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The One Book That Actually Made Me a Better Writer
Four timeless lessons on writing well from Steven Pinker’s ‘The Sense of Style’
Since I started writing professionally three years ago, I’ve read dozens of books, style guides, and advice columns on how to write well. Out of all these, The Sense of Style is the only writing guide I can unreservedly recommend. It’s the one book that has actually made me a better writer. Reading it has paid me even higher dividends than a writing course I once bought for $700.
So, if you asked me for my two cents on how to write well, I’d rather keep my two cents and give you ten dollars so you can buy a copy of Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style.
The only problem is that I can’t afford to give you ten dollars because I’m still trying to recover from purchasing that writing course. So instead, I thought I’d share something that’s within my budget: four condensed lessons from The Sense of Style that have palpably leveled up my craft. I may still be far from being a perfect writer, but these lessons have shown me the steps to get there.
Table of Contents
1. The Difference Between Good and Bad Writing
∘ Bad writing announces itself; good writing just says it
∘ Bad writing is self-conscious; good writing is bold
∘ Bad writing creates zombies; good writing kills them
2. The Curse of Knowledge: Why Smart People Write Poor Prose
∘ Counterspell 1: Jettison jargon
∘ Counterspell 2: Avoid abstractions
∘ Counterspell 3: Leave your mind
3. Garden Paths: Why Readers Get Lost in Language— and How to Rescue Them
∘ Speech
∘ Signals of structure
∘ Structural parallelism
∘ Light-before-heavy
∘ Old-before-new
4. Arcs of Coherence: How to Get From Good to Great
∘ Be clear about your topic
∘ Keep your spotlight on your protagonists
∘ What did you expect?
On Sharpening Your Sense of Style
