Ways of Nice Writing

  I am reading articles of Prof. WuChang.Zhang recently. Maybe you have not heard of him before, for he is teaching in Hong Kong University, dean of economics and finance school, and he is also famous founder of new theory of property economics. Why I write this article, you may want to know. The answer is very obvious, for I find his articles very useful and helpful for people like me, so I introduce some of the articles to you, just like share a bottle of beer with a friend. In fact, share beer with a friend is for nothing but happiness from friendship, but for my writing this article, I have other intention. It is, firstly practicing my English, secondly promoting my ability of logical thinking, finally for nothing but beer friendship. Note that, I do not translate his articles word to word, but only some important thoughts and words, so if you want to get original words of Prof. Watching. Zhang, you may read his articles directly. Here is an article about how to write articles, and its original title is < Ways of Nice Writing >. 

Ways of Nice Writing

Different languages in the world, but same ways of nice writing. I also agree that, if someone, who understands two languages, is good at one language, it is not possible that he is very bad in another language. In fact, my articles are not quite good, but fortunately, they’re clear and plain. I was not born talented, almost before the time I was 30, I used to write over complicated and over flowery articles, so it was not easy for others to understand me. But one day, almost before the time I was 30, my teacher, Armed Alchian called me to his office, and he told me formally that heand other teachers were confident in my potential ability, but my articles were too difficult to understand, and the most important thing is to write clearly and plainly, or else it is difficult to make a success.

After the interview, I thought myself that, my teacher seldom arranged such kind of interview with his students, and he only told me such a thing, so it was obviously of great importance. For I studied and started to use English when I was already over20, of course it is not possible for me to become a great writer, but if I tried my best, I may write clearly and plainly enough. There are many ways to write well, but you have to get rid of your bad writing habit. Apparent bad habit is as following.

1) Over complicated and over flowery. But to write well, you have to express yourself directly and frankly. This is very difficult for all, by now, I write over complicated words sometime.

2) Rare and uncommon words. That is, if there are several words able to express a same meaning, I prefer to choose the rare and uncommon one, just as to tell people I am talented and know much or have read many books. From the time I decide to write clearly and plainly, I always choose the common and ordinary one.

3) Long sentences. Many people always think using long sentences may show their talent, but it is quite mistaken. To write clearly and plainly, you have to use short sentences, as well as short paragraphs, which make your articles easy to understand.

4) Pay much attention on grammar. I do not mean grammar is not important for an article. You have to pay much of your attention on the content and the focus, and grammar should be put in the latter edit. If you emphasize grammar too much at the start, the content and the most important focus may be influenced.

5) Sacrifice clearness for nicety of words. Sometime, you think that readers may understand your articles, so you try to make the articles nice in words, but ignore clearness, in fact readers cannot easily understand your meaning. Reading is not Chinese chess; readers can not pay much time to know your real meaning, so you have to write clearly and plainly enough. I often sacrifice word nicety for clearness, and I think it worth doing. Of course, there are many other ways of nice writing. Anyway, Think that you ought to know clearly who your reader is, and you need not make yourself like a know-anything teacher, on the other hand, you ought to make your reader as a friend, and you are faired frank to deal an issue together. Writing an article is like talking with a friend, so being clear, frank and plain is okay.