Here are a couple of quotes from C.S. Lewis on writing and the importance of clarity in our communication.<\/p>\n
The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that.<\/p>\n
The reader, we must remember, does not start by knowing what we mean. If our words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him.<\/p>\n
I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate open to the left or the right the reader will most certainly go into it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
(\u201cCross-Examination,\u201d in C.S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces, ed. Lesley Walmsley, p. 555)<\/p>\n
1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn\u2019t mean anything else.<\/p>\n
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don\u2019t implement promises, but keep them.<\/p>\n
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean \u201cMore people died\u201d don\u2019t say \u201cMortality rose.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. In writing. Don\u2019t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is \u201cterrible,\u201d describe it so that we\u2019ll be terrified. Don\u2019t say it was \u201cdelightful\u201d; make us say \u201cdelightful\u201d when we\u2019ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers \u201cPlease, will you do my job for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. Don\u2019t use words too big for the subject. Don\u2019t say \u201cinfinitely\u201d when you mean \u201cvery\u201d; otherwise you\u2019ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
(C.S. Lewis, Letters to Children, p. 64.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here are a couple of quotes from C.S. Lewis on writing and the importance of clarity in our communication. The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that. The reader, we must remember, does not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[31,106,54],"class_list":["post-1085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quotes","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-quotes","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2202,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions\/2202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jimonline.org\/theosguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}