Martin Fowler

Here’s one of the best tips I know for writers, which was told to me by Bruce Eckel.

One you’ve got a reasonable draft, read it out loud. By doing this you’ll find bits that don’t sound right, and need to fix. Interestingly, you don’t actually have to vocalize (thus making a noise) but your lips have to move.

This advice is for those who, like me, strive to get a conversational tone to their writings. A lot of people are taught to write in a different way than they speak, but I find prose much more engaging with this conversational tone. I imagine I’m sitting in pub, explaining the concepts to my companions. I’ve heard people say that when reading my work, they can hear me speaking it – which is exactly the effect I’m after.

Too often I read prose that feels flabby. Two kinds of flab

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