Rudolf Flesch

vocabulary reading meet words

"You can't build a vocabulary without reading. You can't meet friends if you ... stay at home by yourself all the time. In the same way, you can't build up a vocabulary if you never meet any new words. And to meet them you must read. The more you read the better."

— Rudolf Flesch (1911-1986)

creativity thinking tradition

"Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there's no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done."

— Rudolf Flesch (1911-1986)

say stop brevity writing

"Say what you have to say, and then stop."

— Rudolf Flesch (1911-1986)

writer read error people

"A writer must know how people read, what are the main sources of reading errors, and what can be done to possibly forestall them."

— Rudolf Flesch (1911-1986)

writing active verb sentence modern English

"If you go through any newspaper or magazine and look for active, kicking verbs in the sentences, you will realize that this lack of well used verbs is the main trouble with modern English writing. Almost all nonfiction nowadays is written in a sort of pale, colorless sauce of passives and infinitives, motionless and flat as paper."

— Rudolf Flesch (1911-1986)

abstract idea common memory

"Abstract ideas are the patterns two or more memories have in common."

— Rudolf Flesch (1911-1986)