It sounds dumb, but this year it clicked for me how big of a difference a poorly written text compares to a well written text.
Hope your training pays off, itsmemattchung!
It sounds dumb, but this year it clicked for me how big of a difference a poorly written text compares to a well written text.
Hope your training pays off, itsmemattchung!
I got Joseph M. William's "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace" recommended [1] so you might be interested in it. I read the introduction (I'm planning to read it this year) and with the few examples the author presents it sells the idea that prose doesn't need to be utterly complex to communicate ideas and concepts succinctly and clearly.
My top 3: 1/ Edit ruthlessly. Every single word is reduced to its simplest form and pulls its weight--it has a damn good reason for being there. 2/ Aspire to write at a third-grade reading level. Readers prefer simple writing even when reading deeply technical content. 3/ Start your most important conclusions up front, not at the end. You're not writing The Sixth Sense. Do your reader a favor and tell them the big reveal first. You can then follow through and persuade the reader why your conclusions are right.
It's just so much experience to avoid those mistakes.