PRINCIPLE OF GOOD WRITING
.....L.A.Hills....
To write well,you have to be able to write dearly and logically , and you cannot do this unless you can think clearly and logically too if you cannot do this yet, you should train yourself to do it by taking particular problems and following them through,point by point, to a solution, without leaving anything out and without avoiding any difficulties that you meet.
For example,you may take the problem, what do mean when I say that I am a free person ?" And then try to find a solution along something like the following lines: 'Am I free to do anything like: No, I am not free to fly to Mars,for example. My freedom is limited to what it possible. Am I then free to do anything that it is possible for me to do? No, I am not free to kill my neighbour for example. My freedom is limited to what is possible and legal found out, yes infact Iam. My freedom is therefore limited to what is possible and legal, unless limitations to my freedom Because if I were free to do harm. and under these conditions, I would have less chance of freedom than if and everybody else accepted certain legal chance legal limitations on our freedom inorder to protect the latter against arbitrary interference by others, etc',
At first. you may find clear,step-up-step thought very difficult. You may find that your mind continually wander. But practice will improve your ability to think clearly and logically.
In order to increase your vocabulary and to improve your powers of expression, you should read widely and carefully, and keep a note boos in which to write down words and expressions that particular strike you/ for example, sparkle, glitter, owinkle, blame, glean, butcherblue eyes, relax into delicious indolence. Use a good dictionary to help you with the exact meaning and uses of words.
Always remember that regular and frequent practice is essential if you are to learn to write well. You learn to write by writing.It is no good waiting until you have an inspiration before you write. Even with the most famous writers, inspiration is rare. Writing is 90 percent hard work and percent inspiration to the sooner you get into the habit of disciplining yourself to write the better.
If you keep your eyes and earsOpen, youwill find plenty of things to write about around you. Often a little piece of conversation heard in the street can start you thinking along interesting new lines. Imagine that you are a stranger who is not familiar with the thing that you see around you, and start from there.
Read the newspapers carefully. Everyday there are example of human joy and human tragedy in it which give you ideas for articles, essays or short stories.
Keep a notebook in which to put down things that you notice or ideas that comes to you when youare out walking, when you are reading a book or magazine, or at any other time. Some people get ideas in the bath, or when they wake up during the night. Unless they write down these ideas down at Once,they often forget them.
Try to develop a warn, understanding of people, their problems, joys and their sorrows, so that you are genuinely interested in everyone you meet and where before you could perhaps see nothing of interest.
To be a successful writer, you must write interestingly; but different kinds of people have different interests, and it is most unlikely that you will be able to appeal to all of them. You therefore have to know exactly what types of reader you are writing for,and exactly what kind of thing interest such reader.By carefully reading magazines for teenagers, magazine for well educatalted men, you can find out the thing that interest particular type of readers.
Most people are interested in the present. Even when they read about the past or the future, it is atter'connections with, or relevance to the present that particularly interest them.You should therefore choose subjects of topical interest~ the latest fashions in some particular field, problems which wory people are making preparations for this festival and about summer holidays when the summer is approaching.
As much as possible,choose subjects of which you have personal experience. Your will be able to write on these much more convincingly and with greater authority than on subjects about which you have only second-hand informaton.
Presentation is of very great importance in good writing. Your opening
Paragraph should arrest the readers attention and show him what you are
ritingabout and why. If you are going to give the reader some information
tell him what subject youare going to dealwith. If youare going to argue in
support of a particularly point of view, say what this point of view is.There is
no harm in starting the reader in this first paragraph by putting forward a new
and apparently paradoxical point of view, provided youhave convincing
arguments to support in it the rest of what you write.
The main body of your piece of writing should collect together and present
the ideas pronted in the first paragraph or give good arguments to support
the view put forward there. Youshould come to the point at once, say what
youpromised to say, avoiding irrelevant omaterial, and then finish.
Your last paragraph or sentence should bring what you have written to a
neat,satisfying end, leavingthe reader with a clearideaof what you have been
saying. To write interestingly,you must yourself be intensely interested in what
youare writingand you must convey this feeling to eagerness to your readers,
You must also believe intensely in what you are wrioing,and convince your
readers of your honesty. You cannotaroused their interest and sympathy unless
thev feel that you are interested,and thatyou feelstrongly about what you are
saying. Do not, however, force upon the reader those of your own private problem
which few, if any other people share People are very interested in problems
which they too face, or which they may easily have to face in the near future.
but they do not want to read the personal complaining and protest of someone
whom they consider a crank, or whom theyy suspect of being mentally unbalanced.
