Effective Writing
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.
Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals – sounds that say listen to this, it is important.
So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.
– Gary Provost
Be moving.
- Write in the first and second person to keep it direct. “You feel this. You hear that. We will do all the things.”
- Write in active, not passive, voice. “Sally eats the hamburger.” vs “The hamburger is being eaten by Sally.”
- You can break grammar rules, sparingly. You aren’t writing a technical paper. You can start sentences with “And” or “So” if they read well out loud.
Be concise.
- Keep your sentences short and to the point. Use less than 30 words per sentence.
- Due to the fact – because
- Totally lacked the ability to – could not
- Bullet points and single-sentence lines are your friends. Big chunks of text are exhausting.
- Replace adjectives with data
- we made the performance much faster – we reduced server side tp90 latency from 10ms to 1ms
- Does your writing pass the “so what” test?
- If you get a question, replay with one of the following for Amazon answers:
- Yes.
- No.
- A number.
- I don’t know (and will follow up when I do).
If you’re struggling to describe a complicated idea, do what Richard Feynman did to become one of the greatest teachers in all of science:
- Write down a plain English description of the concept as best as you can. Imagine that you’re trying to teach it to someone wholly new to the concept. If you’re having a hard time writing it, step away from the keyboard and talk it out. Then write down what you said.
- Review your description and look for any areas where you felt uncomfortable, where you relied on referencing another concept (that your audience wouldn’t necessarily know), or where you used technical jargon. Go back to the source material, re-read, and re-learn it.
- Now rewrite.
- Review your description again and look for places where you lazily paraphrased the material or were needlessly wordy. Simplify and clarify.
- Lastly, find a compelling analogy to make the concept even more approachable and understandable. This is the hardest step because it truly tests your grasp of the concept. As an example, here’s Richard Feynman explaining how we perceive “hot” and “cold.” Analogies are superheroes. They make the complicated simple and compelling.
Read your own writing and rewrite it. Only assholes don’t edit. If it’s something important, I’ll actually look at every word in every sentence and ask if that word is essential or not. If it isn’t, I delete it.
Be objective.
Avoid adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives are imprecise and do not contribute to make a decision. Most Amazonians react negatively to buzz words and qualifications without data.
- Sales increased significantly in Q4, due to use of holiday promotions – Unit sales increased by 40 % in Q4 2011, compared to Q4 2010, because of holiday promotions.
- we made the application much faster – We reduced server side trailing 90-day latency from 10ms to 1ms.
- This will make the endeavor extremely successful. – This will increase output by 2.5 %.
Be understandable.
Don’t use buzzwords, even if the client does. Even in docs you’re prepping for them, write out the acronyms they use. You’d be surprised how many clients don’t actually know what the buzzword means, but were afraid to ask.
- Avoid jargon and acronyms as they exclude non-experts and newcomers
- Always explain technical terms, acronyms, and abbreviations the first time they appear
- “After we sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)…”
- Weasel words are vague and create the impression of meaning. Don’t use them!
- “would help the solution”
- “might bring clarity”
- “should result in benefits”
- “significantly better”
- “arguably the best”
Sources
- https://tomcritchlow.com/2023/02/10/riffs/
- https://www.julian.com/guide/write/intro
- https://whatconsumesme.com/2023/05/17/how-i-write-simple/
- Write Like an Amazonian – Writing Style Tipps
- A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox