Mark Tredinnick - The Little Red Writing Book-University of New South Wales Press (2006)

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simple words, you probably haven’t thought it through. For wethink most clearly in short, old, concrete terms; we write mostclearly in short, old, concrete words. Never compromise thecomplexity of the concepts you need to relate; but find words forthem that are not themselves complex, abstract or recondite.When you make the complex simple, without stripping it of nuanceor precision, you write the only kind of prose worth reading.Take the trouble to make a difficult thing plain, and your readerwill feel more intelligent. They’ll thank you. They’ll recognise youas someone who knows their subject well enough to know how toput it simply.You will have contributed to the general store of wisdom.That’sworth a shot, isn’t it?Here’s an example of some smart writing about something fairlycomplicated, put in simple words:The interesting questions about plants are not what they are callednor where they are found, but how they make a living, why they areso different from each other, how they have come to look as theydo, and why they are found in one place rather than another. If wecould answer these questions, we would have a good grasp of thegross ecology of a region.—George Seddon, Sense of PlaceTRY THIS1 The short words are bestSee if you can rewrite this passage using only short, old words:The necessity for individuals to become separate entities in theirown right may impel children to engage in open rebelliousnessagainst parental authority, with resultant confusion of thosebeing rebelled against.44 The little red writing book
2 A lexicon of everyday wordsFind everyday words to use instead of these words and phrases:ensueinitiatehas the capabilitynotifyundertakeaccomplishcompletioninstigate an inquiryassistafford an opportunityascertainexpediteto effect a changeminimiseoptimiseprioritisepersonnelprecludeutilisein relation toliquidate your liabilitiesLore 45
Page 1 and 2: www.IELTS4U.blogfa.com
Page 3 and 4: THE LITTLE RED WRITING BOOKMARK TRE
Page 5 and 6: THELITTLEREDWRITINGBOOKMark Tredinn
Page 7 and 8: CONTENTSStepping out 7A prologue on
Page 9 and 10: STEPPING OUTA short walk ina southe
Page 11 and 12: For you’d want all these qualitie
Page 13 and 14: writing (mostly) in the active voic
Page 15 and 16: writers than I am—disciplines I f
Page 17: 3 ‘...words are the only tools yo
Page 20 and 21: that sing and swing and those that
Page 22 and 23: maximise its outputs and minimise f
Page 24 and 25: Writing is the best kind ofconversa
Page 26 and 27: This cannot engage anyone, not even
Page 28 and 29: … you sing?Maybe you can buy—or
Page 30 and 31: H2O (98) but was soon ‘one of the
Page 32 and 33: is how well it works for our reader
Page 34 and 35: I thought to shut the door to keep
Page 36 and 37: than done.You will panic. Everyone
Page 38 and 39: outline of the conclusions at which
Page 40 and 41: TRY THISFor the next letter or repo
Page 42 and 43: When it’s his turn, Andrew, a you
Page 44 and 45: ‘bureaucracy’, ‘infrastructur
Page 48 and 49: BachEllie grew up with Polish and E
Page 50 and 51: The politics of bad languageBack in
Page 52 and 53: 1 Never use a metaphor, simile or o
Page 54 and 55: the truth is I got them because I l
Page 56 and 57: works; but how it came to that, and
Page 58 and 59: For all these bits and pieces and t
Page 60 and 61: So we let grammar slip from the cur
Page 62 and 63: Moreover, each of these so-called r
Page 64 and 65: things, used to argue that since on
Page 66 and 67: • being. Not needed in ‘He was
Page 68 and 69: unnecessary, whatever the number. J
Page 70 and 71: shorter phrase like ‘economic ref
Page 72 and 73: Lincoln’, ‘General de Gaulle’
Page 74 and 75: syllables. It comes in at eighty-ni
Page 76 and 77: Thus, some anomalous empirical resu
Page 78 and 79: Work on the foreshore walk should c
Page 80 and 81: FledgeFleeceInfestHedgeHarvestUnhin
Page 82 and 83: are there mostly nominalisations li
Page 84 and 85: describe their craft.Where else do
Page 86 and 87: were interesting as long as you had
Page 88 and 89: A writer may use all, and a good wr
Page 90 and 91: The starting point might be to reco
Page 92 and 93: I told you last night that I might
Page 94 and 95: TRY THIS1 Write a run-on sentence s
Page 96 and 97:
refine that statement—about a pla
Page 98 and 99:
5 Parallel sentencesParallelism is
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For the same reasons the parallel s
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and subtlety of connection, especia
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In the morning I walked down the Bo
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I knew I was quite drunk, and when
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Strictly speaking failed sentences,
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TRY THIS1 Name the sentence styles
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elegantly, without drawing attentio
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in mind. That’s what I think you
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thing—the same disciplines of des
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be about me. I dread the moments wh
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It’s high timeIt doesn’t get an
Page 122 and 123:
Write everything from scratch. Don
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numbers are thin these days); they
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process of conceptual thinking. We
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Ask yourself, ‘What would this th
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Clever, abstract theoretical writin
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style—of courtesy and economy and
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Even if you’re not trying to be s
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4 Ignorance. It could be we don’t
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• Our hospital in Ashfield was re
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‘we should pursue three strategie
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Beware useless modifiers like ‘ac
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We stopped by the flume and talked
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you end up sounding stuffy. Bossy.
