To acquire style, begin by affecting none.

...when a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.

To acquire style, begin by affecting none.

Instead of announcing what you are about to tell is interesting, make it so.

Vigorous writing is concise.

The surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definitive, and concrete. The greatest writers - Homer, Dante, Shakespeare - are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.

Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating.