Nib #78 Our Founding Essay

This Independence Day, a reminder to writers everywhere that the greatest nation in the history of the world was founded with an essay. If you haven't read it in a while, it's worth the five minutes. Good writing really can change the world.


Happy Fourth — and God Bless America!


In Congress, July 4, 1776


The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 


When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.


He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.


He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.


He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.


He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.


He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.


He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.


He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.


He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.


He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.


He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.


He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.


He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:


For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:


For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:


For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:


For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:


For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:


For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:


For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:


For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:


For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.


He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.


He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.


He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.


He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.


He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.


In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.


Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.


We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.


U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!


Until next week... keep writing!

Nib #108 — Skim-Proof Your Writing

January 30, 2026
 Most people don’t read with deep concentration and attention, at least not at first. They skim. Young writers should anticipate this and tailor their writing for busy, distracted, half-interested audiences. The best formats to skim-Proof are non-urgent things we read quickly and silently, like: Work emails Memos Office reports Announcements & invitations To Skim-Proof your writing, try these four strategies: Front-load important information, ideally in your first sentence. Use bold letters and ALL CAPS to highlight key details. Indent numbered and bulleted lists to make long sentences and paragraphs easier to read. Edit out extraneous words and sentences. Don’t think of Skim Proofing as surrendering to our attention-deficit culture. Think of it as a literary deep core exercise. Because front-loading content, streamlining text, and breaking up long paragraphs will strengthen all your writing — even longer, closely read forms — over time. Until next week… keep writing!

Nib #107 What to Read to Improve Your Writing

January 23, 2026
When young writers ask, ”What should I read to improve my writing?” they usually mean, “Who?” And of course, there are plenty of great literary stylists young writers can learn and steal from. But for young writers in 2026 — betrayed by our thumbless education system and beset by screen distractions — the Who doesn’t matter as much as the When . If you really want to improve your writing, adhere to a simple rule: The majority of what you read every day should be more than 24 hours old. This is not to say good writers only read 19th century English novels or Homeric epics. There is plenty of great writing being produced right now. But it's not on Twitter. Don’t surrender your reading habits to an algorithm, especially an algorithm designed to make you awful. Read books. Read essays. Read poems. Read movie reviews. Yes, the quality of what you read matters. But what matters more is that you choose what you read and not the other way around. Until next week… keep writing!

Nib #106 What’s Wrong with the Passive Voice

January 16, 2026
Everyone knows the active voice is usually preferable to the passive voice. But most young writers are never taught why. Here are the two main reasons: 1. The passive voice is meandering. It tends to make sentences longer and harder to follow. Passive: The Constitution is something that should be followed by Congress. Active: Congress should follow the Constitution. These two sentences convey the same thought. But see how the first one is cumbersome, and almost condescending in its tone? Readers hate that. 2. The passive voice is slippery. Passive: That should not have happened. Active: I should not have done that. See how the second sentence there feels sincere and accountable while the first feels like a non-apology? That’s the passive voice at work. By deprioritizing — or outright eliminating — the subject of a sentence’s verb, it obscures responsibility for the sentence’s action. The passive voice isn’t evil. It just tends to make your sentences harder to read and you harder to trust. Until next week… keep writing!

Nib #105 The Magic Trick for Speechwriters

January 9, 2026
We already covered the Magic Trick ( Nib #100 ), reading your work out loud. And its clarity corollary ( Nib #101 ), reading your work out loud as the audience . This last application of the Magic Trick is for anyone who writes for someone else: read your work out loud as your principal . It’s not necessary that every sentence perfectly mirror your boss’s patois. What’s necessary is that the writing not sound like someone else. (Especially you !) Don’t make references or use words or tell jokes or stories that your principal wouldn’t. The third time you read your the work out loud, imitate the person actually speaking or signing the text. When you trip over a phrase — however perfect it sounded in your head — or when a word choice snags like a fingernail on a blanket, change it. That’s how you put the ghost in ghostwriting. Until next week… keep writing!

Nib #104 Top 3 New Year’s Resolutions for Young Writers

January 2, 2026
Happy New Year! To kick off Year Three of the Nib, here are three can’t-miss New Year’s resolutions to improve your writing in 2026. 1. Memorize one poem per month. Poetry is literary protein — writing at its most nutritive and muscle-building. To truly benefit from a poem, you have to know it by heart. If you’re not sure where to start, you can’t go wrong with the King James Version of Psalm 23. 2. Read a Jane Austen novel. It doesn’t matter which, but Pride and Prejudice is Pride and Prejudice for a reason. 3. Delete one shiftless, no-account word or phrase from your writing. Good options include vague intensifiers like very or significant, robot verbs like affect or engage , and clunky stutter-steps like the fact that or in terms of . Really want to make the world a better place in 2026? See if you can go the whole year without writing the word impactful . Until next week… keep writing! 

Nib #103 The Hidden Lessons of Thank You Notes

December 26, 2025
 Merry Christmas, and — now — Happy Thank You Note Season! Thank You Notes might seem like a perfunctory, mechanical writing format. But they are as powerful a training ground as any prose project young writers can tackle. Think about it. The four qualities of a good Thank You Note are cornerstones of all good writing: Concision : Thank You cards’ small sizes preclude rambling. They force writers to get to the point and stay on it. Specificity : Thank You notes demand concrete details. You don’t thank someone for “that thing you got me” or “that kind gesture.” No, you specify what you’re thankful for, exactly how and when you’re using it, and the particular good it has done. Authenticity : Expressing gratitude may be the most human thing human beings can do. Thank You notes by necessity draw out our truest voices. They sound like us — or rather, like the best version of ourselves. Generosity: Thank You notes have no purpose other than to graciously serve their audience. Writing them exercises virtues that can strengthen all our writing, whatever the format, going forward. The lessons of Thank You Note writing may be hidden, but they’re true and good. They’ll make you a better writer — in more ways than one. Until next week… keep writing!

