Too many adjectives, adverbs, and subsidiary clauses are the death of good writing

Alexander McCall Smith has a pet peeve: Overwriting.

The author of more than 60 books, including the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, McCall Smith wrote in a column in The Wall Street Journal that for "some people... the temptation to overindulge is just too great". The result, he says, is the use of too many adjectives, adverbs, and subsidiary clauses. 

He continues:

Such writing then begins to sound contrived. Nobody uses large numbers of adjectives when they think, and I believe that writing which one cannot actually think can very easily look wrong on the page.

The real aim, of course, is conciseness. Concise prose knows what it wants to say, and says it. It does not embellish, except occasionally, and then for dramatic effect.

Now consider this quote by George Orwell, who was also, rightly, obsessed with conciseness in writing:

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

And here's William Strunk, Jr., of Strunk & White fame, expressing himself firmly on the same subject:

Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

'Nuff said? 

• Read Alexander McCall Smith's column in its entirety here: "Block That Adjective!"

In one quote, the essence of writing

Writing is linear and sequential; Sentence B must follow Sentence A, and Sentence C must follow Sentence B, and eventually you get to Sentence Z. The hard part of writing isn’t the writing; it’s the thinking. You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next?

~ WILLIAM ZINSSER

• Also read: "William Zinsser: Lord of the Language".

The short story that "did more in nine pages than most novels do in nine chapters"

I discovered "The Lottery", by Shirley Jackson, on my Kindle Fire when I was on vacation last month and after I raced to the end of this gripping but quietly horrifying tale — it doesn't take more than 15 minutes to read the 3,378 words — I wanted to know more about the author and also understand what her aims were when she wrote this piece.

It turns out that it was The New Yorker that first published "The Lottery" almost 65 years ago. As a recent note in the magazine explains, "The Lottery" proved to be perhaps the most controversial short story The New Yorker has ever published: "After it ran, in the issue of June 26, 1948, hundreds of readers cancelled their subscriptions or wrote letters expressing their anger and confusion over what the story meant. Jackson, who contributed twelve short stories to the magazine, became a literary sensation almost overnight."

The full text of "The Lottery" is available on the American Literature website. Read it here. (There are some discussion questions, too, on this PDF version.)

Also read, for background information, this post on the Neatorama blog: "The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson".

What a fantastic book cover (and 18 more that are just as special)!

This is one of 19 book covers chosen by graphic design experts from around the world who were asked by the New York Times to name one of their favourite book covers from 2012 and briefly describe its appeal. Book lovers, and those who have an interest in design, are sure to get a special thrill from viewing this slide show: "Favourite Book Cover Designs of 2012".

Each cover is accompanied by the expert's comments. For instance, Nicholas Blechman, art director of The New York Times Book Review, has this to say about the cover of Watergate (above):

This design zeroes in on the single most iconic event of Watergate: eavesdropping. The cover is appropriately deceptive: the jacket shows an elegantly minimal phone, made with die-cut holes. Underneath, printed on the case, is the inside of the phone wired for tapping. I love the playful before/after effect of this cover, the way it conjures up an analog era of clunky phones, and the visual tension that comes from perforating the word “novel.” It is conceptually flawless, and very cool.

My other favourites from this list? No. 2, No. 8, No. 13, No. 14, No. 17.... oh, what the heck! They're all wonderful!

What you need to think about when writing your blog (or when writing. Period.)

Here's some terrific advice from a great American writer, Kurt Vonnegut, who has compiled eight rules for great writing (pay particular attention to No. 7):

1. Find a Subject You Care About
2. Do Not Ramble, Though
3. Keep It Simple
4. Have the Guts to Cut
5. Sound like Yourself
6. Say What You Mean to Say
7. Pity the Readers
8. For Really Detailed Advice...

Read this post by Maria Popova, my favourite blogger, to understand what Vonnegut means: "How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word".

ADDITIONAL READING:

• "10 essential tips for becoming an effective blogger"

• Some great advice for first-time bloggers

Heart of the MATTER: Why do some people want to amputate a perfectly healthy limb? And why would any doctor help them?

"MATTER" styles itself as "the new home for in-depth, independent journalism about the ideas that are shaping our future". The founders say it isn't quite a website, it's not really a magazine, and it's not exactly a book publisher either: "Instead, MATTER is something else — a new model for high-quality journalism...."

MATTER has published three articles so far. The debut piece, "Do No Harm", made quite a splash, with The Guardian publishing an exclusive extract. MATTER later produced two more long-form, narrative features.

THE COVER PAGE OF "DO NO HARM".

In "Do No Harm", a disturbing story by science writer Anil Ananthaswamy, we learn about a psychological disorder that causes some people to want to amputate a perfectly healthy limb. "The feelings the condition generates are extraordinarily powerful — so strong," Ananthaswamy says, "that sufferers often seek out the most radical of treatments, and a few unorthodox surgeons risk their reputations to assist."

Read the Guardian extract here: "Please amputate this leg: it's not mine".

Here, via the MATTER website, you can view a slideshow of exclusive images from the story: "Do No Harm".

