The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning thatโs already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing whatโthese are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to the education and rank.
William ZinsserAll your clear and pleasing sentences will fall apart if you don't keep remembering that writing is linear and sequential, that logic is the glue that holds it together, that tension must be maintained from one sentence to the next and from one paragraph to the next and from one section to the next, and that narrative - good old-fashioned storytelling - is what should pull your readers along without their noticing the tug.
William Zinsser