Do not strive to create impression. Forget about yourself. Think onlv a
the reader, and write naturally avoiding self-consciousnes.If you have so
interesting to write about and can express it clearly,simply and with the human
touch,it is sure to appeal to some classes of readers. But if you deliberately try
lO Gopy a
style which is not your ownthis will quickly become obvious to the
reader, he will feel that you are not sincere, and he will not go on reading Wnat
you nave written. As you read more and more works written in particular
Style, your own will gradually change;
but this will be a natural proces, and
your new style will be yours, because it comes up from your unconscious self,
unlike a style which you are deliberately copying.
This does not mean that you should not cultivate wivid expression, if you
train yourself to see and hear thing keenly responsively as an artist or a
musician does,you will be able to describe them vividly yet without artificially.
It is best to write simply and in a conversational tone. Clean, plain, English is
the fashion these days, and an elaborate, decorated style is quite out of date.
Avoid jargon (e.g, 're your letter to hand 'meaning with reference to the letter
Which Ihave received from you') and oficialese (eg it ís a appreheneded that
meaninglsuppose) hackneyed expressions (e.g. Adams ale forwater and
do ones level best'for do the best one can) rhetorically flournishes(eg.This is
a
subject of great importance to many people now-a-days, and therefore one
which Ife Ishould discuss seriously and honestly'The readers know whether
he thinks it important or notand he certainly does not needto be told that, if
it is of great importance, it deserves to be discussed seriously and honestly)
empty verbiage (e.g, fellobliged to add that, doubtless, many people appreciate
that it
is a the matter of greatest importance that information about possible
cases about curely to children should be passed on to the appropriate authorities
immediately, in which the first 20 words are empty verbiage) and
circumlocutions (e.g. Iwill cause investigations to be made with a view to
ascertaining the information, instead of will find out).
Prefer the concrete to the abstact word whenever possible; be definite, call
pade a spade,and avoid euphemisms. The latter have been called the Cult of
Cosiness, which means the pretence that everything is all right when it is not,
In Hitlers Germanye, for example the expression of special treatment.
Here is an example, taken from Dickens novel David Coppeofifoeld, of the
ort things to avoid:
My dear Sir,
Years have elapsed, since lIhad an opportunity of ocularly per using the
lineaments,now familiar to the imagination of a considerable portion of the
onlized world. But,my dear si, though escranged (by the force of circumstance
er which Ihave had no control) from the no control for the personal
ocietyof the friend and companion ofy youth, Ihave not been unmmindfu!
of his soaring flight. Nor Ihave been debarred from participating in uie
intellectual feasts he has spread before us.
I can not therefore, allow of the departure fromthis place of an individual
whom we mutualy respect and esteem, without, my dear si,taking this public
opportunity of thinkingyou, onmy own behalf, and,may undertake to add,
on that of the whole of the inhabitants of Port Middlebay, for the grandification
of which youare the ministering agent.
Go on, my dear sir! Youare not unknown here,you are not unappreciated
Though remote we are neither "unfriended", 'melancholy", nor ( may add) 'slow'.
Go on, my dear sir, in your eagle course! The inhabitants of Port
Middlebay may at least aspire to watch it, with delight, with entertainment,
it instruction! Amongthe eyes elevated towards you from this end of the
globe,can be found, while it has light and life.
we should now write,instead of the above, somethinglike this:
Dear Sir,
Appertaining to
Wilkins Micawber
Magistrare,
It is many years since 1
last had an opportunity to see you, and you have
now become famous throughout a
considerable part of the critized world.
Although circumstances beyond my control have made it impossible for me to
continue the close association with you which I enjoyed in my youth, I have followed your progress and read Our books with great pleasure.
Now that you are leaving Port Middle bay, I would therefore like to think
you,on my own behalf and on behalf of the inhabitants of this town for the
pleasure you have given us, and wish you even greater success in the future.
Yours faithfully
Avoid starting the obvious; eg your readers do not want to be told that
aeroplane someomes crash, or that children learn from their parent as well as
from their teachers.
Use the same style throughout whatever you are writing you are writing
formally, do not introduce sang expressions, and if you are writing in a
COnversational boyle, do not introduce literary or learned expressions. A mixture of syles such as the following is abaund:in the absence, on home leave of my
Dooks your application for empathcoc consideration of your claim to a pension
nas been pushed on to me l had no alternative but to give in the thumb down
OWing to the fact that your old man and ceased to be in the service of Her
Majesty when hekicked the bucket.
IT, While you are writing,you cannot think of the right word at once it is a
good idea to put in another, or to leave a blank, so as not to interrupt your
now of thought. Then, when you have inched, you can go back and find
exactly the right
word for what you were were trying to say.
In any case, read your work or critically at youhave finished is replacing
welk, vague, inexact word by others which may use what you mean,
