How Not to Write

How Not to Write

Author: William Safire

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780393327236

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Presents fifty humorous rules on grammar, usage, and style, covering everything from capitalization and split infinitives to run-on sentences, semi-colons, contractions, the double negative, dangling participles, and onomatopoeia.


How Not to Write: The Essential Misrules of Grammar

How Not to Write: The Essential Misrules of Grammar

Author: William Safire

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2005-07-17

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 039335136X

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These fifty humorous misrules of grammar will open the eyes of writers of all levels to fine style. How Not to Write is a wickedly witty book about grammar, usage, and style. William Safire, the author of the New York Times Magazine column "On Language," homes in on the "essential misrules of grammar," those mistakes that call attention to the major rules and regulations of writing. He tells you the correct way to write and then tells you when it is all right to break the rules. In this lighthearted guide, he chooses the most common and perplexing concerns of writers new and old. Each mini-chapter starts by stating a misrule like "Don't use Capital letters without good REASON." Safire then follows up with solid and entertaining advice on language, grammar, and life. He covers a vast territory from capitalization, split infinitives (it turns out you can split one if done meaningfully), run-on sentences, and semi-colons to contractions, the double negative, dangling participles, and even onomatopoeia. Originally published under the title Fumblerules.


The Student's Guide to Writing

The Student's Guide to Writing

Author: John Peck

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2012-07-31

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1350315591

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Aimed at students wishing to improve their writing skills, this guide deals with the key basics of grammar, punctuation and spelling while also showing students how to construct a sentence, how to build a paragraph and how to structure an essay. This third edition includes an expanded 'Spot the Mistake' section.


The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time

The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time

Author: William Safire

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2007-11-01

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 1416587403

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For the past twenty-five years Americans have relied on Pulitzer Prize-winning wordsmith William Safire for their weekly dose of linguistic illumination in The New York Times Magazine's column "On Language" -- one of the most popular features of the magazine and a Sunday-morning staple for innumerable fans. He is the most widely read writer on the English language today. Safire is the guru of contemporary vocabulary, speech, language, usage and writing. Dedicated and disputatious readers itch to pick up each column and respond to the week's linguistic wisdom with a gotcha letter to the Times. The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time marks the publication of Safire's sixteenth book on language. This collection is a classic to be read, re-read, enjoyed and fought over. Fans, critics and fellow linguists wait with bated (from the French abattre "to beat down") breath for each new anthology -- and, like its predecessors, this one is bound to satisfy and delight. Safire finds fodder for his columns in politics and current events, as well as in science, technology, entertainment and daily life. The self-proclaimed card-carrying language maven and pop grammarian is not above tackling his own linguistic blunders as he detects language trends and tracks words, phrases and clichés to their source. Scholarly, entertaining and thoughtful, Safire's critical observations about language and slanguage are at once provocative and enlightening. Safire is America's go-to guy when it comes to language, and he has included sharp and passionately opinionated letters from readers across the English-speaking world who have been unable to resist picking up a pen to put the maven himself in his place or to offer alternate interpretations, additional examples, amusing anecdotes or just props. The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time is a fascinating, learned and piquant look at the oddities and foibles that find their way into the English language. Exposing linguistic hooey and rigamarole and filled with Safire's trademark wisdom, this book has a place on the desk or bedside table of all who share his profound love of the English language -- as well as his penchant for asking "What does that mean?" Or, "Wassat?" This new collection is sure to delight readers, writers and word lovers everywhere and spark the interest of anyone who has ever wondered, "Where did the phrase 'brazen hussy' come from?"


The Architects Guide to Writing

The Architects Guide to Writing

Author: Bill Schmalz

Publisher: Images Publishing

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1864705728

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There are a lot of good books available to help people write better. They include dictionaries, usage guides, and various types of writers’ manuals – and professional writers ought to have many of those books on their bookshelves. But most architects and other design and construction professionals are not professional writers. Instead, they are people who spend a large part of their professional lives writing. That’s a big difference, and that’s where this book will help. The Architect’s Guide to Writing has been written not by an English major, but by Bill Schmalz, an architect who knows the kinds of documents his fellow professionals routinely have to write, and understands the kinds of technical mistakes they often make in their writing. This book is designed to meet the specific needs of design and construction professionals. It’s not going to waste their time with the things that most educated professionals know, but it will help them with the things they don’t know or are unsure of. It’s not a Chicago Manual-sized encyclopaedic reference that includes everything any writer would ever need to know, because architects don’t need to know everything. But what they do need to know – and what they use every day in their professional lives – has been assembled in this book.


Radical Reporting

Radical Reporting

Author: Sara I. James

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2022-04-26

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1000578399

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Most people dread writing reports; they also dread reading reports. What they don’t realize is that the techniques that make writing more readable make it more powerful. This is especially relevant for professionals in areas such as audit, risk, compliance, and information security. This small volume provides the tools and techniques needed to improve reports. It does so through addressing crucial concepts all too often overlooked in the familiar rush to perform tasks, complete projects, and meet deadlines. These concepts – the role of culture in communication; the link between logic and language; the importance of organizing thoughts before writing; and how to achieve clarity – may seem academic or theoretical. They’re not. Unless writers understand their own thoughts, actions, and objectives, they cannot hope to communicate them at all – let alone clearly.


A Guide to Writing College Admissions Essays

A Guide to Writing College Admissions Essays

Author: Cory M. Franklin

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-04-23

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 1475858787

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A Guide to Writing College Admissions Essays provides practical advice and helpful suggestions for students writing their college admissions essays, primarily the 650-word Common App essay and supplementary essays that many schools require as part of their admission applications.With more students applying to college—and those students applying to more schools than ever before—college admission selection is far more competitive than in the past and the college essay is a key component. A Guide to Writing College Admissions Essays offers suggestions on good topics to write about without getting too specific (and just as importantly, what not to write about) and vital tips on writing approach, grammar, and usage. If used properly, this book will help applicants find their creative voice and craft a readable, interesting, and unique essay that will attract the college admissions reader. It just might make a difference in the final admission process.


Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing

Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing

Author: Constance Hale

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2012-10-15

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 0393084264

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"Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch is more than just a writing handbook; it’s a key to unlocking every writer’s innate creativity by offering countless paths to verbal expressiveness." —San Francisco Chronicle Great sentences pivot on great verbs. In Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch, Constance Hale, best-selling author of Sin and Syntax, zeroes in on verbs that make bad writing sour and good writing sing. Each chapter in Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch features four sections: “Vex” tackles tough syntax, “Hex” debunks myths about verbs, “Smash” warns of bad writing habits, and “Smooch” showcases exemplary writing. A veteran journalist and writing teacher, Hale peppers her advice with pop-culture references and adapts her expertise for writers of every level. With examples ranging from the tangled clauses of Henry James and the piercing insight of Joan Didion to the punchy gerunds of the Coen brothers and the passive verbs of CEOs on trial, Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch offers a reenergized take on the “little despot of the sentence.”


The Writer's Devotional

The Writer's Devotional

Author: Amy Peters

Publisher: Union Square + ORM

Published: 2012-03-06

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 140279097X

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A year’s worth of daily writing prompts, exercises, advice and motivation to increase creativity and overcome resistance. Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, screenplays or poetry, or simply trying to keep a more compelling journal or blog, this invaluable volume will get your creative juices flowing. Beautifully designed with a cloth-bound cover and ribbon place marker, it’s filled with 365 inspiring quotations and informative tutorials to help you develop your unique voice. Each day of the week focuses on a different aspect of the writing life, from the business of writing, to the nuts and bolts of editing, to tips and tricks for getting past writer’s block.