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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[Bethaneidh]

In the case of many of these prescriptions, my answer is
“Never, never, unless it’s pertinent”.

Useful advice I’ve heard and followed is simpler: Describe rather than tell, such as, “I couldn’t see the houses unless lightning struck near them, and I was in continual danger of getting wetter than was prudent.” rather than, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Usually.

Then I’ve also been told to say one and only one thing at a time. A second message cuts reader acceptance in half, so if you’ve additional messages, keep them subtle or save them for another time.

Oh, and of course pay attention in Comp class.

‘.

[Kommodor]

That’s all well and good, but what if I want to write like Jack Vance?

[Lonely Bull]

Two quick replies:

1. Underlining online often looks like hyperlinking, I follow others’ advice to avoid underlining online when italics are available.

2. Many people online like to abbreviate to the point of obscurity.

On another forum, I recently found an acronym that maybe a specialized community understands but isn’t clear to the general population. The context was unclear, and the two-letter acronym is used for different things online. I had a guess; if it’s correct, these words weren’t long, hard to spell, or otherwise hard to type. The writer could’ve been friendlier to the readers by writing out the words.

[Apogee]

That’s a keeper.
Thank you.

[Billthedrill]

“Never, never, unless it’s pertinent”.

Absolutely. This is art, and you can't play unless you understand the rules, and you can't win unless you disobey them. But if you disobey them poorly, you lose.

"It was a dark and stormy night" was a perfectly workmanlike opening, IMHO. Bulwer-Lytton's problem was that he didn't put a period after it.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Ping

[Yardstick]

Trump’s an exclamation point guy. He uses a lot of them in his tweets, which I find kind of endearing.

[Gideon7]

[Yardstick]

Jay Nordlinger would disagree about the use of parenthetical asides. He uses them more than any other writer I can think of, to the point where he’ll have a half dozen or more in a shortish post at NRO, but somehow it really works for his style.

[cynwoody]

I know these are standard “rules” for “effective” writing, sometimes the passive voice is best employed.

Mistakes were made ... but you are not focus on the subject, the mistaker.

[cynwoody]

7. If you can’t say something nice... Say something mean.

Attributed to Alice Roosevelt Longworth (Teddy's daughter) is the quote, "If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me."

[Nifster]

Now that’s just plain funny

[Faith65]

bkmk

[firebrand]

The unique selling proposition. When advertising developed this concept, they struck gold.

Someone else said—someone in the garment business—you can only put one new idea in a dress at a time.

Same concept, different industry.

[firebrand]

Old joke:

What’s the rule of silence in a Unitarian monastery?

No talking, unless it’s really, really important.

[firebrand]

They are definitely useful and have their place.

I imagine on Twitter they come in very handy.

Because 140 characters.

[Moltke]

BMFL

[BushCountry]

Ping for later.

[wally_bert]

Bookmarked as well.

[Excellence]

You put a lot of effort into this. Thanks.
Lots of good stuff here.