I think writing should be a joy and a service. There is so much lack of clarity and concision in all kinds of printed material that when we find text anywhere that is crystal clear, unambiguous, and helpful, it’s a treat. The web hasn’t helped. Most of us rush through what we publish so fast that we don’t know we don’t say what we think we mean.
Good poets erase and erase what the poem doesn’t want to say as much as they speak what it does. I’ve written much poetry and published some, and it is great training in unmuddling yourself. I have also written a great deal of technical material over many years and learned to insist to myself that it’s clear; but this is always partially rendered. One of the amazements of my life is to see how we all interpret things differently.
In poems, this is fine, and one of the goals. In exposition and everything else, it can be disaster.
I think writing is a craft, but I am glad to see that increasingly it can be a science. New information handling techniques put accuracy in the hands of craftspeople. If we want it.
Nevertheless, I’ll leave you with a conundrum. If these new tools can help us make writing text clearer, less ambiguous, and hence more helpful, why are programmers not the best writers? I think I know, but we’ll have to talk.
Bill Sterling
Writing Tutor for You 