writing

Obstacles to fluent writing

• Any variation on: “I can't say that!”


• “What if people think I'm stupid?”


• “What if people think this is boring?”


• “What if people think I'm ignorant?”


• “What if people think I'm trying to be superior?”


• “What if this isn't good enough?”


• “What if sharing my ideas results in my being scooped?”


• “Is this part of my job?”


• The vague

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Practical things you can do to make your text clearer.

Open two copies of the same document and put them side-by-side. Edit in one, while referring to the other.

Rewrite your first draft using this rule: no significant words from the first draft are allowed in the second draft.

If your sentence has more than two commas in it, it’s probably too long.

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