Nib #102 Top 7 Gift Ideas for Young Writers

December 19, 2025
Just in time for the big day, here are the Nib’s Top 10 Christmas Gift Ideas for the young writer in your life: 1. Good Books about writing For everyone: The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White For serious writers who have already read Strunk & White: Style by F.L. Lucas For more casual readers and writers: On Writing by Stephen King 2. Good Writing tools Pens: Every writer has a favorite, but when in doubt, go with the Pilot G-2. (Bonus: writers always appreciate red pens for editing.) Typing stands & clipboards: Out of fashion, but indispensable in the editing process. Notebooks: This is the can’t-miss option. Writers love notebooks, of every shape and size. It can be a marble stitch job from Staples or a leather-bound moleskine — your writer will feel understood. 3. Masters of Style Anything by: Tom Wolfe, especially the early stuff. W.C. Heinz, sports columnist and author of The Professional . Elmore Leonard, a master genre fiction writer. Patrick O’Brien, author of the Aubrey-Maturin novels. 4. The All Timers Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Homer. No writer will regret gifts with their names on the spine. 5. Reference Books Every writer can use a good dictionary, thesaurus, rhyming dictionary, a book of famous speeches, or a big book of quotations. One out-of-left-field recommendation every word lover will treasure: The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten. 6. Great Conservative Writers For the young conservative writer trying to learn how to martial the English language for his cause, a few role models to learn from: Antonin Scalia Yuval Levin Patrick Buchanan, especially Right From the Beginning Ross Douthat Clarence Thomas, especially My Grandfather’s Son 6. Accoutrements Writers like to cultivate the spaces where they write. They put comforting, inspiring, happy things on the walls and shelves that surround their desks. Thoughtful gift-givers can add to that ambiance with books, obviously, but also framed photographs or maps or art prints or quotes from a favorite writer. Maybe a pencil holder that fits your writer’s aesthetic, or faux-bronze bust of Shakespeare or a vintage typewriter from eBay. Writers love that stuff. And more than that, they love feeling loved for loving that stuff. Happy Christmas to you and yours, and until next week… keep writing!

Nib #101 Read It Out Loud As the Audience

December 12, 2025
The corollary to last week’s Nib — Nib #100 The Magic Trick — is that in addition to reading their work out loud, writers should also read it as other people. First and foremost, they should read it aloud as their audience. Remember, everything you write is written for someone else. To write compellingly or persuasively, you have to zero in on the people you’re writing for . How old are they? How educated? Where are they from? What are their politics, religious views, or interests? When you read your work out loud, put yourself in their shoes. What do you hear? Is your word choice appropriate? Is your sentence structure clear? Will they get your references and jokes? Will they share your priors or bristle at them? Will they connect the dots you want them to, or find your logic discordant? To write effectively, you have to tailor your writing to your intended audience — whoever it is. So when you edit your work, don’t just read it out loud as yourself, valuable as that practice is. Also read it out loud as the audience — they’re the ones who really matter, after all. Until next week… keep writing!
The best writing tip the Nib -- or anyone else -- can ever give you.

Nib #100 The Magic Trick

December 5, 2025
Ok, here it is — for Nib #100 — the single best writing tip anyone can ever give you. If you want to improve a piece of writing — a whole draft, a paragraph, or even just a sentence — read it out loud. Human beings are hard wired for talking and listening, not writing and reading. So when you edit and revise your work, read it out loud. Your ears will hear what your eyes won’t see. You’ll hear mistakes that you’d otherwise miss. More than that, you’ll hear things that aren’t necessarily wrong, but could be better. Overlong sentences, imperfect word choices, and extraneous phrases that may look fine will — when read aloud — clang in your ears like false notes. It’s like a magic trick. Even if you’re not sure why something needs to be changed, you’ll it sounds wrong and change it. No matter how good or bad your writing is, reading it loud will help you make it better: guaranteed, and right away. Until next week… keep writing!

Nib #99 Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Humblebrag

November 28, 2025
If you’ve ever wondered when it might be advantageous to write in the passive voice, check out President Abraham Lincoln’s first Thanksgiving Day proclamation from 1863. It’s all about the blessings that Americans — despite the horrors of the Civil War — still have to be grateful for. But notice how passively Lincoln catalogs them: “peace has been preserved with all nations” “order has been maintained” “the laws have been respected and obeyed” “harmony has prevailed” “population has steadily increased” “mines… have yielded even more abundantly” Notice what’s missing in all these passive phrases and intransitive verbs? Why, the chief executive whose deft leadership delivered this bounty to the American people! Passive writing distances actors from their actions. It helps scoundrels avoid culpability, as in, “Mistakes were made.” And it helps clever leaders insinuate their own merits without directly trumpeting them, as in, “Thank heavens our nation has been so uncommonly prosperous, respected, and happy during my presidency.” That is what the passive voice can be good for: blame avoidance and humblebragging. Until next week… keep writing!