Q: Why are we still teaching high school students to write unwieldy paragraphs with topic sentences and conclusions?Ī: It's always tempting to have a formula with which we should teach complicated subject matter. … That word order has to do two things at once: convey who did what to whom, and convey ideas in a systematic order. Foremost is understanding what a sentence is doing: It is taking a convoluted web of ideas and transferring it into a linear string of words. Q: Can understanding the structure of the brain make you a better writer?Ī: I don't think it's the structure of the brain (so much) as it is the function of the mind. Q: Isn’t it impossible to learn how to write well by following a writing guide?Ī: I hope it's not completely impossible, or I would have wasted a lot of time writing this one. He recently answered a few questions about writing guides: Unlike other purse-lipped style guides that demand rote allegiance to a Puritan code (Never use the passive voice! Never end a sentence with a preposition!), Pinker’s book stresses clarity, understanding and, above all, style. In general, writes Pinker, it’s “the curse of knowledge”: an inability to imagine a reader not knowing what the writer knows. Is it because they have nothing to say? Are they trying to dress up their thoughts to look fancy? Not necessarily.
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