How to Write Usefully
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What should an essay be? Many people would say persuasive. That's what a lot of us were taught essays should be. But I think we can aim for something more ambitious: that an essay should be useful.
To start with, that means it should be correct. But it's not enough merely to be correct. It's easy to make a statement correct by making it vague. That's a common flaw in academic writing, for example. If you know nothing at all about an issue, you can't go wrong by saying that the issue is a complex one, that there are many factors to be considered, that it's a mistake to take too simplistic a view of it, and so on.
Though no doubt correct, such statements tell the reader nothing. Useful writing makes claims that are as strong as they can be made without becoming false.
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About this essay
Analysis of what makes writing good and useful, focusing on importance, novelty, correctness, and strength of writing.
“How to Write Usefully” was written by Paul Graham. Read the original at paulgraham.com. Copywork shows the text so you can practice by retyping it word for word; all rights stay with the author.