Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there.
Consider all the prepositions that are draped onto verbs that don’t need any help. Examine every word you put on paper. You’ll find a surprising number that doesn’t serve any purpose.

Eliminate words with no purpose

Writers must constantly ask: "What am I trying to say?" Most of the time, they don’t know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: "Have I said it?"
If something isn’t important enough for your writing, then remove it. In fact, most first drafts can be cut in half and still get the point across without losing anything important.

Writing well: getting to the point

<ul>
<li>Give as much thought to choosing your last sentence as you did to your first.</li>
<li>Bring the story full circle: strike an echo of a note that was sounded at the beginning.</li>
<li>The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right.</li>
<li>Don’t sell past the close. When you’re ready to stop, stop.</li>
</ul>

Writing well: the perfect ending

"But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.”

<ul>
<li>A reader's attention span is about 30 seconds. And this is usually a person assailed by many forces competing for attention.</li>
<li>In the past, those forces were relatively few: newspapers, magazines, radio, spouse, children, pets.</li>
<li>Today they also include multiple electronic devices for receiving entertainment and information, as well as a fitness program, a pool, and that most powerful competitor, sleep.</li>
</ul>

A reader's attention span

"The race in writing is not to the swift but to the original."
Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters.

Writing is learned by imitation

<ul>
<li>Avoid at all costs the cliches of the thousands of writers who have gone before you.</li>
<li>When you’re choosing words and stringing them together, be aware of how they sound.</li>
<li>Use words you enjoy and that are vivid.</li>
<li>Know the subtle differences between synonyms and which one best expresses what you want to say. </li>
<li>Use the words that have precise meanings rather than those that are vague.</li>
</ul>

Writing well: choosing the right words

You can’t predict what people will want to read. So don't worry about pleasing others.
Don’t try to visualize your audience; every reader is a different person. Don’t try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don’t know what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they’re always looking for something new.

Write for yourself

Professional writers rewrite their sentences over and over and then rewrite what they have rewritten.

Rewriting is the essence of writing

“Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.”

<ul>
<li>If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your work is dead. Of such a progression of sentences, each tugging the reader forward until he is hooked, a writer constructs that fateful unit, the “lead.”</li>
<li>Do not count on the reader to stick around. Readers want to know very soon what’s in it for them.</li>
</ul>

The most important sentence in any writing: the first one

“Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.”

<ul>
<li>Writers at their most natural when they write in the first person.</li>
<li>Better to have an opinion and say 'I', 'we', 'us', 'me' than to take everything into a passive voice.</li>
<li>If you aren’t allowed to use “I,” at least think “I” while you write, or write the first draft in the first person and then take the “I”s out.</li>
</ul>

Write in the first person

Clutter doesn’t make your writing stylish; in fact, trying too hard makes your writing seem fake.
Just write naturally and clearly; don’t try too hard with fancy words or complicated sentences that are just confusing.

Don’t inflate what needs no inflating

“You learn to write by writing. It’s a truism, but what makes it a truism is that it’s true. The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.”

There are many methods for writing nonfiction, but the most effective method is to find what works for you. Whatever helps you is the “right” way. 
However, there are key principles to good writing, and one of them is simplicity. Writers often use complicated or additional words to sound impressive, but good writing should be simple with clean language.

The principle of simplicity

books

Books

business

Business

career

Career

communication

Communication

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

timemanagement

Time Management

Business Writing

Warns against common errors in structure, style, and diction, and explains the fundamentals of conducting interviews and writing travel, scientific, sports, critical, and humorous articles.

writing

Reading & Writing

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

A revised and updated edition of one of the most successful guides to writing ever published (one million copies sold).A Classic in its Field, On Writing Well is the Indispensable reference tool for anyone who writes, wants to learn to write, or needs to do some writing to get through the day -- as almost everybody does. Illustrated with examples of superb writing, the book covers a variety of subject areas, from travel, memoir, and science writing to business, sports, humor, and the arts. This expanded and updated edition features revised chapters, fresh examples of good writing, and two completely new chapters. One new chapter, "Enjoyment, Fear, and Confidence", urges writers to live interesting lives and to trust their general intelligence. The other, "The Tyranny of the Final Product", counsels writers not to try to visualize the complete article, but to focus on earlier decisions of selection, construction, and voice that will eventually let them know what their piece is about. Written by a master writer, editor, and teacher, On Writing Well is the writing book people swear by and love to recommend."On Writing Well belongs on any shelf of serious reference works for writers -- along with, say, Fowler's Modern English Usage and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style". -- New York Times

WILLIAM ZINSSER

Similar ideas

Writing

Note-taking tips

Read It Out Loud