How do you deal with a boyfriend who scampered off with a hottie, was dumped by her, and now wants you to take him back? What do you say to him?

This is just one of the many awkward situations for which light-hearted but sensible advice is dispensed by Philip Galanes in his popular New York Times column, Social Q's. What would you do, really? Here's what Galanes has to say:

That old-time gent who talked about turning the other cheek was definitely on to something, especially where Botox and other injectables are concerned. Tolerating errors in others is merely good sense, prone as we are to screw-ups ourselves.

But now that you know what your beau is made of, be careful (nay, hesitant) about taking him back. Losing a boyfriend, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, is a misfortune; losing him twice looks like carelessness.

Don't you just love that punchline?

Here are a few questions (some have been abbreviated here for reasons of space) that you may find yourself asking one day. Check out the advice offered by Galanes in each instance:

• What is the appropriate amount of time to take off from work when a pet dies?

• A good friend makes a habit of placing her cellphone on the table whenever we invite her to dinner. She answers text messages and plays games throughout our meals. I have tried to dissuade her by using humor. It hasn’t worked. She says we all have annoying traits, and real friends overlook them. How should I handle this the next time she breaks out the phone?

• A friend who was morbidly obese lost a considerable amount of weight, which greatly improved her appearance. I complimented her on her weight loss and told her how great she looked. But I was mortified when she replied that she’d lost the weight because of a terrible disease.

• A friend signs her text messages to me, “Love, Susie.” I feel as if a gun is being held to my head and guilty that I don’t return her love or her signoff. What to do? 

  Read other Social Q's columns here.

"10 Essential Tips for Becoming An Effective Blogger"

See how many experts (not just me) are saying the same things when it comes to writing/blogging: "10 Essential Tips for Becoming An Effective Blogger".

This particular post by Monica Carter Tagore, who has written more than a hundred posts about writing for the Writer's Living website, may be about how to shape your blog if you're a writer, but the points made and the advice given by her apply to every kind of blog.

Make a note especially of these points:

#3. Get a name that works. Get your name or one that quickly identifies what the blog is about. Don’t go for cutesy, weird names that test your reader’s memory.

#5. Create good content. You don’t have to be a stellar writer when it comes to blogging or making a living writing. But you do have to produce good stuff. Nobody wants to read boring, confusing, or rambling posts.

Also read:

• Some great advice for first-time bloggers

• You still don't have a blog?

• How to write more successful blog posts

Additional reading: Here are two important points about blogging made by inveterate blogger Lesley Carter:

#Put your nose to the grindstone and write! More content leads to more readers, as long as you can maintain quality.

#Write great headlines. There’s no faster way to catch the attention of people in your niche than an intriguing headline.

Read up on all 10 tips on Lesley Carter's list here: "10 Great Ways to Get Noticed as a Blogger".

• Thanks for the alert, Maitreya J.A.

• EXTERNAL READING: She is India’s most popular celebrity blogger, has a full-time staff of 10, and reaches out to a quarter million followers every month — Meet Miss Malini.

Is it Masters Degree? Or Master's degree? Or master's degree?

Mark Nichol, the editor of the Daily Writing Tips blog, deserves a round of applause for putting together what he calls "10 Tips about Basic Writing Competency".

If you wish to be taken seriously as a professional writer, as he says, these tips, conveniently divided into four categories — formatting, style, usage, and spelling — are sure to help.

Read Nichol's post here.

(And it's "master's degree", which is what I have been telling my students for the past ten years.)

• You also will want to check out these 15 commonly misspelled words: "Why you can't spell".

ADDITIONAL READING — posts by Mark Nichol:

• Hoodwinked by hyphens?

• How do you know the company you are going to be working for is right for you?

• You still don't have a blog?

• Plagiarism: Check out the facts

Another work of art from the pioneer of comics journalism

Earlier this year, in February, I had published a post on the pioneer of comics journalism, Joe Sacco, the man who has proved — literally — that journalism is an art form. Subsequently, I purchased, for the Commits library, two of his books: Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza.

Let me reiterate here what I have written in my post: There's no journalist I know or have heard of like Joe Sacco and there's no reportage I have seen or read that is like Sacco's astounding graphic representation of the human condition.

After reading both Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza, I became impatient to lay my hands on his magnum opus, Journalism, which was to be published later in the year. As soon as the book became available on Flipkart, which was last month, I bought a copy, which I am reading avidly now and which I'll place later in the college library. (Indian readers will not want to miss the section on the untouchable community of Musahars in eastern Uttar Pradesh.)

Coincidentally, DNA, whose magazine section yesterday was devoted to books, had a major piece on Journalism. "In an era of screaming reportage whose shelf life is less than 24 hours," Amruta Patil wrote in her review, "Sacco is dogged in his commitment to 'slow journalism', that rare art of allowing insight to percolate over time through carefully observed stories."

Read the DNA feature here: "Reporting for Duty".

And buy your own copy of Journalism on Flipkart here for only Rs.380 (24% off). Believe me, it's a steal at that price.

• Also read: "Joe Sacco: The man who has proved — literally — that journalism is an art form".