3 Virtues of Writing Done by Greek Stoics
The studies were written by Diogenes Laertios and he distinguished three virtues of speech and writing. These are:
1. Correct grammar and good vocabulary
When writing, it is important to use correct grammar to ensure that the writing is clear and easy to understand.
Here are some examples of correct grammar:
Good example:
“John and I went to the store to buy some apples.”Bad example:
“Me and John went to the store to buy some apples.”
As you can see both of these examples you can fully understand and mean the exact same thing.
However in times of Marcus Aurelius ,publicity of Greece could take this as a sign of disrespect to them.
2. Clarity of expression helps the understanding of ideas
When it comes to communicating ideas, clarity is key.
If your writing is unclear, your readers may not understand your ideas and your message will be lost.
Here are some examples :
Good example:
“Improving food security and reducing environmental degradation can be achieved by directing our attention towards sustainable agriculture”Bad example:
“By focusing on the implementation of environmentally sustainable farming practices, we can take steps to improve global food security while reducing the negative impact of agricultural practices on the environment.”
Both of these examples talk about the exact same thing.
However in the second example the text is too complex, which makes it difficult to follow this.
3. Conciseness
It means, not using more words than necessary.
This is not so different from clarity, but conciseness is more responsive on how long the text is going to be.
Here are some examples:
Good example:
“The cat sat on the mat.”Bad example:
“The feline creature, with its soft fur and graceful movements, chose to sit down in a relaxed manner on the rectangular-shaped floor covering known as a mat”
I hope I don’t need to tell you the difference and explain how much of useless words were given in the second example.
To be honest, it would be hard for me to tell what the second example is about, if I wouldn’t have wrote it.
All of these virtues were done in the past.
Let me tell you, go to the any good Medium creator, that writes for life and you’ll find every single one of these ancient virtues.
