Personal & Nonsensical, Rants and Observations

elements of style and brevity

“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.

This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

—

Strunk & White

=====

The 100 best nonfiction books: No 23

–

The Elements of Style by William Strunk and EB White

(1959)

=====

As I scanned The Guardian the other day I saw this small headline below the fold of the online paper.

The 100 best nonfiction books: No 23

And #23 was Elements of Style.

Well.

I still have my worn old looking Elements of Style book <it’s more a large pamphlet format> on my shelf. I looked at it fondly. And I realized I don’t pull it off the shelf enough.

Yeah.

It can seem old.

It can seem outdated.

And it can seem fairly restrictive with regard to writing stylistically.

Even Strunk himself admitted … “The best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric.”

Heck.

Even EB White <who wrote Charlotte’s Web> ignored some of Strunk’s advice.

But.

You are committing writing malpractice if you do not read this book … several times.

It will not teach you how to write.

It will not teach you how to find your own voice in writing.

But it will teach you some incredibly valuable guardrails of writing with clarity & brevity.

And I could argue that those two weapons are the most valuable weapons you can wield to be more readable and more persuasive.

I know.

Rules for writing & style. Young writers will visibly recoil.

Today’s world seems to embrace ‘no rules’ more than anything else. Which is too bad. It is too bad because if you know the rules, understand the inherent values in the rules … you can make some insightful purposeful decisions with regard to the rules themselves.

And, sure, you can find a number of pretty well written books on writing and writing style <Birds on a Wire is not bad>.

But I could argue that once you have read Strunk & White … and wrapped your head around the majority of the ‘style thoughts’ you will never have to read another ‘how to write’ book ever again. From that point on you are set to go forth and seek your own writing style.

Strunk & White is like the backbone of the writing body. What you craft around that backbone is up to you. it becomes matter of taste and some rhetoric style … all wrapped around a solid, unbending, straight backbone of strength.

I cannot tell you how many times I have dropped a copy of Strunk & White on a young writers desk … and watch their face scrunch up with distaste. It not only looks ‘old’ and ‘outdated’ … it just feels too stringent for ‘voice.’

I also cannot tell you how many times I had to sit down in that same office, settle into a chair, and talk about how if you can strip down everything to its barest … it the becomes easier to decide what clothes you want to put on it.

I am clearly a rule challenger. And, yet, Strunk & White rules are so stripped down, so simplistically right and wrong guidelines, that I find I don’t challenge them … I simply accept them and move on from there.

EB White maybe said it the best:

“… standing, in a drafty time, erect, resolute, and assured, I still find the Strunkian wisdom a comfort, the Strunkian humour a delight, and the Strunkian attitude towards right and wrong a blessing undisguised.”

Look.

All I can say is that if you want to write I cannot recommend a better book for you to own than Strunk & White Elements of Style. At minimum … you will clearly identify the style rules you will purposefully break as you develop your own writing style. At maximum … you will adopt some of the stylistic elements which … well … will make every word count.

And isn’t that what every writer desires?

==============================

Dorothy Parker once wrote:

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favour you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”

