I found it quite impressive that people are capable of this. For me, I have neither energy, nor ability, nor comprehensive knowledge to do so. So, it is always fascinating (and a bit intimidating) to see people writing these all the time. I want to ask how you guys achieve this feat.

Maybe, is it that I am nonverbal so I cannit write coherently?

  • Phantom_Engineer@lemmy.ml
    7·
    21 days ago

    Look into technical writing. I took it in college but I’m sure you can find free resources online about it. In short, good technical writing is:

    • accurate
    • concise
    • clear
    • usable
    • readable

    Of course, that’s easier said than done. It makes sense to make a rough outline of what you want to write before you write it. It’s also good to look over what you’ve written afterwards. If you keep these basic principles in mind while planning, writing, and revising, you can make your writing more effective.

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
      6·
      21 days ago

      What you said immediately reminded me Grice’s “Logic and Conversation”. The author outline what he calls “conversational maxims”, that resemble a lot your five bullet points - except that they don’t just apply to technical writing, they’re more like principles that we “automatically” use in human conversation. They are:

      1. Maxim of quantity - “be as informative as possible and needed, and no more.”
      2. Maxim of quality - “be truthful; don’t give false or unconfirmed info.”
      3. Maxim of relation - “be relevant; say things that are pertinent to the discussion.”
      4. Maxim of manner - “be clear, brief, and orderly; avoid obscurity and ambiguity.”

      Those four maxims are constantly being violated by the speakers, as they’re in conflict with each other. For example, clarity (maxim of manner) often requires simplifying things, to the point that they aren’t as accurate (maxim of quality) as before.

      This is relevant here because, if you can’t avoid violating those maxims, you need to reach a compromise. And good writing is about finding a good compromise for the target readers.

        • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
          1·
          21 days ago

          I did well in pragmatics. My bane was syntax - that professor did a really poor job even to explain the basics, for example I still don’t know why the hell you’re supposed to spam XP, X’ and X in generative trees even if they won’t branch out anyway.

          • belastend@slrpnk.net
            1·
            20 days ago

            Here the need part: you dont. Because chomskyite grammar sucks sweaty balls.

            Tbf, by my second run through Intro to Pragmatics i got the maxims. But our prof had some really strange interpretations of them.

    • Classy@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      21 days ago

      I feel that to a certain point, good technical writing is just beautiful, too. It is elegant. I recently purchased a copy of the Haynes manual for my car and the writing is just remarkable. So much information collated in such a clean and impressive manner. It feels nice to read the book, to engage with the complexity, and feel like you’re not being left to your own devices with picking up jargon or trying to understand a difficult procedure. I feel it takes a great deal of intelligence and experience to reach the “beautiful” stage, where your writing is not only accurate, concise, clear, usable and readable, but also expertly organized.