Most good writings are clear, vigorous, honest, alive, sensuous, appropriate, unsentimental, rhythmic, without pretension, fresh, metaphorical, evocative in sound, economical, authorative, surprising, memorable and light.

Good writings gain their powers in the following ways:

1. They do not waste words.

2. They speak in an authentic voice.

3. They put the reader there, make him believe.

4. They cause things to happen for him as they happened for the writer.

5. They create oppositions which pay off in surprise.

6. They build.

7. They ask something of the reader.

8. they reward the reader with meaning.