Writing skills improvement and thesauruses (Thesauri?), guides, etc

RevDevil

RevDevil

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Nov 9, 2009
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So, in my quest for personal growth and improvement I decided to improve my writing ability. While I do a lot of writing as it is, most of it is technical writing and reports for work. I've written some instructional documents over the years that pertain to specific operations within the realm of the company I've worked with for the last decade. I'm attempting to peel away from that aspect of writing as it's pretty much the same thing over and over.

I've on more than one occasion used a thesaurus to locate the correct wording for something simple. My colleagues seem to love that highfalutin jargon. While I have no desire to speak or write like a person living in Shakespearean times, improvement is always welcome. Does anyone have any suggestions for writing improvement? I guess I am looking for guides, websites, tutorials, etc. At some point, I will be attempting to write some higher end technical documents and want to go into that project with more confidence.
TIA. ;)
 
Oh that is excellent. Thank you for this. I actually wondered if I could manage to stumble over something from a university.
 
RD, consider Thinking Like a Writer - A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing and Editing, Third Edition by Stephen V. Armstrong and Timothy P. Terrell. Though directed at lawyers, I think its an excellent guide for any writer. It's not cheap (mine was $50 several years ago), but maybe a library would have it if you wanted to check it out before dropping that kind of coinage. I have to attend mandatory continuing legal education every year, and in the 24 years I have been doing it, the event conducted by Tim Terrell was the only one that I thought was worth a dang.
 
What's another word for Thesaurus?



Sorry, I couldn't help myself. :p
 
AlexWitte said:
Strunk & White - Elements of Style

I have an English degree, and that book is essential.
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I was just thinking of this book, then saw your post. I think I still have mine around here somewhere. Remember, two spaces after a period. ;)
 
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White is essential, and so is Modern English Usage by Fowler.

Rather than use a paper thesaurus you can just google "synonyms: word" but beware! The trouble with thesauri is you are likely to find a cool new word you never heard of before -- but no one else has ever heard of it either....
 
AlexWitte said:
Strunk & White - Elements of Style

I have an English degree, and that book is essential.
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Thank you Alex. I'll see if I can find a copy at my local book shop. If all else fails, Amazon and Bibliofind (great place to find obscure, limited edition, and other books) should have it.
powernoodle said:
RD, consider Thinking Like a Writer - A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing and Editing, Third Edition by Stephen V. Armstrong and Timothy P. Terrell. Though directed at lawyers, I think its an excellent guide for any writer. It's not cheap (mine was $50 several years ago), but maybe a library would have it if you wanted to check it out before dropping that kind of coinage. I have to attend mandatory continuing legal education every year, and in the 24 years I have been doing it, the event conducted by Tim Terrell was the only one that I thought was worth a dang.
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Very cool, thanks for that. I'll see if it's available locally. I think it should be a good read. This and the Elements of Style is more than likely going to give me enough to read and work with. :thumbup:

UffDa said:
What's another word for Thesaurus?



Sorry, I couldn't help myself. :p
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Of course, :p
Cougar Allen said:
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White is essential, and so is Modern English Usage by Fowler.

Rather than use a paper thesaurus you can just google "synonyms: word" but beware! The trouble with thesauri is you are likely to find a cool new word you never heard of before -- but no one else has ever heard of it either....
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I ran into that problem a lot in college while writing papers on causal or correlational relationship of neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's Disease, long and short term effects of incorrectly applied psychopharmacological treatment, and genetic predisposition to psychopathy in PTSD patients. I got a lot of circled words with question marks on my term papers. :D
 
+1 on Strunk and White

If you want to simplify, read Hemingway.

If you want some seriously fluffy phrases, see Thomas Wolfe.


As to jargon, don't let the meaning go. Specificity is important. If two words are interchangeable, then you might not be saying exactly what you mean to say. Then again, if the detail is unnecessary, then you might not need that word anyway.


I once was downgraded in school because I used the same adverb 29 times in one page. The comment "variety is the spice of life" presupposes that an essay should be any less boring than its subject. ;)
 
Reading McCarthy helped my writing.

Strunk and White is very helpful, if not fully updated.
 
Awesome chopchop, that made me laugh. I started reading Henry David Thoreau again, it's been too long since I picked up good American literature. I'll definitely look at some work by Hemingway & Emerson again. I had forgotten all about Thomas Wolfe too. Thanks for the reminder.
 
RevDevil said:
Awesome chopchop, that made me laugh. I started reading Henry David Thoreau again, it's been too long since I picked up good American literature. I'll definitely look at some work by Hemingway & Emerson again. I had forgotten all about Thomas Wolfe too. Thanks for the reminder.
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If you want to read a writer that tests the boundaries of what can be done with technical grammar and language, David Foster Wallace is very good, though not one of the most extreme examples of experimentation.

