Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles ...

Ask HN: How do you write great sentences, paragraphs, or articles?96 points by ekpyrotic 14 hours ago | 71 commentsWriting advice often reiterates the same general rules: active voice, economy of expression, favour the concrete over the abstract.

These broad suggestions come at the expense of advice on micro- and macrostructure. We're missing a trick here. In particular, I believe great non-fiction writing out-punches the good because it manages not only to articulate ideas succinctly and clearly, but to show how they overlap and interconnect.

In business, while a good product is essential, it is almost always not enough. The product has to be presented to the consumer in an intuitive and sensible way. Often a product will have more than one USP, and its success hinges on which USP you chose to emphasise.

The same might be said of ideas. An argument---or point---will be convincing only insofar as it is presented to the reader in a coherent way.

To that end, do people have any tips, book suggestions, or exercises that will help writers improve their articles' unity, coherent, flow, logical structure, etc?

Source: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4828497

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