I've dedicated my professional life to the creation of a nation of writers. I began my career as a young professor of English, teaching literature and composition at a small campus in Alabama. As a New Yorker, I began writing about my experiences in the South. I began hanging out with journalists and became fascinated by their sense of craft, and their sense of mission and purpose. This led to an invitation as a writing coach at the St. Petersburg Times, one of the best newspapers in the country, now called the Tampa Bay Times. That year led to 40 years as a writing coach and a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute.
I wrote
Tell It Like It Is: A Guide to Clear and Honest Writing
If we were to poll readers to determine the most influential writing books of all time, high on the list would be this work, which has sold more than a million copies.
If I had to summarize Zinsser’s advice in three words, it would be “cut the clutter.”
After reading this book, I now assume my third draft, maybe my eleventh draft contains too many words. But how can I cut clutter if I can’t see it? Test every word. You do not have to keep the reader on the “proper path.” The word “path” has the idea of “proper” built in.
On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet.
Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more…
If I had to choose just one book on language that all American college students should read, it would be this one.
The author wrote early versions of this book in 1939 and 1941, when World War II was breaking out, and the world came to understand the poisonous nature of Nazi propaganda. The study of semantics turns out to be more than an abstract consideration of language. The responsible use of language is the antidote to disinformation, a lesson we can carry into our own times.
Why neutral reports are crucial to democracy and self-government; how connotations of words reveal bias; the power of climbing up and down the ladder of abstraction so readers can see and understand; all these are introduced to the reader in this groundbreaking work.
In an era when communication has become increasingly diverse and complex, this classic work on semantics—now fully revised and updated—distills the relationship between language and those who use it.
Renowned professor and former U.S. Senator S. I. Hayakawa discusses the role of language in human life, the many functions of language, and how language—sometimes without our knowing—shapes our thinking in this engaging and highly respected book. Provocative and erudite, it examines the relationship between language and racial and religious prejudice; the nature and dangers of advertising from a linguistic point of view; and, in an additional chapter called “The Empty…
This book is now more than a century old and has sold countless millions in numerous editions.
In my book about writing books I argue that this brief volume is not one book at all, but two books. Each part offers a different, some might say a contradictory view of what we mean when we talk about a writer’s “style.”
The original handbook was written by William Strunk Jr., a professor at Cornell, in 1918. E.B. White was one of his students. Strunk preached consistency in grammar, usage, brevity, and rhetorical techniques. If you wanted to be a good writer, you had to adhere to his style book.
White rediscovered the book in the 1950s, and published an additional set of guidelines. For White, style is what sets an individual writer apart from others, the effect of a combination of good writing moves.
It is cheap. It is popular. It has helped countless writers to think of writing as a craft. It can help you.
The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White - The Classic Writing Style Guide - This book aims to give in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style. It aims to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention (in Chapters II and III) on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated. In accordance with this plan it lays down three rules for the use of the comma, instead of a score or more, and one for the use of the semicolon, in the belief that…
Some writing books are about craft. Others are about the life of the writer. This influential and popular book brings those two modes together.
No writer writes the perfect story, one perfect word at a time. In writing, perfect is the enemy of good. Since imperfection is necessary, it also becomes desirable.
Never be discouraged by early problems in a text. It is a cognitive distortion to think that “shitty first drafts” – to use Anne Lamott’s earthy term – make you a shitty writer. With experience, you will learn that such early writing is not sculpture, but clay, the stuff in which you will find the better work.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times).
“Superb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” —The New York Times Book Review
For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom…
No author, not even Shakespeare, has influenced me as much as George Orwell.
As an enemy of communism, fascism, and imperialism, Orwell wrote novels, nonfiction books, and essays in support of democratic values, including the responsible use of language. In "Politics and the English Language", written just after World War II, Orwell traces the relationship between language abuse and political abuse.
After revealing examples of abuse, such as the use of euphemisms to veil evil practices and policies, Orwell offers handy bits of advice for writers, such as never using an image that you are used to seeing in print. Rise above the cliché.
'Politics and the English Language' is widely considered Orwell's most important essay on style. Style, for Orwell, was never simply a question of aesthetics; it was always inextricably linked to politics and to truth.'All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.'Language is a political issue, and slovenly use of language and cliches make it easier for those in power to deliberately use misleading language to hide unpleasant political facts. Bad English, he believed, was a vehicle for oppressive ideology, and it is…
Since 2008 I have written seven books on writing, reading, grammar, language, and journalism. All were published by Little, Brown. I had not planned to write another one. I felt I had run out of things to say about the craft. But then, in 2020, a pandemic comes along, followed by a series of environmental, political, and cultural crises. I paid close attention to public writers and how they were helping us make sense of it all. They applied their craft to a noble purpose. I wanted to capture their strategies and values and share them widely with writers across the globe. I wanted to help writers learn to “tell it like it is.”
I’ve always been fascinated by group dynamics, large and small. Why things functioned well, why they didn’t. It’s possible my ability to empathize and use humor as a consensus-builder is the reason I was elected president of a homeowners association, a music production association, and even an agricultural group. Books were not particularly involved in this fascination! But in recent years, experiencing the breakdown of civility and trust in our political and cultural discourse, I’ve taken a more analytical view of the dynamics. These books, in their very different ways, have taught me lessons about life, understanding those with different beliefs, and finding ways to connect and move forward.
We’ve all experienced the overwhelming level of political and social divisiveness in our country. This invisible “virus” of negativity is, in part, the result of the name-calling and heated rhetoric that has become commonplace among commentators and elected leaders alike.
My book provides a clear perspective on the historical and modern-day causes of our nation's divisive state. It then proposes easy-to-understand solutions—an action plan for our elected leaders and citizens as well. Rather than a scholarly treatment of a complex topic, the book challenges us to take the obvious steps required of those living in a free democracy. And it…
Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation
Lyle Greenfield's "Uniting the States of America―A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation" is a work of nonfiction and opinion. Incorporating the lessons of history and the ideas and wisdom of many, it is intended as both an educational resource and a call-to-action for citizens concerned about the politically and culturally divided state of our Union. A situation that has raised alarm for the very future of our democracy.
First, the book clearly identifies the causes of what has become a national crisis of belief in and love for our country. How the divisiveness and hostility rampant in our political…
