[PRL] Wadler's Blog: Three ways to improve your writing

Mitchell Wand wand at ccs.neu.edu
Fri May 4 11:47:12 EDT 2007


 http://wadler.blogspot.com/2007/03/three-ways-to-improve-your-writing.html


Knuth's notes, in particular, look very useful (at least the few pages that
I read).

--Mitch

Three ways to improve your writing Read these three texts. Each is short,
but the benefits will last a long time. Heeding their advice will improve
your life. It will improve mine too, if I ever read what you write.

   - Minicourse on Technical
Writing<http://tex.loria.fr/typographie/mathwriting.pdf>by Donald
Knuth. When I was an undergraduate, I had the great fortune to
   take Knuth's course on algorithms, which included a couple of lectures on
   technical writing. If my writing is readable, that owes a great deal to that
   minicourse. Later, Knuth ran a semester-long seminar on the subject, which
   you'll find at the end of this link. The first three sections are the
   minicourse, and worth their weight in gold.

   I endorse all of the advice, except that in Section 1, Point 24, I
   think that even the 'good' examples are bad. Much better to think of a
   vigorous verb to use for the vital first sentence, rather than dull 'is' or
   'are'.
   - Politics and the English
Language<http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit>by
George Orwell. The predecessor of Haskell was named Orwell, and the
user
   manual began with this quotation from the essay:

   A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and
   then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same
   thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and
   inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our
   language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.

   Orwell explains why you cannot think clearly unless you express
   yourself clearly, and gives rules of thumb to help ensure the latter.
   - The Elements of Style <http://www.bartleby.com/141/> by William
   Strunk Jr and E. B. White. The book is 105 pages and costs under five pounds
   (and if you buy it through this link, 5% of the cost goes to James
   Gillespie's Primary School PTA). It could be the best five pounds you ever
   spent.

   If you're too cheap to buy the book, Bartelby has an online version of
   the first edition, Strunk before White <http://www.bartleby.com/141/>.

Read, enjoy, and write better!
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