1 reason to do, 100 reasons to not do, 100 reasons to not do and 1 reason to do, a certain pride in uncovering solutions to the complex lives we have created for ourselves, a cowardly attitude, a decision, a good dose of futurism, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, a point of principle, a simple execution, about choices, accept and respect the choices, Accept the choices made, actions and character, actions and consequences, actions today make who i am tomorrow, admit it in this business world, adopt some of the stylistic elements, Aiming at brevity I become obscure, albeit it doesn't feel simple in the moment, all project briefs should incorporate both inspiration and direction, always looking to do an unreasonable amount of things, always makes sense, and the Strunkian attitude towards right and wrong, and there is nothing more wonderful than a list, Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, Archaic as it may sound, are essentially simple, as few words as possible, aspire to become writers, assume you are briefing creative problem solvers, bastard Time, battle of attrition, beautiful fragmented complexity, been in a business, being choiceful, Being in the right is about making choices, Being simple takes remarkable effort, best solutions are often the ideas, best solutions are often the ideas that are immediately obvious, best stories are simple, biggest thief of life, blunt dull cumbersome object, borne of either laziness or fear, both strategically and executionally, breaks the starkness into its beautiful fragmented, brevity, brevity has been bastardized, brevity powerpoint and making no points, Briefs should give us every piece of information, brilliant simple creativity, bulife would be more efficient, bunch of business gurus, business, business formula, business people suck at communicating, Business Thoughts, business would be more efficient, but can you ever just be whelmed, can be underwhelmed and overwhelmed, can seem outdated, cannot let the 100 beat the 1, can’t possibly imagine, change begins in the head, change forces prioritizing, changed behavior, Choices and tradeoffs, choices that constantly tug, clarity & brevity, clearly defined parameters, committing writing malpractice, communication, complexity equals value, Complexity is a destructive path, complexity is an inefficient, complexity often hides within some bright shiny object, concisely capturing a thought, cowardly decision making, create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control, Creativity comes from clearly defined parameter, curiosity is the enemy of ignorance, cynicism, daily work life would be more efficient, dangers and risk tangled in every life decision, day to day on the business, dealing with adversity, Dealing with complexity is an inefficient, dealing with everyday life, dealing with extenuating experiences, deceiving others, deceiving yourself, decision making, decision making coward, decision making under uncertainty, decision utility, decision windows, decisions made or not made, defining happiness in moments, deliver recommendations, deliver recommendations at all times, depth of character to face everyday life, designed efficient well oiled system, desire everything at the same time, destroying the personal baggage you carry, differentiation, difficult lessons, difficult to discern good guys from bad guys, difficult to know everything, difficult to manage expectations, disappointment created by expectations, disappointment in yourself, discerning the difference between attitude and behavior, discipline but freedom, disciplined chaos, discovery, discovery is messy, disliked working with me, disregard the rules of rhetoric, diversity of measures, do not go gentle, do not go quietly, do not overcomplicate, do not purposefully try to do the wrong thing, do not suck (or) limiting your suckedness, DO SOMETHING COOL AND SURPRISE ME, do whatever you need to do, does not become more valuable because it becomes complicated, doing shit that matters, doing something, doing something that may truly matter, doing something was better than nothing, doing the right thing, doing the right thing is hard, doing what must be done, doing what they think is right, Don't Consult These Gurus, don't fear the broken plan, don’t believe that Clients should sign off Agency briefs, don’t fall under the curse of knowledge, don’t get something shoved up their ass, don’t give a shit how large or how small a project is, Don’t tell people how to do things, don’t throw everything out, doubt, doubt resides between certainty and uncertainty, doubt something, doubt something once unquestionable, doubts of words, Draft, dreaming is not just for kids, dynamic beyond our own purposes, easier to be lazy thinker, easier to quit, easy doom loop to break, edit and edit again, education to enlighten, effective communication, effective use of power point, elements of style and brevity, embodies infinite potential, embrace curiosity, embracing failure, encountered endless suffering through countless edits, encouraging curiosity, encouraging hope, encouraging understanding of choices, energy to overcome negativity, Engage as many people as possible, enlighten the people, enlightened, enlightened behavior, enlightened business, enlightened business thinking, enlightened business