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veqq  3d ago (text post)   Edited 3d ago   565 thread views

What's Good Writing to You?

Lately, I've proofread some friends' articles, native and not, on political and technical matters. In no case, did I only guide them to my preferred style (poetic diction, preferring verbs over nouns, participles over finite verbs, archaicizing, Germanic purist including V2, no hyphens) and rather enjoyed seeing, sampling (and rejecting) their distinct tastes. I once wanted to ask a friend who wields fiery invectives to liven up my (technical opinion) prose, but realized his style was ill-suited to sewing my bullet points together.

What is beautiful literature to you? Or clear and precise technical style? What do you just hate? Most importantly, what do you aim for and avoid when writing yourself?

I'm curious for opinions on all languages (even programming or e.g. programming code comment style) but naturally English is our community's shared tongue.

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Code, technical writing and prose:

  • Naming. Proper filenames, headlines, class/method signatures etc. are essential for being able to find the right piece of text in the first place, and for having the right idea of what to expect and how to approach it. The purpose of the document in question needs to be immediately obvious.
  • Scope. The document should contain what it needs to contain to fulfill its purpose, no more and no less. In our digital age it's trivially easy to refactor text documents and move questionably relevant content elsewhere. The shorter your text is, the easier it is to place, understand and maintain.
  • Structure. Bottom line up front. Keep together what belongs together. Make sure information that's required to understand subsequent information actually comes first. Introduce acronyms with their full name before using them in short form. Use consistent and uniform style and language throughout a document. Use appropriate hierarchical depth.

Fiction:

  • Don't write just to generate content. Nobody needs empty literary calories. Those who demand them anyways can be duly served by generative AI. Only write if you have a point to make, a story to tell.
  • Be aware of the language you use. Your vocabulary, style and other features of language should be chosen deliberately to suit the work, and you as the writer should be sufficiently competent in their use. Employ the chosen style consistently.
  • Do your research. Even for elements that only make brief appearances or play only tertiary roles, make sure you actually know what you describe and have more than a one-dimensional idea of it. Readers in the know about the element will appreciate not getting Gell-Manned, and if you write only for those not in the know...then why include that specific element at all? Good writers know what they're writing about.

Political manifestoes, rants, diatribes:

  • Don't.
  • If you already did, find the nearest dumpster.

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