{"id":787,"date":"2022-03-18T14:14:17","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T22:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zanavu.com\/notes\/?p=787"},"modified":"2024-06-20T10:36:52","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T18:36:52","slug":"write-better-with-elements-of-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zanavu.com\/notes\/2022\/03\/18\/write-better-with-elements-of-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Write better with Elements of Style"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>About twenty years back, I was a member of the Toastmasters club. The club helped me to learn more about public speaking. One of the topics I spoke about was about communicating ideas. Yes, in a workshop meeting on communication, we spoke about <em><strong>how to communicate<\/strong><\/em>. When I looked at the discussion note, two things stood out for me. The first was the notion that communication is a bi-directional activity wherein the speaker and the listener have to work together to benefit from the messages. The second was about the <em>style of language used in communication<\/em>. Let me talk about the style here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These days, even an elementary school student is introduced to traditional productivity tools like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. There are several fancy menu items for a student to compose his or her essay. I see students making up their essay <mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-neve-link-color-color\">with colors<\/mark>, <em>font style<\/em>, <span class=\"highlight\">font size<\/span>, etc. Yes, word processors have significantly simplified our efforts to create visually vibrant documents. However, for powerful communication, it is<strong> important to focus first on the language style<\/strong>, before the visual style. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My recollection of language style is from the <em>grammar books<\/em> and pedantic grammar lessons we were introduced to in the school days. I had one of these books when I was growing up in India. The book was dense in small print and filled with words. For a school kid who was barely reading 100s of words a week, this book was a BIG challenge. There was limited explanation and an extremely poor understanding of why we were reading this book. Still the periodic exams mandated that I learn from this book. I barely survived the ordeal to learn English. Poems like <em>Daffodils<\/em>, and essays like <em>On the Rules of the Road<\/em>, are some that I remember well. Many stories and novels were entertaining too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At my Engineering college, I was introduced to <em>English for Technical Communication<\/em>. I recall learning about diphthongs, essays, technical writing, etc. Gone were poems and stories, but there were details on machinery and organizations. Perhaps sometimes I lacked the understanding of <em>why<\/em> I am learning, but still had to learn because it is an essential first year course. Thanks to other courses, I was reading faster and variety within the Engineering discipline. It took extra long efforts to read non-technical materials to prepare for graduate admission exams like GRE and TOEFL. Persistence paid off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"446\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/zanavu.com\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-1-446x400.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-790\" style=\"width:259px;height:232px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Elements of Style<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Years later, I found myself at Microsoft. Books like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Chicago_Manual_of_Style\"><em>The <\/em>Chicago Manual of Style<\/a><em> <\/em>helped me. I enjoyed the writing process, especially on technical subjects. The writing quality constantly improved, and is still a work in progress. In due course, I discovered the book <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Elements_of_Style\"><em>Elements of Style, <\/em>by Strunk and White<\/a>. This was a very small book &#8211; about 80 pages long, if I recall right. However, the book was easy to follow along. I have read this book at least ten times so far. I like the simplicity and power it communicates with. The principles and ideas here are very useful. I had come to apply this repeatedly in my writing. There is also an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/294830\/the-\">illustrated edition<\/a> that I like and recommend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now there are a new generation of tools that claim to simplify writing. Some of these use AI and language analysis. I find some of these useful. That said, the core must come from our own developed style, adhering to age-old practices. Hence, investing time with <em>Elements of Style<\/em> is very valuable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About twenty years back, I was a member of the Toastmasters club. The club helped me to learn more about public speaking. One of the topics I spoke about was about communicating ideas. Yes, in a workshop meeting on communication, we spoke about how to communicate. When I looked at the discussion note, two things [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,53,23],"tags":[48,6,3],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-education","category-personal","tag-books","tag-business","tag-learning"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Write better with Elements of Style - Bright Possibilities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Written Communication is powerful. Focusing on substance is a critical first step. 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