DON’T TIE YOURSELF IN NOTS

Don't tie yourself—or your prose—in "nots."

     E.B. White’s magnificent little book The Elements of Style has many pieces of advice that instantly improved my writing when I was young. One of his best suggestions is only five words long: “Put statements in positive form.”

     As usual, a few examples will make the principle clear:

Negative form: “He does not usually arrive on time.”

Positive form: “He often arrives late.”

Negative form: “Don’t forget to put statements in positive form.”

Positive form: “Remember to put statements in positive form.”

(Or, more assertively, “Put statements in positive form.”)

Negative form: “It’s not unlikely that the clown will frighten the kids.”

Positive form: “The clown may frighten the kids.”

Negative form: “I don’t think the ring will meet her expectations.”

Positive form: “I think the ring will disappoint her.”

     You’ll notice that all the negative-form examples contain the word “not.” The positive forms, without the word “not,” are better: more concise, quicker to be understood.

     There’s nothing wrong with the word “not,” however. As White himself points out, it is especially effective in a phrase that is followed by a contrasting positive phrase:

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

“I am not your friend; I am your mother.”

“That’s not a Rolex; it’s a knockoff.”

      And often you need to use “not” to warn someone away from an action or to defend someone against an accusation:

“Don’t hit me!”

“Don’t bite your nails.”

“I am not a crook.”

“We are not crazy yet.”

You may have noticed that even the title of this blog post uses “not.”

      But , as often as not, a “not” can be avoided, as in the earlier examples. (Is “usually” better than “as often as not”? Maybe. Maybe not.) Do not be afraid of “not,” but when you use it, ask if the idea can be better expressed in positive form.

"Yes, we have no bananas"—a clever way to turn a negative into a positive.

      “Never,” “nothing,” “no,” and “no one” are other negatives you should question, as here:

Negative form: “She never failed to kiss him when he made her breakfast.”

Positive form: “She always kissed him when he made her breakfast.”

Negative form: “There’s nothing wrong with the word ‘not.’” (Oops! I just wrote that sentence up above.)

Positive form: “The word ‘not’ is perfectly all right.”

Negative form: “I have no bananas left.”

Positive form: “I’ve sold out of bananas.”

Negative form: “No one missed the opening pitch of the game.”

Positive form: “Everyone saw the opening pitch of the game.”    

     When you see an “un,” “in,” or “dis” word—which is often a negative in disguise—also ask yourself if the statement can better be put in positive form:

Negative form: “He was rarely unsuccessful at the foul line.”

Positive form: “He usually succeeded at the foul line.”

Negative form: “The doctor was not usually incompetent.”

Positive form: “The doctor was usually competent.”

Negative form: “I was not dishonest in my dealings with you.”

Positive form: “I treated you honestly.”

      Sharp readers will have noticed that in many cases, we are merely turning disguised double negatives into positives: “rarely,” “incompetent,” and “dishonest” imply negation; when preceded by a “not” or other negative word, they create a de facto double negative. That’s why it’s easy to turn most of the sentences in our examples into positive form.

     Sometimes a double negative is really well disguised:

Negative form: “The building has not been torn down.”

Positive form: “The building is still standing.”

“Torn down” is actually negative in effect, so again we have a double negative.

"I was not uninvolved in the action that left the tree fallen."

      Like passive-voice verbs, negative constructions are often the coward’s way to avoid being direct and taking responsibility. In the following examples, the writer appears to be trying not to say what he really means:

“We were not unaware of the situation.”

(Real meaning: “We knew all about it and still did nothing to fix it.”)

“The budget cuts were not without consequences.”

(Real meaning: “Cutting the budget meant laying off fifty employees.”)

“I was not uninvolved in the action that left the tree fallen.”

(Real meaning: “Yes, I cut down the cherry tree.”)

     Let me repeat: Negatives like “not” are perfectly good words. Often, however, you will improve your writing by eliminating them.  

Litotes: "Rafael Nadal is no slug on the tennis court."

     Having said all that, I want to point out that great writers have often used a figure of speech that employs negatives to wonderful effect. It’s called “litotes.” Here are some examples:

“Rafael Nadal is no slug on the tennis court.”

“Einstein was no slouch with just a pencil and paper.”

“The film Titanic was no small success.”

 “Angelina Jolie is not unattractive.”

“The priest was no saint.”

“She’s not my favorite person.”

     Litotes—stating a positive by attaching a negative to its opposite—can be a lovely, subtle form of understatement. The Old English poets especially liked it. Here is a nice variation on a line from Beowulf: “The sword was not ineffective in ending the quarrel.”

     I shall end with an example of bad writing from another of my favorite sources of writing advice: George Orwell’s instructive and important essay “Politics and the English Language.” Orwell offers the following passage by a famous 20^th Century intellectual, now dead and best left unnamed:

“I am not, indeed, sure whether it is not true to say that the Milton who once seemed not unlike a seventeenth-century Shelley had not become, out of an experience ever more bitter in each year, more alien to the founder of that Jesuit sect which nothing could induce him to tolerate.”

     Huh? Let me repeat: That is abysmal writing, for many reasons, the piling on of negatives being just one. Don’t do that.

     Or, to put it positively: Do better.

"The sword was not ineffective in ending the quarrel."