Ask HN: Good books for English writing? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Good books for English writing?

22 pointstsynfeng38 comments

Does anyone have recommendations on good books for English writing?

I want to improve my writing and tried Jason Fried's idea of an essay being written in five versions: a three-page version, a one page version, a three-paragraph version, a one paragraph version and a one sentence version. It worked really well but the side-effect is I became more critical about my writing.

I have read "The Elements of Style", done the googling and have a list of to-read books; but I think the advices from you will help a lot more.

P.S. I'm a Chinese migrant living in Australia.

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The good thing about learning to write well is that every books is a book about writing - or at least every good book.

Increase the number of top quality books that you read and your language will naturally improve. It's not a magic recipe, and it won't happen overnight, but it will happen.

One way to make sure that what you read is always good is to focus on the classics - Dickens, Twain and so on - and also the (good) translations of foreign classics - Dostoievsky, Hesse, Marques... those are usually very well written and translated, and the more you read of them, the better your written (and spoken) english will be. Try reading one book every week or two or thereabouts.

Between that and constant practice (with feedback where possible), you should see your writing skills go from ok to good and eventually excellent within a matter of years.

Yes, I myself improved my English by reading good books. I started with Sherlock Holmes as it was interesting as well very well written. Dickens is a very good example to get going. Also as you start reading more and more you should try short stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

"within a matter of years"

That made me smile : ) I hope I can be as persistent as it takes.

The great thing about reading, particularly fiction, is that it's such a pleasure... so disciplining yourself to read more great fiction (and thus improve your writing and a number of other areas of your life) is a bit like disciplining yourself to eat great-tasting food or to go for walks more often. It's something you can really enjoy and build good habits around.The fact that your writing will naturally improve is just a bonus!

_Bird by Bird_ by Anne Lamott http://amzn.com/0385480016

Good, interesting, book on writing from a writing teacher's POV. Useful if you want to read the truth about the struggle to get published. Also good for improving your writing.

_On Writing_ by Stephen King http://amzn.com/1439156816

Stephen King's surprisingly good book on being a professional writer for most of his life.

"Writer's Digest" magazine. http://amzn.com/B00005NIPH

I've been subscribed to Writer's Digest for years. Full of helpful hints, interesting articles, and suggestions for improving your writing, regardless of the genre or media for which you are writing.

As an exercise, try writing in E-Prime[1], instead of regular English. Its a "variant" of English where the phrase "to be" and any variant of it ("be", "is", "am", "are", "was", "were", "been," "being" and their variants).

In High School, I had an English teacher who made us write like this for a few months. There is a noticeable difference between something I wrote directly before and after writing in E-Prime for a few months. I hated it at the time (writing in E-Prime forced me to think about every word I was writing). Few years down the line, the exercises are one of the biggest things that have stuck with me.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime

I think you forgot to add the words 'is eliminated'.

"... and any variant of it (...) is eliminated."

Just helping to clarify your interesting post.

I did indeed, thanks for catching that.

I knew asking on HN will generate interesting answers like this!

The best book I have ever read (and continue to re-read) on writing is "On Writing Well" by William K. Zinsser. Mostly the first half of the book - it's incredibly valuable.

Do you also have some another suggestion that might be on Kindle store? "On Writing Well" only seems to have a CD audio collection.

It's also available in paperback (for $10!). If you're serious about learning to write well, it's well worth putting down the Kindle and going "old school" on this one.

Yeah, I'm just not from the US so I don't like to wait for the package to arrive, pay extra for the shipping, then have it clear customs, etc. Kindle provides instant gratification and all that :-)

I'm not in the US either, but patience is a virtue, and good things come to those who wait. The Kindle is great, but don't let it form the limit of your world.

Yup, I second this.. "on writing well" is great

I completely agree. You can get a taste of his writing here:

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/writing-english-as-a-secon...

Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, by Joseph M. William. Now in its 10th edition!

This is the real thing - a very useful book that cuts through the annoying prescriptive crap. Highly recommended.

http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/product/Style-Lesson...

Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Tools-Essential-Strategies-Wri...

I highly recommend this book. Expect improvement immediately.

'Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully: in Ten Minutes' by Stephen King http://www.greatwriting.co.uk/content/view/312/74/

Norman Ramsey gives some brief, practical advice on learning technical writing: http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~nr/pubs/two-abstract.html

Many people use too many words. To shorten your post:

"Can anyone recommend good books for improving English writing? I've tried Jason Fried's technique of writing an essay in five versions: three pages, one page, three paragraphs, one paragraph, and one sentence. It worked really well, but I've now become more critical about... ... ..."

Two golden rules: practice, and feedback from others. I'm certainly still learning.

Being concise is my ultimate goal too. I tried to shorten my post but it was the best I could do.

Just for an exchange of idea, how would you write my post? (no comparison or offense here, I simply want to see a different style)

A few weeks back I purchased a book called The Dictionary of Concise Writing by Robert Hartwell Fiske. So far it has served me well. Here: http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Concise-Writing-Alternative...

It's a fun book to skim when you have nothing to do.

"Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew" by Ursula K Le Guin

The advice therein extends beyond stories.

http://www.amazon.com/Steering-Craft-Exercises-Discussions-N...

Elements of Style is full of little nuggets of good writing. Start a blog/journal to continuously practice the techniques in the book

I totally agree. I felt that I had the knowledge but not the skill by only reading the book. I definitely will write and blog more.

http://twitter.com/jasonfried/statuses/13919731160

Read anything by George Orwell. Seriously.

why don't you post a link to the different versions of your essay?

fyi, I guessed english was not your native tongue from the title. Your subject could be "Good books for writing", most people on hacker news take it for granted that you're writing in English.

I wrote on paper; have been trying to avoid online distractions lately.

General advice: read as much (english) literature as you can. As someone already pointed out, this will help you to improve but will of course take some time and is a process that has no end.

Personally I can recommmend also books like "on writing" (by Sol Stein) which gives you advices on general writing (fiction and non-fiction).

"On Writing"

Added to my to-read list, thanks :)

Can you share a link to Jason's post about writing essays that you mentioned?

Here you go: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2647-the-class-id-like-to-tea...

thanks :)

http://stk8.co/fvbbbc

read paul graham's essays, he specifically has an essay on writing. assuming you're a hacker yourself, should'nt be difficult to understand them. try rewriting them, helps immensely.

Writing with Style - the best book I've ever read on writing.

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Style-Conversations-Art-2nd/dp...

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