Words and Unity

Lessons from chapters 5–7 of On Writing Well

Chapter 5: The Audience

Never say anything in writing that you wouldn’t comfortably say in conversation. If you’re not a person who says “indeed” or “moreover,” or who calls someone an individual (“he’s a fine individual”), don’t write it.

Chapter 6: Words

Writing is learned by imitation. Read the men and women who do the kind of writing you want to do, and try to figure out how they do it.

Chapter 7: Unity

Unity is the anchor of good writing. Remain consistent.

Types of unity:

• Unity of pronouns: Choose to write in the first person, second person, or third person and stick with it.
• Unity of tense: Write in the past tense or present tense, don’t switch between the two while writing. This doesn’t mean you can’t use more than one tense. Just that you must choose the tense in which you are principally going to address the reader, no matter how many glances you may take backward or forward along the way.
• Unity of tone: You can talk to the reader in any tone you like, just keep it consistent. Examples of tones are casual and formal.

Questions to ask yourself before you begin writing:

• In what capacity am I going to address the reader?
  (Examples: reporter, provider of information, average man or woman)
• What pronoun and tense am I going to use?
• What style am I going to use?
  (Examples: impersonal reportorial, personal but formal, personal and casual)
• What attitude am I going to take toward the material?
  (Examples: involved, detached, judgmental, ironic, amused)
• How much do I want to cover?
• What one point do I want to make?

Note: much of the text in this post is either directly from On Writing Well or is paraphrased from it.

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