The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing i...

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

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the reader of classic prose “may conclude that a text is masterful, classic, and completely wrong.”

Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

In the textbook experiment, people are given a candle, a book of matches, and a box of thumbtacks, and are asked to attach the candle to the wall so that the wax won’t drip onto the floor. The solution is to dump the thumbtacks out of the box, tack the box to the wall, and stick the candle onto the box. Most people never figure this out because the

Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Christian Nathler

Often the pronouns I, me, and you are not just harmless but downright helpful.

Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Christian Nathler

the starting point for becoming a good writer is to be a good reader.

Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Rafael Beckel

Richard Feynman once wrote, “If you ever hear yourself saying, ‘I think I understand this,’ that means you don’t.”

Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Christian Nathler

The early bird gets the worm, for example, is plain. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese is classic.

Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Rafael Beckel

In this chapter I have tried to call your attention to many of the writerly habits that result in soggy prose: metadiscourse, signposting, hedging, apologizing, professional narcissism, clichés, mixed metaphors, metaconcepts, zombie nouns, and unnecessary passives. Writers who want to invigorate their prose could try to memorize that list of don’ts