I write a lot of texts, mostly nonsense, but usually even haters say the text is easy to read. If you want to make your texts (like letters, for example) easier, hurry over here.
I didn't come up with anything here; it's all from the book 'The Living and the Dead Word' by Nora Gal, a Soviet translator, editor, and critic.
There are two rules: use verbs and avoid bureaucratic language.
A verb represents an action. A verb makes the text dynamic, interesting, and alive. No other part of speech can do that.
The antonym of a verb is a gerund noun. This is the worst evil. A gerund noun is a noun formed from a verb.
For example: implementation, realization, planning, implementation, application, etc.
The worst form of a gerund noun is a chain of gerund nouns. For example, implementation of planning, realization of application of implementation.
The rule is simple: where possible, replace gerund nouns with verbs. Or with normal nouns that don’t have a verb synonym.
Now let's talk about bureaucratic language. To understand, or rather remember, what bureaucratic language is, read a law, a regulation (including internal company documents), or your diploma.
Bureaucratic language is an artificial complication of the text to make it seem smart or fit within certain frameworks (business, scientific-publicistic style, etc.).
To put it simply, if you're trying to appear smarter than you are when writing a text, you are creating bureaucratic language.
The use of gerund nouns is also bureaucratic language. Participial and gerundial phrases are a sign of bureaucratic language. Especially when there is a chain of clauses, additions, compound and complex sentences (let's remember the school program).
Participial and gerundial phrases differ in that they have, let's say, a base word. For example: Irina, solving a problem. It already sounds a bit obnoxious, but, if desired, it can be made completely unreadable.
Irina, tackling a problem, resembles a small, clueless child who, believing he knows something about this life that has suddenly appeared over his head (he's already confused...), sincerely thinks that the computer, rightfully his, will endure and tolerate forever, silently, never baring its teeth, like a dog that smells from the rain that fell yesterday (man, what was I trying to say with this sentence...).
On one hand, you can get bogged down in understanding these rules and write, like Leo Tolstoy, sentences that are a page long. So that schoolchildren can suffer.
But there is a simple solution that will keep you from ruining your sentence. Keep your sentences short. Not 'It was getting dark.', of course – I think sentences of one or two lines will suffice, no more. By following this rule, you won't get confused.
Yes, and it's better to keep paragraphs small. In the modern world, there is the so-called 'clip thinking' – a person is not able to absorb large chunks of information. You need to, like a child, cut the cutlet into small pieces so that he can eat them with his own fork. If you don't divide it, you'll have to sit next to him and feed him.
And then it’s simple. Next time you write a text, read it before sending it, and look for: gerunds, participial phrases, sentences longer than one line, paragraphs thicker than five lines. And revise them.
Source: habr.com
