The Sense of Style
by Steven Pinker, José C. Vales · first published 2014
80% recommend18% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Grounds writing advice in how the mind parses sentences, not fussy rules. Covers classic style, the blindness of expertise, and clearer prose. Suits anyone wanting to improve their writing, including technical writers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A guide to writing English informed by recent scholarship (linguistics, cognative science, and such like).
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Mentions per year
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…some people who plainly grew up speaking some other language in a non-English-speaking country. Keep practicing, and you will become better. For specific writing advice, I recommend the new book The Sense of Style[1] by Steven Pinker, which is about not just fussy rules of English but also about THINKING in a way that helps improve writing. I will have to practice with the ideas in that book for a long time. For…
on “How do you get to write so well in HN?” ↗…actual good books that can teach you how to write better, instead of patting you on the back and allowing you to tut-tut at those plebians who write things that are "outright barbarous". Pinker's The Sense of Style is one of those; Ann Lamott's Bird by Bird is another. There also exist much better (and more accurate and scientific) resources about how language actually affects the way we think about things. Benjamin…
on “George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” (1946)” ↗…research would have more influence on other research mathematicians. That sounds like an important experiment to try for an early-career mathematician. More generally, in the very excellent book The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century,[1] author and researcher Steven Pinker makes the point that the hardest thing for any writer to do is to avoid the "curse of knowledge," assuming…
on “I no longer understand my PhD dissertation” ↗I enjoyed (the first 2/3 of) Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style. It includes examples of where prescriptivism fails and succeeds.
on “Lessons Learned from “On Writing Well”” ↗This is great, although I'd suggest people steer clear of Strunk and White -- it's ancient and full of nonsense. Instead, try Steven Pinker's "The Sense of Style", "Artful Sentences" by Virginia Tuft, and a new favorite, "First Write a Sentence" by Joe Moran.
on “A blogging style guide” ↗I don't accept the premise that you must choose between stylish and informative writing, but the argument fails at the outset. Complaining that Pinker (one assumes especially in his A Sense of Style, which I recommend without reservation) writes poorly for academics by focusing on his writing for a non-academic audience. If you desire a more "academic" style, Pinker is quite capable of providing…
on “The Problem with Writing-Style Advice” ↗…his note taking system as a networks of pipelines of data input and data output. I'm sure it means something in his mind, but it tells me nothing about his note taking system. I highly recommend The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker. It goes into detail on how paragraphs and sentences are perceived by readers.
on “An engineer’s tips for writing documentation devs love” ↗I just read Steven Pinker's "The Sense of Style" and found it to be an excellent resource on this topic. http://www.amazon.com/The-Sense-Style-Thinking-Person%C2%92s...
on “Rooms and Mazes: A Procedural Dungeon Generator” ↗…so I can learn to write, speak, and converse like Dijkstra in this lecture? Practice makes perfect, that's really all there is to it. A good book on writing style can help, but only if you use it. The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker and Revising Prose by Richard Lanham are my two favorites.
on “E.W. Dijkstra Archive: The Humble Programmer” ↗…way so that readers can understand quite well. The goal should be to elevate the users to get better at reading in addition to conveying your material, IMO. A good book to read would be Steven Pinker's Sense of Style - https://www.amazon.com/Sense-Style-Thinking-Persons-Writing/.... One doesn't have to degrade their sentences just because we live in the age of attention span deterioration and social media. All of…
on “Ask HN: On Depression and Writing – Would love some feedback on my blog post” ↗…of Style (which barely even gets into stylistic issues). The books to compare Strunk & White with are not grammar textbooks (I don't know why Pullum keeps doing this) but things like Steven Pinker's A Sense of Style or Ben Yagoda's The Sound on the Page or Zinsser's On Writing Well or Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft etc. I have said all this in the answer I linked to in the comment above (and comments…
on “In Praise of the Long and Complicated Sentence” ↗…but it could stay crappy for your whole life. I would argue that real study and less production writing is actually a better use of your time. Some of my favourite books to start on serious study: "A Sense of Style" - Steven Pinker "The Making of A Story" Alice LaPlante "Steering the Craft" - Ursula Le Guin "On Writing Well" - William Zinsser "Dreyer's English" - Benjamin Dreyer The problem is that everyone…
on “To write better, develop a habit of writing” ↗Have you tried Steven Pinker's "Sense of Style"? Although there is indeed a chapter (ch.4) that deals with some difficult to apply concepts (i.e. adding unnecessary friction at the moment of writing), the other chapters delve into graspable topics…
on “Hemingway Editor” ↗I love this list. An additional resource I would add to it is Steven Pinker's "Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century"[0]. Pinker's book advocates for the same classical style as Williams and Thomas & Turner. But Pinker also offers a deep dive into grammar,…
on “The Science of Scientific Writing (1990)” ↗For specific writing advice, I recommend the new book The Sense of Style[1] by Steven Pinker, which is about not just fussy rules of English but also about THINKING in a way that helps improve writing. I will have to practice with the ideas in that book for a long time. I'd…
on “How do you get to write so well in HN?” ↗