A Classic 'Nontextbook' on Writing | Hacker News Reader

A Classic 'Nontextbook' on Writing

chronicle.com

96 pointsJoelMcCracken21 comments

This sentence in particular stuck out to me:

    The novice writer, he argues, has a "natural tendency ... to think primarily of
    himself—hence to write primarily for himself."

One of my writing professors had us write a description of our target audience as part of the heading of each essay we wrote to try to help prevent us from doing this.

It's a danger not just when you're writing, but when you're doing any kind of design. I think it's very hard to be a good designer without being able to understand how different audiences are going to see and interact with your work.

It's especially an issue in web/web application design when you're designing for people that aren't at all tech savvy. Besides being very important if you're trying to reach a broader market, it's amazingly gratifying to hear someone who self-describes as "terrified of computers" tell you about how they learned to use your webapp in 5 minutes.

When I think about how self-conscious amateur writers can be I always think of the "Professional vs Amateur" section in http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writebetter/.

I'm an amateur writer.

I was taught to write the first draft for yourself, then revise for your audience.

I love "Clear and Simple as the Truth" for a very authoritative voice which can present complex things without dumbing down: (Non-aff) http://www.amazon.com/Clear-Simple-As-Truth-Writing/dp/06910...

And "Style: Towards Clarity and Grace" for a more humble, direct, simple style for non-complex presentation: (Non-aff) http://www.amazon.com/Style-Clarity-Chicago-Writing-Publishi...

Every time I've reread _Style:_, I'm struck by how agreeable its mindset is to hackers. It's no wonder Richard Gabriel liked it so much. It's practically a hacker's guide to better writing. Highly recommended.

Roger Hart (Historian at U. Texas, wrote something on the history of linear algebra I liked) has a lean summary of the book at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rhart/courses/materials/papers/tri...

Hart misses my favourite list, the Seven Nevers:

1. Never begin a sentence with But or And.

2. Never use contractions.

3. Never refer to the reader as you.

4. Never use the first person pronoun I.

5. Never end a sentence with a preposition.

6. Never split infinitives.

7. Never write a paragraph containing only a single sentence.

each of which Trimble delights in breaking.

wrote something on the history of linear algebra I liked

Do you mean "The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra"? Can you say something more about it?

Yes, which is the name of the book, which is on my to read list, and a website proposal, which I've studied. He documents the linear-algebraic calculations used by Chinese mathematicians in C4th. He's written some Perl scripts that implement these calculations.

The website proposal is at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rhart/algebra/

> 5. Never end a sentence with a preposition. > 6. Never split infinitives.

There is no good reason to strictly follow either of those. The rule against split infinitives was invented in the mid 19th century, and was not accepted by the majority of leading grammarians. It did become popular with journalists and the general public, though.

Most modern authorities say there is nothing inherently wrong with splitting infinitives, although it is often a sign of a weak sentence. Sometimes, though, any rewrite to remove the split infinitive would make the sentence awkward of ambiguous in which case splitting the infinitive would be the preferred form.

The rule against ending a sentence with a preposition is even weaker. It is often described by grammarians as "spurious" or a "myth".

Both of these are covered well here:

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/grammartips/grammar-t...

There's no good reason to follow any of these, and as Trimble argues, good reason to break each of them if you care more about effective writing than wagging fingers.

> The chapter on revising is a seven-line excerpt of an interview with Ernest Hemingway

The underlying advice of that chapter is: rewrite 'till you've got the words right. The advice lying under the underlying advice is: don't ruin a simple message with a long water-filled chapter.

Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do?

Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.

Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?

Hemingway: Getting the words right.

That depends partly on what you are writing. For academic writing I agree, take the time to get it right. But for writing for the market, especially as advice to amateurs, I like Heinlein's advice, "Never rewrite except to editorial direction." Market writers need to get their work out there where editors can see it, or they can't sell it. And amateurs have a notoriously hard time bringing themselves to stop tweaking and start trying to sell it.

I'd recommend Stephen King's "On Writing", Ray Bradbury "Zen and the Art of Writing", and "Ernest Hemingway on Writing". All have great insights into the joy and struggles of writing. I really appreciate how their musings focus on the struggles of writing well since everyone tries to romanticize writers. It's hard no matter what.

another wonderful book about writing is maugham's "the summing up". i found it in a used book store on a thai island a few years ago and still have it on my bedside table :)

I've been asked the "how do I write better" question often enough to write a post with pointers to useful books: http://jseliger.com/2009/08/19/the-very-very-beginning-write... . It's oriented toward people who want to write fiction, but I think anyone who wants to write better would find its comments helpful.

There are some fist editions floating around out there, you can find them here for about the same price as the current 3rd edition.

http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?author=John+R.+Trimble&...

I just got "as new" 1974 copy. You guys can have the rest ;-)

Maybe I misunderstand... but why would you get the first edition (which I assume has more errors) for the same price of the third edition? Is it for collecting, or is there something particularly good about a first edition?

This article is wonderful press. I want the book!

Amazon is sending me a copy.

I hope it's as helpful as the classic "If You Want to Write" by Brenda Euland -- which was written in 1938, but has aged very-very well. Originally found this book via Guy Kawasaki on his list of great books for entrepreneurs & creative types.

If You Want To Write is way underrated, I agree.

If you're a fiction writer, you do NOT want to miss The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner. The last chapter, Exercises, is a seminar all by itself on what to practice writing, and why.

Here are some [writing exercises](http://www.scottwrobel.com/ADD%20Course/trigger_exercises.ht...)

Sounds good. I just requested it from my library.

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