Rudolf Flesch's Rules: 25 Tips for Powerful Writing

The Book: How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively ^ | 1/24/2017 | Rudolph Flesch

[Dan Baker]

As a FReeper, you're no doubt someone who strives to communicate with a certain degree of flair and influence.

In fact, one of the excellent things I find about Free Republic is it's a great on-line sandbox for sharpening your writing style and matching wits with other FReepers.

Now, as an independent analyst in the telecom industry, I write a lot, so I've always admired the writing style in well-edited journals, such as Fortune, Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.

So the question becomes: how can I best learn and adopt the clear and interesting writing techniques of the best commentators and journalists out there?

Well, a few years ago I ran across an invaluable series of books written by a guy named Rudolf Flesch, and reading his works has given me much solid professional advice over the years.

Rudolf Franz Flesch (1911 — 1986) was an Austrian-born naturalized American author, and also a readability expert and writing consultant who was a vigorous proponent of plain English.

Flesch consulted with magazine publishers and authored many books for the layman on how to write & communicate.  The practical writing principles (and rules) he taught are the same ones employed by large and successful media publishers from the 1950s to today. Toward the end of his career, Flesch compiled and synthesized his knowledge in: How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively.  This book is a extremely dense with advice, but is also a highly readable collection of his life's teaching. It believe it's the finest book of advice in non-fiction writing you'll find anywhere. The book is out of print, but you can find used copies of the book on Amazon.

Now to help embed Flesch's writing rules in my own head, I compiled and condensed many of Flesch's key writing tips into the 25 rules and visuals below.  I added slightly to Flesch's points, figuring he'd want to update a few things given that our visual and hyperlink options have exploded in the internet age.

Hope you find the list useful.  I'm look for some advice on ways to distribute this knowledge to a wider audience.  Here are some questions I have:

• What format(s) would be most useful to you?  I'm trying to design a quick reference card -- something like that.
• How should I best distribute this content, say, to kids in high school?  How would you teach it?
• If I created some software that analyzed a text according to these rules, how valuable would that be?  What would you expect people to pay for that?

Thanks, Dan Baker — dbaker_ at _technology-research.com

1. Abbreviate where you can.
2. Active voice is better than passive.
3. Articles, conjunctions & prepositions (reduce).
4. Commas (reduce them).
5. Contractions are good.
6. Cut needless words.
7. Dialogue often.
8. Factor expressions
9. First person singular (use).
10. Help the reader read.
11. Numbers in the text.
12. Parentheses (use them).
13. Personal sentences & words.
14. Punctuate to reduce words.
15. Pronouns (use to shorten names)
16. Question marks add interest.
17. Readers (remember them).
18. References & links in the text.
19. Shorten sentences & paragraphs
20. Simple words are preferred.
21. Specify things to boost interest.
22. Symbols in the text.
23. Underline for emphasis.
24. Verbs (choose them over nouns).
25. Visuals ( use to create interest).

 

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[Dan Baker]

Thanks for your comments.

I think you’re correct about exclamation points. This is old advice. For the web especially, sprinkling some exclamation points around — if not done too much — is effective.

On the use of feminine pronouns, I do this occasionally and no one has complained. I would be curious to hear what others think about that.

I actually prefer to alternate “he” or “she” as opposed to using “they” when it’s a single person.

Cheers.

[V K Lee]

This comes back to bite frequently. When reading AA, would this mean Alcoholics Anonymous or Affirmative Action? One's writing skill is learned at an early age and learned according to the instructor's rules. Example: A teacher taught junior high English. She required the use of complete words - NOT contractions. She refused to use them, even in speaking.

[Dan Baker]

Thanks. Yes, removing the thats is something i learned in the book too.

I think people will be surprised at the varied and well-written content in this book. It's not a boring course in writing at all.

Each chapter of the book stands on its own. And you learn about writing from many angles and in many situations.

[Auntie Mame]

I read this book twice many many years ago and may even have a copy somewhere around here. Finding it is a different matter. I remember particularly he said about the Chinese language. Do you remember what that was about?

[Dan Baker]

Hi Mame,

Yes, I do remember the chapter on Chinese.

The point of that chapter is show how Chinese is stripped to the bone — no articles, no unnecessary words and (as I recall) no verbs/nouns, no verb forms, no weird idioms.

So an English sentence like:
A man will biting the dog.

In Chinese that would be:
Man bite dog tomorrow.

Now I remember point this chapter out to my daughter who learned Mandarin in college and she said it’s more or less true.

But I wouldn’t wish the Chinese language on anybody because of the tonal fluctuations you need to speak it. My daughter learned it and it was fun to listen to here speak it.