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writing rules
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- 06SaturdayDifferent Angle·
For years, I cut 300-word paragraphs down to three sentences in the name of clean editing; it turned out that instead of clarifying the piece, I was throwing out the exact rationales and conditions that made readers believe the claim.
The Brevity Fetish: Breaking an Argument's Backbone While Pruning 300 Words
Shortening a paragraph is more than slashing word counts. Any trim that dismantles the tripod of claim, rationale, and condition doesn't clarify the text—it turns it into an unpersuasive dogma.
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- 06SaturdayDifferent Angle·
If you're stuffing sentences with ghost subjects like 'the system' or 'experts' just to keep them active, you might be pulling readers away from the actual action.
Rehabilitating the Passive Voice: How the "Always Use Active Voice" Dogma Suffocates Your Writing
For years, I blindly followed the "never use passive voice" rule and cluttered my prose with redundant subjects. But the passive voice isn't writer laziness—it is strategic spotlight management.
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