Harvard Professor Explains The Rules of Writing — Steven Pinker

Here are the top 10 key takeaways from Harvard professor Steven Pinker's masterclass on writing clearly and beautifully in an age of academic jargon and AI-generated prose.

1. The curse of knowledge is the biggest writing flaw

The curse of knowledge represents the difficulty we all face in understanding what it's like not to know something we already know. This concept explains why brilliant people often write incomprehensibly. They cannot subtract knowledge from their brains to put themselves in their readers' shoes.

Pinker illustrates this with a molecular biologist at a TED conference who lost his audience within seconds. The scientist launched into jargon-filled explanations without introducing the problem or explaining its significance. Everyone in the room except the biologist could see that nobody understood a word.

This phenomenon manifests in abbreviations nobody recognizes, insider jargon, and abstract language that feels concrete to experts. Writers use phrases like "the level of the stimulus was proportional to the intensity of the reaction" when they mean "kids look longer at a bunny than a truck." The solution involves showing drafts to people outside your field and cultivating empathy for your readers' perspective.

2. Visual imagery makes abstract concepts concrete

Language serves as a means to convey ideas, not just strings of words. The most effective writing helps readers form mental images of the concepts being discussed. Abstract terms like "paradigm" or "framework" provide no visual anchor for understanding.

Writers should replace jargon with concrete examples whenever possible. Instead of discussing "stimuli," describe the actual bunny rabbit. Historical writers had an advantage because they wrote before centuries of academic abstraction accumulated. They had to use visual metaphors that everyone could understand.

The phrase "for example" becomes one of the most powerful tools in clear writing. Examples pin down generalizations and show readers exactly what abstract concepts mean in practice. This visual approach taps into how our brains naturally process information through sensory experience.

3. Examples and generalizations must work together

Generalizations without examples leave readers confused about what you actually mean. Most abstract words carry multiple meanings, and readers cannot know which specific concept you're referencing. Examples provide the necessary context to understand broad statements.

Conversely, examples without generalizations leave readers wondering about your point. A string of specific cases without explanation offers no framework for understanding their significance. The most effective writing creates a dance between concrete details and broader insights.

This principle reflects the constant tradeoff between context and compression in communication. Too much detail becomes overwhelming, while too much compression loses meaning. The skillful writer moves between specific examples and general principles to maintain both clarity and efficiency.

4. Writing is unnatural compared to speaking

Speaking develops naturally through social interaction with immediate feedback and shared context. Conversations happen between people who know why they're talking and can use contextual references like "this" and "that." Body language and real-time clarification help prevent misunderstandings.

Writing strips away this natural context. Readers pick up books with no shared background or immediate feedback mechanisms. Writers must provide all necessary detail on the page itself. The absence of visual cues and interactive clarification makes writing fundamentally more challenging.

This explains why children master speech effortlessly but struggle with writing for years. The artificial nature of written communication requires deliberate skill development that doesn't come naturally to humans.

5. Brevity improves both clarity and beauty

Shakespeare's "Brevity is the soul of wit" demonstrates its own principle through concise expression. The phrase uses "soul" instead of wordier alternatives, creating both meaning and aesthetic pleasure. This mirrors the fundamental rule "omit needless words" from Strunk and White's writing guide.

Forced compression often improves prose quality unexpectedly. When editors impose strict word limits, writers discover they can express ideas more powerfully with fewer words. Every unnecessary word requires additional cognitive processing from readers.

Constraints force writers toward concrete language and away from woolly abstractions. The discipline of working within limits creates better rhythm and forces more precise word choices. Both humor and good writing benefit from this principle of eliminating unnecessary elements.

6. Academic writing wastes brilliant minds

Academic institutions produce remarkable research but often bury insights in impenetrable prose. Taxpayer-funded discoveries remain trapped in jargon that serves no one outside tiny professional circles. This represents an enormous waste of intellectual resources and public investment.

Even within academic fields, poor writing creates confusion and inefficiency. Readers shouldn't need to parse the same paragraph five times to extract meaning. Clear expression prevents misunderstandings and saves everyone's time for more productive work.

The irony becomes particularly acute in linguistics, where language experts often write poorly despite studying what makes sentences difficult to understand. These scholars possess the very knowledge needed to improve their own communication but fail to apply their research to their writing.

7. Children's explanations reveal fresh thinking

Children create remarkably fresh explanations because they haven't accumulated decades of academic abstractions. Pinker's grandson's description of "smoke as fire vapor" parallels "clouds as water vapor" with poetic precision. This demonstrates genuine insight without relying on tired clichés.

Young minds must grasp for common images to explain new concepts, similar to writers from previous centuries. They haven't learned to retreat into jargon when facing communication challenges. Their explanations carry the originality that comes from approaching problems without predetermined frameworks.

Historical features like "Kids Say the Darndest Things" celebrated this natural creativity. Children's fresh perspectives remind adults of language's potential for original expression. Their inability to think inside conventional boxes produces genuinely innovative ways of describing the world.

8. Historical writing excelled through necessity

Past writers like Thomas Edison and Charles Darwin produced beautiful prose despite focusing on science and industry. They lacked modern abstractions and clichés, forcing them to find original ways to express new ideas. Limited communication channels made written expression their primary means of self-presentation.

These writers cultivated their prose skills because writing represented how others would judge them. Without telephones or electronic media, careful written expression became as important as physical appearance. They also drew from classical literature, providing models of excellent writing.

The process of informalization has changed cultural values toward spontaneity and authenticity over careful craftsmanship. Modern writers worry that polished prose might seem pompous or distancing. This cultural shift has moved us toward conversational styles rather than elevated expression.

9. Sound and rhythm matter in prose

Reading prose aloud reveals problems that silent reading might miss. If you cannot articulate sentences smoothly, readers likely cannot process them mentally either. Attention to euphony and metrical structure improves the reading experience even for silent readers.

Language contains natural rhythms that shouldn't be disrupted excessively. Too many sibilant sounds (s and ch sounds) create unpleasant effects. Strategic alliteration can make sentences flow more easily without becoming conspicuous or forced.

These sound-based considerations connect writing to its oral roots. Even though readers process text visually, the underlying rhythm and sound patterns affect comprehension and pleasure. Writers who ignore these elements miss opportunities to enhance their prose's effectiveness.

10. Large language models present new writing challenges

AI produces technically competent prose with sound sentence structure and logical organization. However, the output tends toward generic, prosaic expression that lacks originality or distinctive voice. This represents a different kind of writing problem than traditional academic jargon.

The training process on massive text corpora might naturally eliminate the worst stylistic problems while creating averaged, unremarkable prose. Like composite faces that appear more attractive than individual components, AI writing might achieve clarity through averaging multiple styles.

These developments would require Pinker to reconsider his earlier emphasis on rules and logic in favor of pattern extraction from large datasets. However, human learning differs fundamentally from AI training through situated interaction with the world and much smaller input requirements. The emergence of AI writing tools creates new questions about authenticity and originality in human expression.