Read the excerpt from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. Show
"I believe we should get the war over," I said. "It would not finish it if one side stopped fighting. It would only be worse if we stopped fighting." What does Hemingway's indirect characterization of the narrator reveal? Hemingway’s writing style is widely admired. But what makes it so good? Can business writers learn from Hemingway?The idea may seem crazy. Hemingway was a journalist and novelist. A storyteller. He’s one of the great writers of literature. In 1953, he won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Old Man and the Sea.” In 1954, he won the Nobel Prize for literature. Isn’t it pretentious for business writers to try learning from Hemingway? But Hemingway takes up a special place in writing. This Nobel Prize winner writes in such simple prose he can even entertain 10 year olds. And you and I both know, he doesn’t dumb down his texts. He shares profound wisdom using simple language. And that’s an amazing skill. Because simple writing helps engage a wider audience—young and old, educated and less educated, native and non-native speakers. Simple language makes your content more accessible. But how does Hemingway write so simply? And can we apply his style to business writing?
A statistical fact on readabilityA simple tool exists to measure how readable a text is. This tool is the Flesch-Kincaid score, and it’s available in Microsoft Word and various online tools. The readability score uses average sentence length and the number of syllables per word to work out how simple a text is. The shorter the sentences and words, the lower the readability score. A score of 7, for instance, means the writing is suitable to 7th graders—pupils of 12 to 13 years old. I checked the Flesch-Kincaid score for “The Old Man and the Sea” and it’s a mighty low score of 3.9. The readability score for “The Sun Also Rises” is 4.2 (as statistician Ben Blatt reports in his book “Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve”). Think about this … Ernest Hemingway was a Nobel Prize winning author, and his books are suitable for 4th graders—pupils of 9 or 10 years old. Why you shouldn’t shorten every sentenceShortening your sentences may seem like an easy trick You can use the free Hemingway App to spot your longest sentences, and simply chop them all in two. But that would be a mistake. Not every sentence should be short. Hemingway writes long sentences, too:
Too many short sentences kill the rhythm of your writing, making your writing tiring to read. So, mix short and long sentences, and read your text aloud to listen how the words flow:
Another statistical fact: Use fewer -ly wordsOne more statistical fact about Hemingway’s writing style … Statistician Ben Blatt analyzed all Hemingway’s novels, and found he uses only 80 -ly adverbs per 10,000 words. That’s fewer than almost any other writer. The only exception Blatt found is Toni Morrison. She uses 76 -ly adverbs per 10,000 words. Scrapping your -ly adverbs is another way to simplify your writing, and Blatt’s analysis shows that the writing greats tend to use fewer adverbs. However, it’s not a strict rule, and exceptions exist. Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis, for instance, uses an average of 142 -ly adverbs per 10,000 words. Still, Blatt concludes:
And:
Want to remove the adverbs from your writing? Upload your content to the Hemingway App, and it’ll tell you exactly which words are adverbs. Then, it’s up to you to decide: Keep it, change it, or delete it. Even Hemingway uses -ly adverbs, so you don’t have to delete them all:
Weigh up whether a word is necessary or not. Does the meaning of a sentence change when you scrap an adverb? How to write like Hemingway for businessBusiness writing tends to be full of buzzwords and gobbledygook. But some business texts are surprisingly simple. For instance, the Dropbox team writes, at times, with simple clarity. The examples below are from the tour of their new design:
And from their About page:
And Evernote writes straightforward user instructions:
And:
Writing with simplicity doesn’t mean dumbing down your words. Instead, you write clearly and precisely, so your content becomes easier to read and accessible to more people. The secret to Hemingway’s writing style
Writing like Hemingway is about more than using short sentences and scrapping adverbs. Hemingway makes each sentence about one tiny idea. Then he lets the next sentence build on that idea. His story unfolds in tiny, logical steps. For instance:
Communicating in simple language is a lifelong journeyWriting clearly is an exercise in thinking deeply. It’s about finding the essence of your idea and communicating it in simple words. This is not just a matter of writing style. It’s about learning. And sharing your wisdom. Which best describes Hemingway's style of writing?Among many great American writers, Hemingway is famous for his objective and terse prose style.
What effect does Hemingway's limited use of adjectives have quizlet?What effect does Hemingway's limited use of adjectives have? It slows down the narration by interrupting the action. It makes the few descriptive words he does use more vivid and forceful.
What does Hemingway indirect characterization of narrator reveal?What does Hemingway's indirect characterization of the narrator reveal? The narrator agrees with Passini, although he does not admit this. The narrator recognizes that war is cruel, unjust, and inescapable. The narrator has little patience for opposing reasoning.
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