One of the great acts of procrastination well known to anyone who has to write on a regular basis, is reading about writing. Right now I’m doing this with William Zissner’s ‘On Writing Well’. It’s divided into 4 parts, the first being ‘Principles’. To save you the trouble of reading all 60 pages I have condensed each chapter down to a single line. You’re welcome.

Simplicity: Don’t use big words when you can use small ones.
Clutter: Cut out anything you don’t need. Simplify.
Style: Keep it personal by writing from first person and cutting out the I’s afterwards. Be honest.
The Audience: Forget them. Write to please yourself.
Words: Avoid cliches. When in doubt, look it up. Consider the sound of words when spoken.
Usage: The laws of usage are relative. If a word or phrase fills a real need, go ahead and use it.

These are of course just principles not rules, and this is as much a reminder to myself as help to anyone else. If anyone has recommendations for other books on the construction of non-fiction prose, journalism or criticism go ahead and bother me on email or @thesjef. Cheers.