Seconding “Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace”. Amazing explanation of effective written communication.
I would only add this, for the original poster: when you read what the book suggests, reflect on why it’s doing so.
When I read “Style” the second time around, it occurred to me how hard reading really is, and that all this advice is really for building a sturdy boat to launch your ideas at the distant shores of other minds.
Thanks! I hadn’t seen those. They’re similar to the sort of stuff I had already seen, but seem particularly actionable, when actionability was the main problem of what I had found.
Consider reading:
Editing advice for LW users
Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (and doing the exercises)
For editing grammar, passing through GPT-4 can be pretty good, but you have to be very clear in your prompting to get it to change nothing else.
(Somewhat obvious advice, but hopefully useful.)
Seconding “Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace”. Amazing explanation of effective written communication.
I would only add this, for the original poster: when you read what the book suggests, reflect on why it’s doing so.
When I read “Style” the second time around, it occurred to me how hard reading really is, and that all this advice is really for building a sturdy boat to launch your ideas at the distant shores of other minds.
Like, you can have some really bright people working for you, but if you add even a little more nuance, like an “and” and a second clause, you’ve lost. So the trick appears to be finding a shared language with the people you can think together with.
Thanks! I hadn’t seen those. They’re similar to the sort of stuff I had already seen, but seem particularly actionable, when actionability was the main problem of what I had found.