Advice from the Masters: Steven Pinker

Nov 15, 2016 | Better Writing

Richard Feynman is one of my intellectual heroes because he could make difficult concepts understandable to those of us who aren’t physicists. Steven Pinker is another one of those scientists who can make the details of his subject clear and interesting. Look no further than his book How the Mind Works for examples.

So, I was excited when I found an online article titled “How to Be a Better Writer: 6 Tips From Harvard’s Steven Pinker.” It’s worth reading in full, but here’s my pick of the advice that’s there.

“the order in which ideas occur to a writer is seldom the same as the order that are best digested by a reader. And often, good writing requires a revising and rearranging the order of what you introduce so that the reader can easily follow it.”

Want more? Check out the complete list of Advice from the Masters posts

If you want even more writing advice from writers, check out Jon Winokur’s blog, “AdvicetoWriters.”