August 04 2023 at 01:48AM
The review: CLEAR AND SIMPLE AS THE TRUTH
CLEAR AND SIMPLE AS THE TRUTH
By Alejandro Fernández (Linkedin)
Writing Classic Prose
Francis-Noël Thomas
Mark Turner
"My style will not be at all florid; my expressions will be simple as the truth" This sentence donates the title to the book of this month, a style manual to write classic prose that will help you in your: emails, memos, minutes of meetings, reports of status, etc.
Project Managers communicate. Often, we use writing to convey the message. However, it is not unusual that after reading an email twice or three times, you make a call to request clarification… ambiguity and poor style difficult the communication.
Writing is an intellectual activity, not a set of skills. Writing proceeds from thinking, and our style exists in every piece that we write. The style is not superposed to the text, it stays in its essence; it derives from the choices we make when we write.
These are the starting points of the book. Once the frame is set up, the authors use the book's first half to describe the classic style's fundaments. Widely used by French writers in C. XVI, the intention of this style is to present the truth with the most straightforward possible language.
The truth can be known by an intelligent reader, who has the same knowledge as the writer, but she is able to verify the data presented in a conversational cast with clear language which does not distract her.
The second part of the book called the museum, is a collection of exemplary texts written in classic style and reviewed upon the style's fundaments described in part one.
Classic style is particularly suitable for business writing. It strives for simplicity and clarity, making the writer's truth accessible to the reader.
Thomas and Turner insist throughout the book that good writing is not about applying a bundle of learned rules. Writing comes from the thinking pattern and the decisions that you make. In that sense, reading this book will not convert you into an excellent writer, but if you apply the fundamentals of the classic style, the message in your next email will become crystal clear.
Please enjoy it!
CLEAR AND SIMPLE AS THE TRUTH
ISBN-13 978-0691602998, 234 pgs
Francis-Noël Thomas was an American linguist. He has published several books and articles in this field and served as a research fellow at the National Endowment for Humanities.
Mark Turner is a cognitive scientist and linguist. He teaches cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University. He has received several awards in these fields, including the Prix du Rayonnement de la langue et de la littérature françaises for this book.