wisdom, enlightened conflict, enlightened curiosity, enlightened decision making, enlightened decisions, enlightened ideas, enlightened learning, enlightened listening, enlightened management, enlightened managers, enlightened people, enlightened quotes, enlightened thinking, enlightenment is a tough issue, entanglement of nuances, envision the impossible, escape enduring and start enjoying, evaluating regrets, evaluating regrets in the end, even competence carries a burden, events are meant to be commanded not feared, Every business deserves inspired projects, every minute is another chance, every moment counts, every one is an architect of life, every one plays a role in fate, every possibility flew open, every project matters, every role and every function matters, every word tell, everyone believes marketing can solve the problem, everyone matters and every project matters, everything is evolving, evolving plans, examine attentively the very words we use, expectations in business, exploration not ROI, extraordinary cruel logic, face conflict, facing overwhelming responsibilities, facts and truth, failure is a reflection of a flaw, failure of imagination, fairly restrictive, fairly restrictive with regard to creative writing, fairly simple things from, fairness, faith in oneself, fall back on old opinions, fear, fear of choices, fearlessness, festina lente, few words, fight a battle of attrition, fight the hardest battle to be yourself, find reasons to not do something, find self-value in problem solivng, find the optimum personal speed, finding light in the darkness, finding the good, finding the right words to say, finding what is possible from impossible, finding your way is tough, First I think my think, follow the truth, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines, fragmentation, fragmented complexity, free your mind, freedom of, friend of good, fun, functional, functional superiority, fundamental difference between these two project briefs, fundamentally attribute issues, gain some new identity aspects, gazillion self help list making books are full of shit, generalist, generating ideas, generation of measurement, geting thru chaos unscathed, getting a grip on life, getting a new start means destroying some old things, getting a project done correctly, getting kicked in the gut, getting kicked in the gut by questioning, gobs of poor management skills, going with your gut, good deeds in a weary world, good people, greatest danger is aiming too low, grounded in what is important, group that had no clear goal, Guard the shape of the man, guide actions and behavior, guilt and obligation, happiness, hard choices, hard decisions, have to have resiliency of kevlar, having a desire to add complexity to a beautiful simple idea, having a desire to add complexity to a beautiful simple idea has nothing to do with the idea but rather with the person, having a personal defect, having baggage of your past, having fixer ability, heightening value in life choices, here is what i would do, hiding behind statistics, hope, hope in learning, hose who did not write their goals, how communications can deliver against this, how much or how little we suck, how someone looks to others, how the client actually works, how you would like them to feel about the brand, Hubble, i am fine, i am fine is the biggest lie, I am not good at everything, I fail, I have met the enemy and it is I, I like brevity, i like numbers, I think opinions, Identifying people closer to the center of the social graph, identifying who you are, if i only had time, if we get a written brief at al, if you are not managing you are being managed, If Your Goal is Success, ignorance, ignorance is the enemy, ignore the nuanced differences, ignored some of Strunk’s advice, illogical decision making, illusion of understanding, imagination, imperfection implies opinion, imperfections is difficult, improving yourself by learning, in an unreasonable amount of time, in chaos we found safety, in their emptiness they are everything, inability to manage expectations, inaction, include invented mandatories or unnecessary detail, increase the likelihood of some inspired outcome, incredibly concise way, individuals, inefficient crevasses in an organization, inefficient processes, inevitably is up to you, infinite possibilities, informing a decision, innovation is impossible to budget, inserting myself into tangled moments, inside an enterprise are only costs, insightful words, inspiration is more about the ambition of the task, instinctively complicates life, instrument of wondrous hypotyposis, insure you will never be bored, intend to abandon all the complexity, intent to not only create an effective brief, intentions, investing energy when appropriate, irrevocable decisions, is anything back or white anymore, is when you didn’t suck, isn't that what every writer desires, isn’t about luck, isolating variables using statistics, issues that have bubbled to the top at the crisis hour, it has become uncool to do simple things in business, it is easy to be a lazy thinker today, it is good crap, it is impractical, it is okay to fail, it isn’t process it is the work, It only takes a tweak to make the whole world new, It takes courage to be good at simple, its okay to break the rules every once in awhile, James Webb telescope, journey of