Schrijftips van successchrijver Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker is psycholoog aan Harvard en succesvol schrijver. Hij deelde 13 schrijftips in een interview.

1. Prose is a window onto the world. Let your readers see what you are seeing by using visual, concrete language.
2. Let verbs be verbs. “Appear,” not “make an appearance.”
3. Omit needless words (Will Strunk was right about this).
4. Avoid clichés like the plague (thanks, William Safire).
5. Old information at the beginning of the sentence, new information at the end.
6. Save the heaviest for last: a complex phrase should go at the end of the sentence.
7. Prose must cohere: readers must know how each sentence is related to the preceding one. If it’s not obvious, use “that is, for example, in general, on the other hand, nevertheless, as a result, because, nonetheless,” or “despite.”

• Steven Pinker’s 13 Rules for Good Writing