Aug
8
Writing Prose
Tagged writing | Leave a Comment
From the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, on writing style.
Verbs work hardest, and adjectives little: the welfare worker checked; the gunfire snapped; the pitcher was ready to fire a ball. Sentences are nearly all short; exceptions are rare, purposeful and easily navigated. And what is missing? Not one example speaks of implementing anything, or funding an ongoing program. Nothing is prior to something else, or hitherto. No sentence creaks under the tread of bureaucracy or recycles prefabricated originality: no one gets a wake-up call or puts anything on hold. No one is in-your-face. The word choices break ground: who ever heard of a funky fish?