Writing That Works

it would have seemed both natural and literate. The old rule is simple: Don’t use “like” in any case where “as if” or “as though” would fit comfortably.

When God wanted to stop the people from building the Tower of Babel, he did not smite them down with a thunderbolt. He said: “… let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” He could think of no surer way to keep the tower unbuilt than to garble communications. While the Lord confounded langu

yourself whether if you were the reader, would you take action on the basis of what is written.

your writing is you. It reveals how your mind works. Is it forceful or fatuous, deft or clumsy, crisp or soggy? Readers who don’t know you judge you from the evidence in your writing.

If you have distilled your thinking to its essence, you will probably be able to express it in simple words.

energies on a major document or project or speech that will make a difference.

Yet another advantage of the active voice is that it tends to push you to decide precisely what you want to say, to be more specific.

End with a summary. And keep in mind that a summary is not a conclusion. Your summary should introduce no new ideas; it should summarize, as briefly as possible, the most important points you have made.

People seldom act on what they cannot understand. Good results are even less likely if you flood the reader with information that isn’t organized to lead to an action or isn’t relevant to a grasp of the subject.