Author: Orion Jones / Source: Big Think
- Steven Pinker is many things: linguist, psychologist, optimist, Harvard professor, and author.
- When it comes to writing, he’s a student and a teacher.
- Here’s are his 13 rules for writing better, more simply, and more clearly.
1. Reverse-engineer what you read.
1. Reverse-engineer what you read. If it feels like good writing, what makes it good? If it’s awful, why?
— Steven Pinker (@sapinker)
2. Prose is a window onto the world.
2. Prose is a window onto the world. Let your readers see what you are seeing by using visual, concrete language.
— Steven Pinker (@sapinker)
3. Don’t go meta.
3. Don’t go meta. Minimize concepts about concepts, like “approach, assumption, concept, condition, context, framew… https://t.co/SSssjN9QmJ
— Steven Pinker (@sapinker)
4. Let verbs be verbs.
4. Let verbs be verbs. “Appear,” not “make an appearance.”
— Steven Pinker (@sapinker)
Interlude for Steven Pinker’s view of human nature. Is it evil?
5. Beware…
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