thought, judgement, judging failure needs context, judgment is not easy, juggling versus balancing, just need to stop, just this once, kindness in words creates confidence, knowing what is right is not enough, lack of responsibility, lack of self confidence, lack of time which creates missed deadlines, lacking hope, lacking sophistication or good sense and intelligence, largest amount of truth, lazy decision making, lazy way to outline expectations, leaders and character, leaders are still and active, leaders have strength of character, leadership, leadership split, learn and listen, learning, learning begets more enlightened ignorance, left free, less is more, lessons, let some pieces catch up, let them surprise you with their results, letting go is difficult, letting go is not simple, lies, life, life as a renovator, life can be overwhelming, life formulas, life full of regrets, life gives you a bazillion second chances, life is a bitch, life is a string of minutes, life is a struggle, life is a winding road, life is about making choices, life is complex, life is full of regrets, life is not a mission, life is not a straight line, life is not as simple as it seems, life is often not lived best gently, life is tough, life is tricky, life lessons, life not defined by meeting objectives, life thoughts, Life truths, life’s untruths, life’s white lies, list business consultant gurus, list could surely go on, list making has its highest value, listening, listening and learning, listening and responding, little failures versus big failures, Little things are rarely little, live life to the fullest, lives of quiet disappointment, living a less regretful life, living life backwards but still question, logical decision making, logical versus illogical, looking for hope in strange places, lot of courage to move in the opposite direction, love brevity, lying to yourself, maintaining some overall higher purpose or direction, majority of people in business, make haste slowly, make the right decision, make the whole world new, make weaknesses irrelevant, making a difference, making changes personally, making choices, making decisions, making the best choice you can, making the hard choice, making the simple complicated, making tough choices, manage regrets, management be accountable, management by exception, management is about human beings, Managing a client, managing a client in a service business, managing a decision, managing a regret moment, Managing in general is difficult, Managing means, managing people to be successful in life and business, managing perceptions, managing transitional moments, mankind progresses through thought, Maslow, maslow and decisions, may not even be what you would do, maybe an insightful thoughtful one, maybe it is better to admit we failed at something, maybe life is not that complicated, maybe list making has its highest value not in actual productivity, measurement of failure, measurement world we live in, measuring life, messaging, miss the simplicity in life, mix of people with different wants & needs, moment contains for you possibilities, moments are like a balance sheet, moments of passion, moral fiber, more complex, more moving parts and more possible points of failure, more readable and more persuasive, more truth and authenticity and clarity, most complex on simplicity, most important factor in affecting our lives is our thoughts, most inane project could actually generate the tweak, most people cannot recognize simple solutions, most things in life are not black or white, motivated by a desire to achieve, moving beyond that which is, MY MISTAKE, my most complex on simplicity, My perspective, negative people, negative self esteem is a pit, negativity is difficult to unravel, negativity kills motivation, never regret, never throw any broken person out, never wrong, new knowledge, new thinking, next generation of thinkers, next to impossible to consistently deliver a simple project brief, No actual study done, no consistency between, no do overs, no lazy thinking, no one believes in simplicity anymore, no one says you failed any more, no one wants to trust chaos, no regrets is a silly slogan, no substitute for judgment, no unnecessary words, nobody’s life is perfect, non-politically correct thing to say, nonsense cherished by the wisest men, not a quantity of words person, not always right, not for the faint of heart, not in actual productivity, not meeting an objective is not failure, not more valuable because complicated, not the place to parade your prejudices or invent mandatories, nothing is original, now is the time to listen, now or never, numbers are facts, numbers are facts crap, numbers are facts nonsense, numbers are not accountable, numbers can play a role, numbers have a role, numbers show possibilities, numbers will confess anything, obligation to do, obligation to do the right thing, offer some clearly defined parameters, offering solutions, often complex world of ours, often made or broken by bad and good presentations, older and more experienced business people, once doubt enters it takes on huge proportions, one can’t believe impossible things, one foot in history one foot in future, one of the smartest simplest things, one of the smartest simplest things I have ever written, one reason after another, only few find the way, open