Rules to Write Better English

Rules

to Write Better English

In King’s English, published in 1901by Henry & Frank Fowler (Fowler Brothers); leading authorities on use of English, best way to write English is to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous & lucid. They advise:

§  Prefer the familiar word to the far -fetched.

§  Prefer the concrete word to the abstract one.

§  Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.

§  Prefer the short word to the long.

§  Prefer the Saxon word to Latin derived words

In Art of Readable English, by Rudolph Flesch published in 1949, spoken language is the primary phenomenon, and writing is only an imperfect reflection of it. He advises: If you want to learn how to write, forget the rules of grammar. Learn to write the way you talk. Go out of your way to re-learn informal & colloquial English & train yourself to put it on paper. The obstacles for writers in any language are the same. They are:

§  Fuzzy thinking

§  Clutter

§  Vagueness

§  Faulty word arrangement

Unless we are clear in our mind what we want to say, we cannot convey anything clearly. As per William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well, a writer must ask himself:  what am I trying to say? Surprisingly, often we do not know. They must look at what they have written & ask themselves: have I said it? Will it be clear to the reader reading it for the first time? If it I not, some fuzz has worked its way into the writing. Thinking is a conscious act that we must force on ourselves, as if we are working on other projects that require logic such as making a shopping list or solving a mathematics problem.

Writing is a hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right first time or even the third time. Remember this, if you find writing is hard, it is, because it is hard.