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Services, CASA for the Civil Aviati
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CHAPTER 4POETICSAll my writing is p
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instrument each of us has been give
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and earth.To find out about sex and
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Good writing is a falling short of
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politics.Write to protest, by all m
Page 160 and 161:
The YelpIn his introduction to the
Page 162 and 163:
TRY THIS1 Write about something you
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you need at least a subject.You nee
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turns on it, you don’t want to ru
Page 168 and 169:
Think of an essay or poem or story
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If you don’t have a big work, sti
Page 172 and 173:
On strangenessThere’s something s
Page 174 and 175:
Someone and somewhereWriting must s
Page 176 and 177:
Figurative languageYou don’t need
Page 178 and 179:
Don’t work your metaphors too har
Page 180 and 181:
4 ‘I don’t know what to say—y
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Rhythm, Robert Hass has said, is mo
Page 184 and 185:
or you can imagine them doing—get
Page 186 and 187:
‘Toward the end of her life’, w
Page 188 and 189:
author leaves by not telling it dir
Page 190 and 191:
Indirection is a sort of letting be
Page 192 and 193:
touched the Sten barrel and the han
Page 194 and 195:
Ford taxi coming out of the side st
Page 196 and 197:
First personIn this point of view,
Page 198 and 199:
The limited third person, Ursula Le
Page 200 and 201:
the kind of description, delivered
Page 202 and 203:
Observer-narrator, third personHere
Page 204 and 205:
‘Write with nouns and verbs’ is
Page 206 and 207:
CHAPTER 5ATTITUDEI don’t know if
Page 208 and 209:
in the specification document. Inte
Page 210 and 211:
the individual needs of every write
Page 212 and 213:
John Cheever says he writes for the
Page 214 and 215:
yourself among the employees, linin
Page 216 and 217:
and informality. And if one can str
Page 218 and 219:
where I think the tone is pretty go
Page 220 and 221:
CHAPTER 6SHAPELY THOUGHTSIf this bo
Page 222 and 223:
TRY THISDid you ever try to make a
Page 224 and 225:
5 The second hardest and most vital
Page 226 and 227:
When you write you organise ideas.
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When you’ve got to the end of suc
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Arrive beforeyou begin—finishthin
Page 232 and 233:
TRY THISImagine you have to make a
Page 234 and 235:
thesis is not a statement of whethe
Page 236 and 237:
or thesis sentence, which is often
Page 238 and 239:
I’ll have most to say here about
Page 240 and 241:
little red spot in the grey and gre
Page 242 and 243:
Ten ways to make a pointThere are t
Page 244 and 245:
generosity and an indifference to m
Page 246 and 247:
6 The cause of thingsThe strategy h
Page 248 and 249:
couple themselves, on all members o
Page 250 and 251:
Okay, I’m going to cheat now. I w
Page 252 and 253:
it, mind you, or that I can even to
Page 254 and 255:
The garden is still a site for expe
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TRY THIS1 Look back on the Heckler
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functional, writing. We have too mu
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O’Conner, Patricia 1996, Woe is I
Page 262 and 263:
where I sit now, two storeys above
Page 264 and 265:
Passage from Bad Land by Jonathan R
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Mark Tredinnick - The Little Red Writing Book-University of New South Wales Press (2006)

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