Overview
This lecture explores Steven Pinker's practical writing advice, focusing on clarity, overcoming the "curse of knowledge," the importance of examples, and the evolution of writing style in the age of AI.
Causes of Bad Writing
- The main cause of bad writing is the "curse of knowledge"—the difficulty in imagining what readers don't know.
- Writers often use jargon, acronyms, and abstractions familiar only to a small group.
- Poor writing is usually due to incompetence, not deliberate obfuscation.
- Academics can become insular, making their writing unintelligible to outsiders.
Strategies for Clear Writing
- Actively seek feedback from non-experts or people outside your field.
- Aim to write for intellectually curious readers, not just peers.
- Use concrete language and visual imagery to help readers form mental pictures.
- Support generalizations with specific examples and vice versa.
Language, Cognition, and Imagery
- Writing should help readers visualize ideas, not just process abstract words.
- Visual metaphors and concrete examples make writing vivid and understandable.
- Overuse of abstractions reduces clarity and reader engagement.
The Nature of Writing vs. Speaking
- Speaking comes naturally due to shared context and real-time feedback.
- Writing removes context and feedback, making clarity more challenging.
- Writers must compensate for the lack of personal connection and context.
Humor, Style, and Aesthetics
- Brevity is critical for both wit and good writing ("omit needless words").
- Reading prose aloud can reveal awkwardness, rhythm issues, or lack of clarity.
- Alliteration, rhythm, and sound contribute to pleasurable, memorable writing.
- Humor in writing depends on freshness, brevity, and originality.
Evolution of Writing Style
- Historic prose relied more on visual metaphors and freshness due to less abstraction.
- Modern writing is more informal and conversational, partly due to cultural changes.
- Over time, language and style have shifted towards accessibility and away from formality.
AI and Writing
- Large Language Models (LLMs) produce clear but generic and unoriginal prose.
- AI writing is orderly and jargon-free, often supervised by human editors.
- LLMs excel at blending input into a "generic" style, prioritizing clarity over beauty or originality.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Curse of Knowledge — The inability to imagine what it’s like for someone else not to know what you know.
- Jargon — Specialized language used by a particular group, often confusing to outsiders.
- Visual Metaphor — A figure of speech that describes an idea through imagery familiar to the reader.
- Abstraction — The use of general ideas or terms instead of specific, concrete examples.
- Large Language Model (LLM) — AI systems trained on vast text data to generate human-like language.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Revise your writing for clarity by sharing drafts with non-expert readers.
- Practice using concrete imagery and examples in your writing.
- Read your writing aloud to check for rhythm and ease of understanding.