Originally Posted by cassidym
The two best pieces of advice I ever got about writing was from a very wise tech writer I had to work with to publish a long technical document years ago. They were:
1. Never (or almost never) use the passive voice. It obscures the doer of the action which is why Government writers love it as it makes it unclear who is responsible for something. Thus, don't write "The law will be adhered to" but rather 'Obey the law".
2. Avoid noun forms of verbs. A noun form of a verb usually ends in 'tion'. For example, examination is the noun form of 'to examine'. Verbs move; nouns don't. Thus "I will examine the wounded' has more impact then "I will conduct an examination of the wounded"
And here's a third piece of advice: The first sentence of any letter or essay should tell the reader what the whole letter/essay is about. A lot of people will only read the first sentence and, unless it is very clear what the whole thing is about, they may not read any more.
My favorite example of this was when, the writer, Martin Amis graduated from Oxford and was looking for a first job. He wrote a letter to an editor/publisher that started, "I just graduated from Oxford with a degree in Literature and am trying to get started on a career". I the editor hired him on the spot and later said it was because of that first sentence that made it so clear what the whole letter was about.
More advice: No sentences longer than three lines and keep the paragraphs short.
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