Quotes About Writing

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing

Roy Peter Clark

Modern English Usage

Roy Peter Clark

Obscure words should be defined in texts or made clear from context. But the reading vocabulary of the average citizen is larger than the writing vocabulary of the typical author.

Everyone should read, we say, but we act as if only those with special talent should write.

All of us possess a reading vocabulary as big as a lake but draw from a writing vocabulary as small as a pond. The good news is that the acts of searching and gathering always expand the number of usable words.

If a period is a stop sign, then what kind of traffic flow is created by other marks? The comma is a speed bump; the semicolon is what a driver education teacher calls a "rolling stop"; the parenthetical expression is a detour; the colon is a flashing yellow light that announces something important up ahead; the dash is a tree branch in the road.

To understand the difference between a good adverb and a bad adverb, consider these two sentences: "She smiled happily" and "She smiled sadly." Which one works best? The first seems weak because "smiled" contains the meaning of "happily." On the other hand, "sadly" changes the meaning.

From productive conversations with professional writers and editors. I once learned that only three behaviors set literate people apart. The first two are obvious: reading and writing; but the third surprised me: talking about how reading and writing work. Many of the tools came from great talk about the construction of stories and the distillation of meaning.

Whether the vessel is a legal document or a rap song, language is often chosen ot exclude. To use a scholarly phrase, "discourse communities" are often gated,so it's the good writer's job to offer readers a set of keys.

I promise you a case of writing paralysis if you think about too many of these tools when you sit down to write. Let your writing flow early. You can reach for a tool later. •

All of us possess a reading vocabulary as big as a lake but draw from a writing vocabulary as small as a pond.

Ben Yagoda's fine book When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It.

parts of speech.

If you should stick only to what you know, we should worry about the thousands of authors who write about murder. If

momentos de amor leve com as pessoas que amo, e uma infinidade de cenas, como se fossem fotografias, que ficaram gravadas na minha memória. Quando eu morrer, vão se perder. Mas não quero que se percam. Tenho de dá-las para alguém que tome conta delas. Aí me vem a aflição por escrever. Quando escrevo, estou lutando contra a morte. A morte das coisas que o meu amor ajuntou e que vão se perder quando eu morrer.

No fundo, o mal todo está nessa mania de ler, estudar, escrever; esse negócio de intelectual é sempre maroto. Por que não promover uma grande campanha nacional de analfabetização?

We don't need the gospels, we need the fiery men who wrote them!

I never consciously think of writing a so-called Christian novel. I don't think Albert Camus ever thought of writing an existentialist novel, either. I think of getting at, of building, a story.

I am, by calling, a dealer in words; and words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

Listen, in England people are already writing their memoirs at the age of 23.

The other day a young Internet surfer asked me why I preferred using a pencil instead of a computer. The principal reason, I told him, was that I liked chewing on the end of my pencil. A nasty habit, but it helps me concentrate. And I find it extremely difficult to chew on a computer.

All I wanted was a quiet life, a writing pad, books to read, flowers to gaze upon, and sometimes a little love, a little kiss…