Tag: writing

Thumb rule for using hyperlinks

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

In an excellent article Robert Cottrell makes a smart point about online writing:

It helps, too, that when you’re writing online, there’s no need to introduce and source every person, place and fact you mention, and no need to fill in the backstory for those new to the subject. You can link out to the source document or the related story – or just assume your reader knows how to use Google and Wikipedia.

It is very annoying to read articles that have too many hyperlinks. I think a thumb rule for hyperlinks should be: use no more than 1 hyperlink per 200 words.

PS: In case you can’t read the linked FT article, try this.

Nothing beats a good analogy

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

One of the characteristics of a great writer and thinker is the ability to bring a beautiful analogy to explain a complex idea. Here is Ludwig Wittgenstein on how language is an organic entity:

He talks about being in a city and starting in a square and moving into different districts and coming to know some of them and reencountering them from different directions. And realising that the city doesn’t have buildings of all the same period of time but that it’s been laid upon again and again with new architectural styles and finding one’s way into these different periods of time and space is one way which we see the organic growth and outgrowth of language.

Who’s your audience?

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

A writer writes for an audience. What comprises that audience is, or should be, one of the most important questions.

Are you writing for a man standing in the subway in the middle of a 15-minute journey back home after a long day at work?

Are you writing for an old lady that sits and knits at home on most days?

Are you writing for an internet-savvy person who spends 12-hours of his waking hours in front of a screen (just like you do)?

Are you writing for a professional who turns to your publication to keep abreast with the latest in his field of work?

Science writers have a tendency to say write it as you would if your grandma reads it. And yet, is she the kind of audience you are aiming to write for?