Quote of the Day (John Steele Gordon, on ‘The First Rule of Effective Nonfiction Writing’)

“The first rule of effective nonfiction writing: Never let the reader be distracted from what you are saying by how you say it. If you’re making an important point and the reader suddenly stops and says to himself, ‘That’s a funny way to spell that word,’ you’ve lost him.”—Business and finance historian John Steele Gordon, “Writers Make Their Choices” (letter to the editor), The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 8, 2023