Writing is Thinking

There is no difference between thinking and writing. You think by forming words in your mind. You write by materializing thoughts onto paper. If you improve at either, you will become proficient at both. If you don’t know which you should improve first, start with writing. Writing, unlike thinking, produces an object you can share: words on paper. Show your work and ask for feedback. Feedback, analysis and review will accelerate your rate of improvement. You can also review your own writing a week or two later, after you have forgotten what you wrote.

Another way to improve your writing is by reading. What should you read?

The Sense of Style

The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker is a humorous style guide bursting with linguistic advice.

Omit needless words

Be concise. Pick your words carefully. Trim obese phrases. Use uncommon, vivid and colorful language. Respect your readers’ time and eyes. Start by throwing away the word very. For example, instead of very big write gigantic or cyclopean. The meaning doesn’t change, but the latter summons an image of a towering mythological creature. Words like make, do and have are next on the chopping block. Scrapping just these four will make a difference, but don’t stop there.

Don’t signpost or meta-discuss

Imagine a paragraph starts with: “Many people wrote about writing because writing is a complex subject. In this article, I’ll explore …”. That’s signposting: writing about what you will write next. State your topic as soon as possible. Answer what you discovered; what question you are answering; why should I pay attention? Soon after, state your point: what are you trying to convey? Reel your readers in. Make an entrance. Don’t be self-conscious or announce the complexity of the topic. If the subject matter were simple and uncontroversial there would be nothing to write about. Assume the reader wants to explore the idea and go from there.

Write in classic style

Imagine a reader talking to you. They’ll ask questions. Don’t answer, argue or talk out loud. Let the reader see the truth themselves. Create a window and paint the world on the other side. Engage the mind’s eye: conjure images with unusual and precise descriptions. Think about actors and objects, concrete everyday events. Be direct.

Avoid the Curse of Knowledge

It’s difficult to imagine how someone else doesn’t know what you know. Just trying to imagine the reader won’t help: that’s the Curse. But don’t despair, there is a treatment. Show your writing to another person, or after a week, show the draft to yourself. Gather feedback. Maybe you used an abbreviation or jargon. Get rid of it. Perhaps you used a fancy word where a plain one will do. Improve what you wrote and repeat the exercise until you are confident your readers will understand your topic, or you run out of time.

Read, read, read

Good writers are avid readers. It doesn’t matter if it’s fiction, for fun or on the job. Expand your word palette. If you only have green, everything will look like a jungle, a mess that can only be untangled with a machete. Splash on another color by reading stories or news articles. It doesn’t matter what you read so long as it’s varied. You want to develop an appetite for poetic, direct and graceful writing and be repulsed by ill-digested robotic word soups.

Essay Writing Guide

Essay Writing Guide by Jordan B. Peterson is a pamphlet about how to write an essay.

I. Introduction

Choose a topic to write about. A very hard step. You should note when something piques your interest. You will know what it is when you are gripped by the topic. The topic can be posed as a question that you think requires an answer.

Research the topic. In order to write, you need to read. Find more knowledge or opinions about the topic. Just as before, note when something causes an emotional reaction while reading. That is an indicator that you want to explore the idea further.

Write. Produce words. Form words into sentences. Merge sentences into paragraphs. Don’t stop writing to edit what you have written until you are finished writing. First, only produce. Editing will come later when you are finished writing.

Use words from a vocabulary that is familiar to you. Don’t try to impress your reader. More often than not, that is not going to happen because you will misuse a word.

Write short sentences. Don’t make them complex, as complexity is hard to understand. What you want is to show elegance and beauty.

When forming a paragraph make sure that the next sentence is connected to the previous one. Check if you can easily follow your thoughts.

Editing. When you are finished writing, take a break. Return reinvigorated and start improving what you wrote.

II. Levels of resolution

First: select a word. Second: create a sentence. Use precise words and place them in the correct place in a sentence. Third: merge sentences into a paragraph. A paragraph should present an idea. Your paragraph should be around 100 words long. Fourth, and less obvious: paragraphs should be arranged in the correct order.

There are also fifth, sixth and seventh levels of resolution. They are essay, reader and culture. These should be considered as well.

If you find yourself bored while writing, stop. Something is wrong. Reconsider your topic or ideas. This is an indicator that either you have chosen an unimportant topic or you are approaching a good topic in an incorrect manner.

Choose a topic that is important to you. That way you will be able to enter a state of mind where you find writing exciting and beautiful.

III. The topic and reading list

Pose a topic in the form of a question.

Write down what you want to read. Start with this step if you can’t come up with a topic.

While you are reading, note when something catches your interest. This might be something you disagree with or something interesting that gripped you.

Write notes using your own words. Never borrow someone else’s language. Express the meaning and understanding of what you have read. Take down about twice or thrice as many words as you need for an essay.

IV. Write an outline

For a 1000 word essay, you should write 10 outline sentences. Each sentence should be an argument. Outline sentences will decide the essay’s structure. You can pose them as a question.

V. Paragraphs

Complete each outline sentence with around 10 more sentences. This part is where you produce a draft. Don’t worry about editing yet. That will come later. Write quick and dirty.

Don’t beat around the bush. Grab your audience with the first sentence or two.

VI. Editing

Try to rewrite every sentence. If the new sentence is better, keep it. Better means shorter, a result of deleting superfluous words. Better means more precise and elegant.

Write short sentences. Each word should be chosen precisely.

Read each sentence aloud. If it sounds weird, try to rewrite it. Rearrange the sentences within a paragraph.

Rearrange the paragraphs. See if their ordering is any better than the original.

VII. Create a new outline

To construct an excellent essay, do the following: without reading your original work, write down a new set of 10 outline sentences. Cut, paste, reorder and delete. Make the essay better in every way.