breath reading, the been is in the wrong place
- Cadence is important
This quote ends with a nice cadence
Giles coren had a piece edited prior to publication — they removed an a.
Conclusions
Was a great session — if you found these brief notes interesting, check out the related book
Write to the Point: How to be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page
by Sam Leith
Link: http://amzn.eu/imumlGd
