1.

What Makes
For A Good
Writing Style?
WRITING FOR 2. Why Write
HUMANS Well?
3. Four Tips For
Writing Well
What Makes for a
Good Writing Style?

1. Clarity
2. Conciseness
3. Holds Attention
Clarity

The fundamental goal of all writing.

“One ought to take care to write merely so that the reader can understand but so that he cannot possibly misunderstand”

If a conscientious reader thinks a passage, then it is unclear and must be rewritten.

Conciseness
Writing that is not concise
makes unnecessary
demands on the time,
attention and brain power
of the reader.

Get quickly to your main

point, if you have one.

Avoid padding your

writing with unnecessary
introductions, details, and
repetitions.
Why Learn To Write
Well?

Because it is a skill that

you will use a lot.

Good writing will

multiply your credibility
and influence.

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SOME WRITING TIPS

i. Economize On
Words
ii. Avoid Elegant
Variation
iii. Pick A Target
Audience And Stick
To It
iv. Good Writing Is Re-
writing

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1. ECONOMIZE ON WORDS

Express an idea or thought in the

fewest words possible.
Examine every word and phrase and
ask if it is necessary.
Eliminate all whose absence does not
affect the meaning or nuance.
Replace phrases and change the
sentence structure to ones that uses
fewer words.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
I. ECONOMIZE ON
WORDS

Maximize this ratio:

𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑑
𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑
1. ECONOMIZE ON WORDS

Sentence Economical?
He is a person who acts in a hasty manner.
He acts hastily.
The decision as to whether his research question
is an original one or not should be made by a
committee consisting of experts in the field.

The originality of his research question should be

ascertained by an expert committee.
1. ECONOMIZE ON WORDS

Replace … with …
at the present point of time now
in the totality of the situation overall
a personal friend of mine my friend
with the possible exception of except
lived experience experience
1. ECONOMIZE ON
WORDS

What are the benefits

of economizing on
words?

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1. ECONOMIZE ON
WORDS

Why do you think writers

tend to be wordy?
1. ECONOMIZE ON WORDS

“Vigorous writing is concise. A

sentence should contain no
unnecessary words, a paragraph no
unnecessary sentences, for the same
reasons that a drawing should have
no unnecessary lines and a machine
no unnecessary parts.”
-William Strunk, Elements of Style

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1. ECONOMIZE ON WORDS
Exercise: Rewrite the following while
economizing on words.
In a democratic framework the acting
capacity and power of the governing
agents is constrained by the need to re-
legitimize the mandate to govern through
the regular exercise of the electoral
franchise by the governed.
In a democracy the power of government is kept in
check through electoral mandates.
In a democracy the government’s power needs to
be legitimized through regular elections.
In a democracy the power of government is
constrained by its need to sustain legitimacy
through periodic elections elections.
A democratic government needs to re-legitimize its
power through the regular elections.
II. AVOID ELEGANT
VARIATION

“Elegant variation” means using

different terms to refer to the same
thing in order to sound elegant
and avoid the monotony of
repeating terms.

For example,
“process” “initiative” “job”
“task” “method”
“citizen” “voter” “community
member”
“consumers” “households”
“economic decision makers”
II. AVOID ELEGANT
VARIATION

Another example is
contained in the
accompanying word
document.
III. PICK A TARGET AUDIENCE AND
STICK TO IT
Before writing, you should decide what kind
of people you are writing for.
For example: college-educated working
professionals, PhD sociologists, college
students in second year of history course?

Why pick a target audience?

It affects your choice of the background
information you will provide and the terms
whose meaning you will explain.
III. PICK A TARGET AUDIENCE AND
STICK TO IT
What happens if you don’t pick or stick
to a target audience?
There will be no group for which you
would have provided the exactly the right
amount of background information and
explanation.
You will end up either overexplaining or
underexplaining for most people and
pleasing no one.
III. PICK A TARGET AUDIENCE AND
STICK TO IT

Example of failing to stick to a target

audience
If the central bank engages in quantitative
easing, then of course the real exchange
rate with depreciate and it will worsen the
current account deficit. But it may
increase the GDP—Gross Domestic
Product—our measure of the economic
output of the country.
III. PICK A TARGET AUDIENCE AND
STICK TO IT

One manifestation of the failure to write

with a target audience in mind is the
excessive and redundant introduction to a
topic.

Example on next slide 

III. PICK A TARGET AUDIENCE AND
STICK TO IT
Improving Education For The Poor Using
Low-cost Private Schools
Education is important for development.
Without proper education, no country can
reach the status of a developed country. India
is a developing country that has a great need
for education. Ever since independence, the
leaders of the country have tried to improve
the education levels of the country. In the
1950s during the Nehruvian era, education
was given a lot of importance. In the 1960s ..
III. PICK A TARGET AUDIENCE AND STICK
TO IT
Can for-profit schooling improve education
for the Indian poor?
Most people think that education for the
poor can only be delivered by the
government or by charities. But what if I
told you that evidence was piling up that the
for-profit sector can deliver better education
and at a lower cost? I present such
evidence in this essay and argue that the
time has come to unleash India’s for-profit
schooling sector.
IV. GOOD WRITING IS REWRITING
 Good prose does not pour from one’s
mind the first time one sits down to
write.
 It is achieving through constant
polishing through rewriting.
 The first draft is is to merely get our
vague thoughts on paper.
 It is through successive rounds of draft.
 Do no shy from rewriting!