Henry David Thoreau and Hemingway are fantastic, though for different reasons. Walden Pond is exceptional. A Moveable Feast and For Whom the Bell Tolls are both noteworthy.
 
George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" (1946) is the best short guide I've seen to writing clearly. You will find it in any paperback collection of Orwell's essays. When you've read it a few times and thought it over, review the 1984 appendix "The Principles of Newspeak."

Bryan A. Garner, Garner's Modern American Usage, 3nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

H.W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition. New York: Oxford World's Classics, 2009.
Fowler is from 1926. There was a 1965 edition edited by Ernest Gowers: good, but it's hard to find a cheap copy. There is a 1996 edition edited by Robert Burchfield: for something up to date, Garner is better. The 2009 reprint of the 1st edition is the cheapest way to get Fowler.

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (2003).
This and the OED are the only English dictionaries that tell the year each word was first used in print.

I've never seen a thesaurus I wanted to use. I have Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition (1934) next to my desk. I look there when I need a word and I usually find one. If you can't find a cheap copy, try Webster's Third New International Dictionary (2002). It's a big book and it needs a library stand.

For technical writing, I think it would be helpful to read books about science by scientists who are good writers. For example:

Antonio Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality
Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct
Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory
Edward O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life

If you can't buy or borrow these, Thomas Huxley's Man's Place in Nature is a cheap Dover Books paperback. It is Victorian science, but Huxley was a brilliant scientific writer and that is the model you need. Personal note: I visited Huxley's grave in Highgate Cemetery East, but didn't see the Highgate Vampire (of course I was there in daylight). Huxley is across the path and six paces to the right of Karl Marx.
 
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First off, let me say that I applaud your efforts for self improvement. I continually try to improve my technical writing skills too.

I always try to improve my technical documents through simplification. I remove as much jargon and slang as possible, and use modern language that most people can understand. If an average technically competent reader has to use a dictionary to understand my document then in my opinion I have failed. I believe the only point of a technical document is to help someone understand the subject in a straightforward, easy to read manner. I want a reader to finish my document easily and leave with a good understanding of the subject.

I have found working on document structure and document planning helps significantly when writing a technical document. It helps me to write the document and it also helps to ensure that the document flows correctly and the reader gets the information in a structured way.

Its easy to fall into bad habits when you work in a technical field, so many technical documents now are written by people that count English as a second language, or by people who don't learn the basics of the English language. Its easy to unintentionally copy them.

I read older books - fact and fiction - as a pastime and I find this helps me to write without having to focus too much on the strict rules of grammar. Back then people had better command of the language, its easy to let this rub off on you if you let it. Its really good to take in older material, just don't get caught up in fancy old fashioned language and obscure words. If you use obscure or old fashioned words instead of words in common usage, or if you start whereupon-ing and wherewithal-ing and thenceforth-ing in your documents you'll sound self important and many people will dislike you for making their life difficult when they're reading your stuff :)
 
My first computer had auto spell check.It never heard of the proper metallurgical words I used .Out it went !
I've been criticized for demanding proper metallurgical terms , if I don't things will get very confusing !!
But having learned to cook at an early stage I still sometimes confuse braze and braise !!
 
Hey Rev-

I was thinking about the technical writing aspect of your goals. If you are relating technical work to a lay reader, authors like Malcom Gladwell and Michael Pollen come to mind. Also, these books by Randy Olson, researcher turned filmmaker and author, may be of some use:

​
"Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style" by Randy Olson
​
"Connection: Hollywood Storytelling Meets Critical Thinking" by Randy Olson, Dorie Barton, and Brian Palermo and the associated
​
"Connection Storymaker" workshop and app

The general idea with these books is to convey technical information through a narrative story involving people. For example, talking about genetic predisposition to psychopathy in PTSD patients by telling the story of a family that was impacted in specific ways. The facts are not changed, just wrapped in a narrative framework. The idea is that the story holds people's interest, and the information comes along with it.




Another idea is to relate information through the ABT (And, But, Therefore) structure. For example...

Many veterans suffer traumatic brain injuries in the course of their service, AND many of these veterans suffer from PTSD, BUT we don't really understand why some exhibit symptoms of psychopathy while others do not. THEREFORE we have begun studying the genetic history of veterans with PTSD to try and better understand the roots of their psychopathy.
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Kind of clunky example on my part, but I think it gets the point across. The ABT framework crystallizes the idea into a simple 3 part statement that is easy to grasp. It gives people a cognitive frame to hold on to.
 
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