Posts matching to writing style

Zero-Based English

May 15 2008 Posted by Mark L. Levinson under The Why of Style

(edited 1 year ago)


Tags:

• columns
• writing style
• writing technique

I’ve run into people who make a virtue out of ignorance. On both sides of the fence. Some are technical writers and they say, “Because I know nothing about your product, I can serve as a model of the user’s point of view.”

“But you’re nothing like our users,” say the technicians, “because you’re not in the same business.” Then they tell the writer, “Because my English isn’t very good, my writing can serve as a model of how to write for people whose English isn’t very good.”
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The Tense for What Never Happened

February 15 2008 Posted by Mark L. Levinson under The Why of Style

(edited 1 year ago)


Tags:

• columns
• past tense
• present perfect
• tenses
• usage
• verb tense
• verbs
• writing style
• writing technique

It makes sense to say “I’ve never seen such a beautiful view.” But there’s a complication. If I’m looking at such a beautiful view right now, how can I say I’ve never seen one?
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The Multi-Tailed Example

January 15 2008 Posted by Mark L. Levinson under The Why of Style

(edited 1 year ago)


Tags:

• ambiguity
• columns
• examples
• technical writing
• writing style
• writing technique

You try to write the example so that it reaches out a well-directed hand to the reader, and the reader grabs the example by the tail.
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The Andor and the Orboths

December 1 2007 Posted by Mark L. Levinson under The Why of Style

(edited 1 year ago)


Tags:

• columns
• writing style
• writing technique

What can we do to show that the slash applies to a whole phrase? Maybe pad it with spaces?
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Unstating the Obvious

November 1 2007 Posted by Mark L. Levinson under The Why of Style

(edited 1 year ago)


Tags:

• columns
• writing style
• writing technique

Granted, writing needs to acknowledge the known, at least tacitly, in order to stably introduce the unknown. But still, every sentence - even the first one - should add informational value if possible.
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The Phrasals and the Had Had

October 1 2007 Posted by Mark L. Levinson under The Why of Style

(edited 1 year ago)


Tags:

• columns
• Down Under
• Edward D. Johnson
• Mark Brader
• phrasal verb
• Winston Churchill
• writing style
• writing technique

Who cares what’s a phrasal verb and what isn’t? In my experience, the only people who care are people looking for an excuse to end a sentence with a preposition. And they’re wasting their time.
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Necessary Unnecessary Facts

September 15 2007 Posted by Mark L. Levinson under The Why of Style

(edited 1 year ago)


Tags:

• columns
• Hemingway
• writing style
• writing technique

In order to write correctly what you know, you need to know more than you write. Hemingway said, “When a writer omits things he does not know, they show like holes in his writing.”
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