I strongly agree with this post. Particularly enjoyed this sentence:
”Wasting the reader’s time by trying to influence their impression of you is more or less the same regardless of whether it is for defending against negative impressions or inviting positive impressions.”
I think defensive writing is often stylistically bad. I’ve thought about this quite a bit since I’ve been doing writing/editing work for EAs: I’m often tempted to use far fewer hedge-words and caveats, but it’s understandable why people sometimes don’t feel comfortable without them.
I also think that defensive writing pulls against an element of reasoning transparency that I think is underrated. I think some of my best writing is done when I’m actively thinking through things. I think this produces a kind of....‘emotional reasoning transparency’, where readers can see exactly how the thought got from the writer’s brain to the page. I think if the writer is extremely preoccupied with never writing anything that could in principle be criticized or nitpicked, or that might make someone think they are over-confident, it’s very hard to do this kind of writing.
Some things that have influenced my writing have been Steven Pinker’s ‘The Sense of Style’ and George Orwell’s ‘Politics and the English Language’. I think quite a few of the tips from those are in Scott’s Nonfiction Writing Advice too!
I strongly agree with this post. Particularly enjoyed this sentence:
”Wasting the reader’s time by trying to influence their impression of you is more or less the same regardless of whether it is for defending against negative impressions or inviting positive impressions.”
I think defensive writing is often stylistically bad. I’ve thought about this quite a bit since I’ve been doing writing/editing work for EAs: I’m often tempted to use far fewer hedge-words and caveats, but it’s understandable why people sometimes don’t feel comfortable without them.
I also think that defensive writing pulls against an element of reasoning transparency that I think is underrated. I think some of my best writing is done when I’m actively thinking through things. I think this produces a kind of....‘emotional reasoning transparency’, where readers can see exactly how the thought got from the writer’s brain to the page. I think if the writer is extremely preoccupied with never writing anything that could in principle be criticized or nitpicked, or that might make someone think they are over-confident, it’s very hard to do this kind of writing.
some similar/related thoughts here: https://medium.com/@contemplatonist/on-inhibition-612a2ec9b380
Love it. Btw, do you have any top writing advice or bullet points/resources? I know Scott’s Nonfiction Writing Advice and… that’s pretty much it.
Some things that have influenced my writing have been Steven Pinker’s ‘The Sense of Style’ and George Orwell’s ‘Politics and the English Language’. I think quite a few of the tips from those are in Scott’s Nonfiction Writing Advice too!
Huh, coincidental choices. I read both! I think Pinker’s book influenced something but I can’t remember any specifics.