our minds, opportunities, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, ordinary life with extraordinary responsibilities, ordinary people don’t think they are remarkable, organization not aligned, organizational or crowd alignment, organizations, organizations are living orgamisms, organizing chaos, original ideas are typically nuances of existing, our minds create, overflowing with words I do not have, pace yourself, paradise is there if you look, paragraph no unnecessary sentences, part of being a good leader, past experience fears, patient quickness, pecked to death by ducks, people avoid things that hurt, people believe simplicity doesn’t have value, people can create change, people confuse process and disciplined thinking, people get confused about simple, people need help, people need some ideology, people need to take a view to face all problems, people notice that crap, people power, perfect for an opportunity is difficult to show, perfection is crap, perfection is the thief, personal creative destruction, personal happiness, personal thoughts, perspective can help with the complex, plainness with absence of showiness, plan burst apart, pondered this issue and scratched my head, positive effect of written goals, possibilities, possibilities are exciting, possibility is a joyful burden, possible to love brevity, power of words, powerpoint and making no points, preoccupied with possibilities, prioritizing actions, prioritizing what is right or wrong, process is a means to an end, productivity, project brief written by committee will be sucked dry, providing perspective, purpose of the brief is to communicate what our intentions are for a specific task, purposeful fragmentation, pursuing the way, push your way through a seemingly endless maze of objections, put failing in perpsective, quality of being simple or uncombined, quality of client briefs, questioning the unquestionable, quotations, quotes, Raising awareness is not inspiring or a credible objective, randomness of life, rant about management and simplicity, rant about simplicity, rare to make complicated simple, real action steps, reality in actions, really good at something, rearranging existing pieces, reason for being, reason to believe, recognize the issues, regrets, regulating affairs of mankind, reinforcing loops, relationships, Relevant now, rentiers, represent a commitment to deliver against it, requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, reshaping things in business, resilience, resiliency, resiliency and character, respect, responsibility, restless consistency, results, results achieved, results is management criteria, revel in the nuance, rewrite, right is right, right thing to do, right words, risk something to achieve a dream, ROI versus imagination, rules of rhetoric, running a business, safe, say it is happening when it isn’t, say that something is happening when it is, saying it is fine when it is not, scared, scream at your own people, see your own reality, seeing the other side of choice, seek every way possible to complicate our lives, seek out events without fear, seek truth, seeking the way of truth, seems like a bad idea, self actualization, self confidence issues, self doubt, self esteem, self esteem through problem solving, self image issues, self truth, self worth, sentence should contain no unnecessary words, setting objectives to measure against, shades of gray, shaking the etch a sketch, sharing feelings, sharp simple minded knives, shitload of advice out there on the subject, shitload of advice out there on the subject of presentations, short is a 5 letter word, shortcomings leading to consequences, simple, Simple instructions with character, simple is hard, simple isn’t the least, simple solutions are often the best solutions, simplicity & efficiency, simplicity has gone the way of the dodo, simplicity in life, simplicity is an acquired taste, simplicity of solution, simplicity seems too chaotic, simplicity takes remarkable effort, simplifying to make choices easier, simply bludgeoning people with thoughts & words, simply delivered just that, situational no regrets, six impossible things before breakfast, slippery slope, slippery slope of despair, slippery slope of I am not fine, slippery surface of irrelevant brilliance, small gestures in trivial looking moments, smallest actions contribute, smart enough to not really be an idiot, smart people saying smart things, So much of modern life seems to be about more, so simplistically right and wrong guidelines, soft choices, solving problems, some choices you cannot go back, someone else’s fault, something more important than fear, Something of true value, sometimes systems work that should not work, somewhere above the least and significantly below the most, sorting out the truth, sound of complexity being unraveled into simplicity, Sounds simple, sounds simple but it is not, speaking, stand for something within yourself, standing on the uncertainty pedestal, standing up every time we fall down, start by thinking about what you need, starting anew, starting fresh, statistics cannot make the decision for you, statistics getting in the way of a good decision, stay or go, still find the Strunkian wisdom a comfort, stimulus reponse, stop and ask, stop and think, stopped trying to initiate some things, straight lines, straight lines are rare in life, strategic and executional imperative, strategy, strength against adversity, strength of character, strength of character to make change, strength of character to not be hasty, stressful decisions, strip away the undoable and identify the doable, stripping away the unnecessary, struggle between energy and indolence, struggle between vitality and decay, struggle to avoid sucking, Strunk & White is like the backbone of the writing body, Strunk & White rules are so stripped down, study of goals, Stuff I Like, stumble upon doing it right, stunning grace in the face of overwhelming life, subconscious influences behavior, subtracters diminish, success is defined by how well, success is defined by how well you limit your suckedness, success of ROI, successful in business, suck at communicating, suck in so many ways, sucked dry of any and all inspiration, Sucking in business, Sucking in business is a personal thing, Suffice it to say everything matters, swallowing nonsense, symbolic dynamics, systems remain stagnant, take revenge on doubters, take some fairly drastic measures, taking responsibility, target may be attitudinally driven, Tell people why it matters, tell them what to do, That bastard Time, that i will be tomorrow, that is life, that which could be, That which is simple is invaluable, that which is simple is valuable, the 1 thing which everyone really knows should be done, the answers are within you, the butterfly effect, the dance of the change tree, the die is cast, the discussion is a solution, the doers will feel like it is a checklist to meet, The Elements of Style, The Elements of Style by William Strunk and EB White, the full measure of devotion, the moments that words fail, the most powerful weapon in life is not a mission, the numbers told me what to do, the one reason to do, the organizational crack, the plan falls apart, the second greatest favour you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style, the Strunkian humour a delight, the style rules you will purposefully break, the subconscious, the word failure is tough love, the world bends everyone, the world breaks us all, then I draw my think, there is no formula for good choices, They are all idiots, thief of life, think you can fix anything, thinking, thinking harder, thinking impossible things, thinking is good, thinking is messy, thinking too much, this business relationship, this i am today, this is the way it has always been done, thoughts, thoughts are relevant in almost any service, thoughts initiate action, thoughts initiate action and progress, thrive on dreams and possibilities, time, to get the solution you need, to not suck, to slay a dragon you need to believe in dragons, to suck or not to suck, too many choices, torture numbers, torturing numbers, tough choices, tough for dreamers these days, transformational people, trapped by fear, Treat them like they are smar, trivial moments, trivial moments in bigger life, trust, truth, truth and expectations, truth goggles, truth is rarely simple, truth is that every role and every function, truth is what really happened, truth or lies, truth or nothing, truth to oneself, trying to drive behavior, trying to preserve will lead to stagnation, two type of project ‘doers, typically the job of account management, uncertainty is a bitch, uncertainty takes on geometric proportions, understanding what you do as an organization, unexpected innovation, unfortunate truth in business, unintended results, unquestionable, unreasonable amount of things, Urban myth, use your imagination, valuable guardrails of clarity & brevity, vibrantly alive in repose, Vigorous writing is concise, vivid example of brevity, wanting more can help us grow in many ways, waste so many days waiting for weekend, we can control, we find self-value in problem solving, we want to be great, we want to shine, weighs more than not a promise, what behavior you are asking them to change, what exactly is it you want, what I know opinions, what is expected parameters, what is management, what is the alternative, what is the place of words, what looks like chaos, what should be done, what we are seeking explanations, what we have is not what we need, what we need is impossible to get, what we need to get us through, what we want is not what we need, what you consider the best, what your thoughts are now on what should be done, whatever it takes, whatever it takes to cross that dark bridge, when our plan burst apart, when plans fall apart, when the plan falls apart, when you start to suck stop, whole writing shit down topic, why can’t we just make it simple, will not teach you how to write, with moments you don’t suck, without that questioning, woefully inadequate data, words, words I do not have, words that become deeds, work is often up to people, worn old looking Elements of Style book, wrangled with the right words, writing is concise, writing malpractice, writing shit down, Writing shit down does matter, writing things down may be more important today, wrote their goals accomplished significantly more, you are not a failure because you fail, you can get pulled in so many directions, you cannot dwell on every moment that slipped by, you have your head up your ass

July 11, 2016 by Bruce

Written by Bruce

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