‘Write like you talk’
This never really rung true with me. Not really. But this is a much better explanation: “To my writing classes I used later to open by saying that anybody who could talk could also write. Having cheered them up with this easy-to-grasp ladder, I then replaced it with a huge and loathsome snake: “How many people in this class, would you say, can talk? I mean really talk?” That had its duly woeful effect.” From Unspoken Truths, an article by Christopher Hitchens - which explains it in full - if tragic terms.
