Idea 47: On keeping it simple
Better one living word than a hundred dead ones.
German proverb
When you write you should think of yourself as talking directly to the person you are writing to. That is relatively easy if you are writing a love letter, but much more difficult if you are writing to people you don’t know personally. Nevertheless, it can be done.
Once you start to see writing as a branch of speaking and not as a separate discipline, you can apply the same principles. Anyone who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous and lucid.
This general principle may be translated into practical rules in the domain of vocabulary, as follows:
- Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched.
- Prefer the concrete ...
