Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

November 30, 2012

Read this: Revising Prose

Filed under: Writing — Patrick Durusau @ 5:57 pm

Read this: Revising Prose by Jason Zimdars.

From the post:

There are plenty of books that will teach you to be a better writer, but I’ve never found one so immediately useful as Revising Prose by Richard A. Lanham. Following along as Lanham revises example upon example of real world writing is like exercise for your writing muscles.

My favorite takeaway is this tip for improving the rhythm and cadence of your writing. Many of us have learned to read text out loud as a method to reveal awkward transitions or generally dull passages, but you can also spot poor rhythm visually. A red flag for dull cadence is a run of sentences that are all of similar length. Try adding a carriage return after every sentence or phrase, the rhythm is evident:

This looks like an interesting and easy technique to use on your own as well as the prose of others.

The better a writer you become, the easier it will be for potential clients, colleagues and others to understand what you have written.

Modulo that if you go into “public service” as they say in the United States, being understood may put you at a disadvantage.

As with most advice, it could go either way. 😉

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress