Dorothy Sayers’ The Mind of the Maker (1941) is a book about creativity and how it reflects God’s nature. She explains that the way people create things—like writing stories or making art—follows the same pattern as the Christian idea of the Trinity. Sayers was a writer, so she uses examples from books and plays to explain her…

The Adult ESL Speaker’s Vocabulary The vocabulary size of an adult English as a Second Language (ESL) speaker varies widely depending on factors such as their level of language proficiency, exposure to English, and the contexts in which they use the language. Understanding the different vocabularies ESL speakers develop—reading, speaking, listening, and writing—can help educators…

When writing for new English readers, using a controlled vocabulary is important. But there are times when we must use words that are outside of the vocabulary list we have chosen to use. Explaining those words is important to assure that our message is clear. One option is to mark those “exceptional” words and put…

Most instructions to new writers include a form of a sentence like this one. “When writing your first draft, turn off your inner editor.” That is good advice and generally true. The challenge to writers targeting new English readers is that many of the tools of English grammar and vocabulary are not in our toolbox….

For several years, we have written Clear and Simple Media books and articles using a basic set of rules. These guiding rules have helped us make what we write more clear and more simple. While this “style guide” has helped us, to the degree that we have accomplished it, make what we write accessible to…

I was completing my final year of the Master’s program in Linguistics. One of the loose-end courses was a summer session on writing. I was not terribly excited to sign up, but the course was required and this one could be completed in six weeks. Intense, but over-with-in-a-hurry. The professor was a writer himself, essayist,…

William Zinsser’s On Writing Well was first published nearly 50 years ago. I bought my first copy less than a decade after that. The book is a classic guide to writing non-fiction with clarity, simplicity, and style. Here are a few gleanings from the advice he offers: If you are interested in becoming a compelling…

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” (Published 1937) I remember…

C.S. Lewis was one of the most influential writers of the last century. His explanations and arguments for the Christian faith were clear and convincing. His fiction would become a model for good story-telling and thoughtful literature. There are a number of places where Lewis offers writing advice. Some of his most practical and insightful…

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White is a timeless guide to English writing style. In spite of its modest size, the book has had a significant influence in the writing world for over 100 years. It is one of the books I’ve used to keep my writing clear and simple….