Advice from the Masters: Barbara Tuchman

Aug 22, 2012 | Better Writing

I think the book that set me on the way to writing business stories wasn’t a book about business. It was Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August. About halfway through that book I realized that the author was telling me stories and stitching them together with analysis to create a work of history. I think the best writing about business does the same thing.

Barbara Tuchman made her work easy to read. Here’s her advice to writers about one way to do that.

“An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one’s own prose.”

The best, cleanest, most transparent prose is written for the ear. That’s why I join many other writers and suggest that you read your writing aloud.

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