10 Rules for Better Writing from the Book Economical Writing

Economical Writing

Deirdre N. McCloskey

Academic Writing 2019

★★★★★

Introduction

I always look for ways to improve my writing. Recently, I found Deirdre McCloskey’s book Economical Writing through an Instagram reel. In this post, I share 10 useful rules from the book, with examples and quotes from McCloskey.

Rules

Rule 1: Be Thou Clear; but Seek Joy, Too

Clarity is a matter of speed directed at The Point. Bad writing makes slow reading.

McCloskey emphasizes that clarity is crucial above all. When writing about complex topics, give your reader every help possible. I’ve noticed that even if a text has good content, bad writing makes it hard to understand.

Rule 2: You Will Need Tools

The next most important tool is a dictionary, or nowadays a site on the internet that is itself a good dictionary. Googling a word is a bad substitute for a good dictionary site. You have to choose the intelligent site over the dreck such as Wiktionary, Google, and Dictionary.com, all useless.

The Writer highlights the significance of tools that everyone who is serious about writing should use. The tools could be:

• Spell Checker (Grammarly for example)
• OED (a real dictionary to look up the origin of words)
• Thesaurus (shows you similar words)
• Hemingway Editor (improves readability and highlights complex sentences)

Rule 3: Avoid Boilerplate

McCloskey warns against using filler language:

Never start a paper with that all-purpose filler for the bankrupt imagination, ‘This paper …’

Rule 4: A Paragraph Should Have a Point

Each paragraph should focus on a single topic:

The paragraph should be a more or less complete discussion of one topic.

Rule 5: Make Your Writing Cohere

Coherence is crucial for readability:

Make writing hang together. The reader can understand writing that hangs together, from the level of phrases up to entire books.

Rule 6: Avoid Elegant Variation

McCloskey emphasizes that clarity trumps elegance:

People who write so seem to mistake the purpose of writing, believing it to be an opportunity for empty display. The seventh grade, they should realize, is over.

Rule 7: Watch Punctuation

Proper punctuation is more complex than it seems:

Another detail is punctuation. You might think punctuation would be easy, since English has only seven marks.” After a comma (,), semicolon (;), or colon (:), put one space before you start something new. After a period (.), question mark (?), or exclamation point (!), put two spaces. The colon (:) means roughly “to be specific.” The semicolon (;) means roughly “likewise” or “also.”

Rule 8: Watch The Order Around Switch Until It Good Sounds

McCloskey advises ending sentences with the main point:

You should cultivate the habit of mentally rearranging the order of words and phrases of every sentence you write. Rules, as usual, govern the rewriting. One rule or trick is to use so-called auxiliary verbs (should, can, might, had, is, etc.) to lessen clotting in the sentence. “Looking through a lens-shape magnified what you saw.” Tough to read. “Looking through a lens-shape would magnify what you saw” is easier. The most important rule of rearrangement of sentences is that the end is the place of emphasis. I wrote the sentence first as “The end of the sentence is the emphatic location,” which put the emphasis on the word location. The reader leaves the sentence with the last word ringing in her mental ears.

Rule 9: Use Verbs, Active Ones

Active verbs make writing more engaging:

Use active verbs: not “Active verbs should be used,” which is cowardice, hiding the user in the passive voice. Rather: “You should use active verbs.” Verbs make English. If you pick out active, accurate, and lively verbs, you will write in an active, accurate, and lively style.

Rule 10: Avoid This, That, These, Those

Vague demonstrative pronouns can obscure meaning:

Often the plain the will do fine and keep the reader reading. The formula in revision is to ask of every this, these, those whether it might better be replaced by ether plain old the (the most common option) or it, or such (a).

Summary

I quickly finished the book, thanks to its excellent writing style. Its most important lesson was that much of what I learned about good writing in school is incorrect. Good writing means expressing your thoughts clearly. Avoid using complicated words. Write the way you speak. The book demonstrates that using everyday words is a strength, not a weakness. I suggest everyone read this book. Think about how you can improve your writing by using its ideas.