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ON WRITING WELL - Coggle Diagram

- - - - :red_cross: experiencing
        :red_cross: may i ask?
        :red_cross: I might add
        If you might add, add it
        :red_cross: dialogue
        :check: talk to
        :red_cross: referred to as
        :check: called
        :red_cross: attempt
        :check: try
        :red_cross:sufficient
        :check: enough
        :red_cross: implement
        :check: do
        :red_cross: initial
        :check: first
        :red_cross: remainder
        :check: rest
        :red_cross: individual
        :check: man or woman
        :red_cross: facilitate
        :check: ease
        :red_cross: numerous
        :check: many
        :red_cross: assistance
        :check: help
        :red_cross: at this point in time, presently, currently
        :check: now
        :red_cross: head up
        :check: head
        :red_cross: face up
        :check: face
    - - don’t mean anything
        a bit, sort of, in a sense :red_cross:
        
        a known fact
        tall skyscraper :red_cross:
        
        the same meaning
        smile happily :red_cross:
    - - :check: slum
        :red_cross: a depressed socioeconomic area
        :check: garbage collectors
        :red_cross: waste-disposal personnel
        :check: town dump
        :red_cross: the volume reduction unit
        :check: bum
        :red_cross: hard-core unemployed
      - verbal camouflage
        
        :check: missile crashed
        :red_cross: impacted with the ground prematurely
        :check: had a plant shutdown
        :red_cross: volume-related production-schedule adjustment
        :check: an invasion
        :red_cross: reinforced protective reaction strike
        :check: civilian casualties in Iraq
        :red_cross: collateral damage
    - - :red_cross: individual attention for the minimally exceptional. (ad for a boys’ camp)
        
        :red_cross: You are probably aware, that we have been experiencing very considerable potentially explosive expressions of dissatisfaction on issues only partially related
        :check: students had been hassling them about different things
        :red_cross:Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination.
        :check: in buildings where they have to keep the work going to put something across the windows
        :red_cross: he is presently anticipating experience considerable precipitation
        :check: it may rain
  - - - reread, read it aloud and rewrite
        
        constantly reexamine each
        sentence
        
        put mental brackets
        
        practice
        
        good writing doesn't come naturally
        Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences
        come out right the first time, or even the third time
        
        be grateful for everything you can throw away
        
        Simplify, simplify!
        
        put brackets around every component that wasn’t doing useful work - read the sentence without the bracketed material - see if it works
        
        soon you will learn to put mental brackets around clutter
        
        Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish?
        
        Can any thought be expressed with more economy?
        
        Is every word doing new work?
        
        Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time?
        
        What am I trying to say?
        
        Have I said it?
        
        Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think it’s beautiful?
        
        eliminating every element that’s not doing useful work
        
        fight weeds
        
        examine every word
      - can track who is doing what
        
        know that it means
        
        couldn’t read it in several ways
- - - - relax and have confidence
        
        be yourself
        
        it takes time to find yourself as a person, it takes time to find yourself as a stylist. and even then your style will change as you grow older
        
        be organic
        
        write comfortable
        
        never say anything in writing that you wouldn’t comfortably say in conversation
        If you’re not a person who says “indeed” or “moreover,” or who calls someone an individual (“he’s a fine individual”), please don’t write it.
        
        do not embellish
        
        1 more item...
        
        :writing_hand::skin-tone-2:
        do not add style
        Style is organic to the person doing the writing. You could not buy style at the style store and drape onto your words in bright decorator colors
        
        :person_with_pouting_face:
        Trying to add style is like adding a toupee when man is bald. The point is that he doesn’t look like himself
        
        enjoy
        
        don’t try to visualize the great mass audience
        there is no such audience — every reader is a different person
        
        don’t try to guess what editors want to publish or what country is in a mood to read
        editors and readers don’t now what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they’re always looking for something new
        
        who am I writing for?
        you are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for
        
        believe in your own identity and your own opinions.
        writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it.
        use its energy to keep yourself going.
        
        relax and say what you want to say
        
        writer’s block
        sometimes you are so busy thinking of your awesome responsibility to the finished article that you can’t even start
        
        just start to write
        Paragraph 1 is a disaster—a tissue of generalities that seem to have come out of a machine. No person could have written them. Paragraph 2 isn’t much better. But Paragraph 3 begins to have a somewhat human quality, and by Paragraph 4 you begin to sound like yourself. You’ve started to relax
      - writing is an intimate transaction between two people, conducted on paper, and it will go well to the extent that it retains its humanity
        
        use “I” and “me” and “we” and “us”
        nobody else thinks or feels in exactly the same way
        
        at least think “I” while you write
        write the first draft and then take the “I”s out. It will warm up your impersonal style
        
        don't escape to tell where you stay and what you believe
        don't use sentence vague enough to say nothing
        
        avoid impersonal passive sentences
        it makes them weak
        
        avoid hedging words
        it creates wishy-washy sentence
        
        :red_cross: initiatives were undertaken
        :red_cross: priorities have been identified
        :red_cross: we see nothing but increasingly brighter clouds every month
        :check: clouds are still fairly dark
        :red_cross: one finds oneself not wholly in accord with Dr. Maltby’s view of the human condition
        :red_cross: It is to be hoped that Professor Felt’s monograph will find the wider audience it most assuredly deserves
        :red_cross: there’s continuing ground for serious concern and the situation remains serious. The longer it remains serious, the more ground there is for serious concern
        :red_cross: there are various groups that think you can ban certain kinds of guns. I am not in that mode. I am in the mode of being deeply concerned
        :red_cross: and yet, on balance, affirmative action has, I think, been a qualified success
        :red_cross: and so, at last, I come to the one firm conviction that I mentioned at the beginning: it is that the subject is too new for final judgments