{"id":35182,"date":"2020-01-28T06:30:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T13:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=35182"},"modified":"2020-01-27T15:07:52","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T22:07:52","slug":"bookfreak33-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/bookfreak33-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Freak #35: Writing Tips from The Elements of Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Book Freak<\/a> is a weekly newsletter with cognitive tools you can use to improve the quality of your life. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Most people have heard of Strunk & White\u2019s\u00a0The Elements of Style<\/a>. And many people have read it. I\u2019ve read it three times \u2013 once in college, once 20 years ago, and again last month. I\u2019ve gotten so much out of it each time, I should probably read it every 5 years. Here are four pieces of advice from the book.<\/em><\/p>\n

Don’t have a writing style<\/strong>
\n\u201cTo achieve style, begin by affecting none.\u201d<\/p>\n

Be specific<\/strong>
\n\u201cPrefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract\u2026 In his Philosophy of Style, Herbert Spencer gives two sentences to illustrate how the vague and general can be turned into the vivid and particular:
\n1) In proportion as the manners, customs, and amusements of a nation are cruel and barbarous, the regulations of its penal code will be severe.
\n2) In proportion as men delight in battles, bullfights, and combats of gladiators, will they punish by hanging, burning, and the rack.\u201c<\/p>\n

Avoid fancy words<\/strong>
\n\u201cIf you admire fancy words, if every sky is beauteous, every blonde curvaceous, every intelligent child prodigious, if you are tickled by discombobulate, you will have bad time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don’t enclose slang in quotes<\/strong>
\n\u201cIf you use a colloquialism or a slang word or phrase, simply use it; do not draw attention to it by enclosing it in quotation marks. To do so is to put on airs, as though you were inviting the reader to join you in a select society of those who know better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Book Freak<\/a> is one of four newsletters from Cool Tools Lab (our other three are the Cool Tools Newsletter<\/a>, Recomendo<\/a>, and What’s in my bag?<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing Tips from The Elements of Style<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35182"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35185,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35182\/revisions\/35185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}