How to Write with Style

Vonnegut's seven rules for writing with style — find a subject you care about, do not ramble though, keep it simple, have the guts to cut, sound like yourself, say what you mean to say, pity the readers. The essay is two pages, written with the same voice as his fiction, and it is difficult to read it without feeling that most of contemporary business prose violates all seven. For product direction it is the tightest available argument that clarity is a moral obligation, not an aesthetic preference. Pair with Strunk for the stylistic foundations and Zinsser for the longer form. Read it, then reread it whenever you catch yourself writing like a consultant.