Rating: 
Summary: Succinct but excellent guide to improving your writing
Review: I really enjoyed this book. As an engineer I need all of the help I can get in improving my ponderous style. If I can absorb even a few lessons from this book, my writing will improve dramatically.
Rating:
Summary: The best guide to clear writing
Review: I taught writing for 10 years at the University of California, and tried a variety of books. The course was oriented toward clear, effective writing -- writing as communication, rather than writing as "little golden thoughts of me." No book teaches these skills as well as Williams, none is even close. There are books that can teach how to write one clear sentence, and Williams does this too. But "Style" takes the next step and shows how to organize a sequence of sentences in a way that makes it easy for your readers to follow an argument or understand an explanation.
The course produced a real improvement in student writing, an improvement that they could see and appreciate. Most of them said it was among the most useful courses they had taken at college.
Rating:
Summary: The best guide to clear writing
Review: I taught writing for 10 years at the University of California, and tried a variety of books. The course was oriented toward clear, effective writing -- writing as communication, rather than writing as "little golden thoughts of me." No book teaches these skills as well as Williams, none is even close. There are books that can teach how to write one clear sentence, and Williams does this too. But "Style" takes the next step and shows how to organize a sequence of sentences in a way that makes it easy for your readers to follow an argument or understand an explanation.
The course produced a real improvement in student writing, an improvement that they could see and appreciate. Most of them said it was among the most useful courses they had taken at college.
Rating:
Summary: THE Book on writing. Don't waste your time on any other!
Review: I've seen some of the reviews that disparage this book. I weep because they did not see the humor of this book. Style is hilarious. Before I read this book, before I understood the value of language use, I was terrified of editing, because I cannot keep the rules of grammar in my head. Each time I re-read this book, more of its inherent humor comes forth. So much of Joseph William's humor is admittedly subtle, but it is just that wonderful humor that perhaps only careful writers and readers can understand. I must say that this book has been a good part in helping me edit my own work... no: it has helped me want to edit my own work and explore the rules of language as being Real, Folklore or Optional. Joseph William's book Style taught me that language could actually be fun. I thank him for writing this book.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, useful, and yes, even funny
Review: I've seen some of the reviews that disparage this book. I weep because they did not see the humor of this book. Style is hilarious. Before I read this book, before I understood the value of language use, I was terrified of editing, because I cannot keep the rules of grammar in my head. Each time I re-read this book, more of its inherent humor comes forth. So much of Joseph William's humor is admittedly subtle, but it is just that wonderful humor that perhaps only careful writers and readers can understand. I must say that this book has been a good part in helping me edit my own work... no: it has helped me want to edit my own work and explore the rules of language as being Real, Folklore or Optional. Joseph William's book Style taught me that language could actually be fun. I thank him for writing this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Creating Meaning
Review: It all comes down to what our purpose is when we write. Are we entertainers? Teachers? Guides? Writing is first and foremost the use of words on a page to engage a reader so that the reader may experience something he or she would not otherwise experience.
Engage is the important word here. The reader must become engaged, for if not, there is no hope of her fully accompanying the characters on their journey. This journey is how I believe readers come to a new understanding of universal motivations, paradoxes, concepts. The journey, by the way, does not have an end, even though the book ends. The journey's end, so to speak, is simply the beginning of the reader's journey. This is why books are so lovely. They go on forever.
If engagement is the key, then these ten concepts are crucial. There must be no ambiguity in writing, unless it is purposeful ambiguity. To me, "write clearly" means just that. Write with purpose. Write concretely, because we will give the reader just what we intend if we're specific. No chance of misinterpretation. Write actively, because it is more engaging than the passive tense.
We think in a straightforward way. John jumped over the creek. Not, over the creek John jumped. The subject naturally comes first in our minds, and the reader will have fewer pieces to rearrange if we write that way. This holds true for keeping the verb in the main clause of the sentence. It helps the reader process in a logical forward way. Rhetoric needs thoughtful processing, and is best left to the ends of sentences, when the reader can peruse them more leisurely, having already digested the active portion of the sentence.
Editing is nice; we can rearrange things all we like. But cutting is another story. It hurts, but it is the most valuable part of the writing process, because it allows the writer to leave out anything that is not ultimately crucial to the overall meaning of the story. Anything extra is not only extra, and a waste of the reader's time, no matter how beautifully written, but it is also a distraction from the clear and continuous meaning we, as writers, are trying to create. As a new "re-writer", I have a WordPerfect file just to hold all the lovely bits I take out of my pieces. I can't quite part with them (yet), but I can set them aside to make my meaning clearer.
Structure helps our readers the way signposts help the hiker. It is perhaps an unnatural addition to the landscape of our writing, but a useful one to help our reader stay on track.
Writers have enormous power. We can take another human being on any journey we choose (assuming they choose to read the story). It is up to us, as the ones with the power, to be absolutely certain that we are true to the essence of the story, to the forces moving our characters, to the interactions between characters, their dialogue, their actions, their inactions. This does not mean we must measure our truth-telling against an objective arm. Yet we must measure it against itself. The story must be true unto itself.
The process of creation is incredibly powerful. Yet it is just that: creation. In fiction-writing, we must engage the reader in a reality that is simply false. It is contrived. That's the nature of fiction. In nonfiction, or creative nonfiction, we have the added responsibility to remain true to the facts, or to signpost areas where we stray from the truth. Writing ethically means to be fully aware of where you are taking the reader, and to be responsible for that journey. And all of this means that the creation is just the first step in the process; we really ought to call ourselves rewrite artists.
Rating:
Summary: Creating Meaning
Review: It all comes down to what our purpose is when we write. Are we entertainers? Teachers? Guides? Writing is first and foremost the use of words on a page to engage a reader so that the reader may experience something he or she would not otherwise experience.
Engage is the important word here. The reader must become engaged, for if not, there is no hope of her fully accompanying the characters on their journey. This journey is how I believe readers come to a new understanding of universal motivations, paradoxes, concepts. The journey, by the way, does not have an end, even though the book ends. The journey's end, so to speak, is simply the beginning of the reader's journey. This is why books are so lovely. They go on forever.
If engagement is the key, then these ten concepts are crucial. There must be no ambiguity in writing, unless it is purposeful ambiguity. To me, "write clearly" means just that. Write with purpose. Write concretely, because we will give the reader just what we intend if we're specific. No chance of misinterpretation. Write actively, because it is more engaging than the passive tense.
We think in a straightforward way. John jumped over the creek. Not, over the creek John jumped. The subject naturally comes first in our minds, and the reader will have fewer pieces to rearrange if we write that way. This holds true for keeping the verb in the main clause of the sentence. It helps the reader process in a logical forward way. Rhetoric needs thoughtful processing, and is best left to the ends of sentences, when the reader can peruse them more leisurely, having already digested the active portion of the sentence.
Editing is nice; we can rearrange things all we like. But cutting is another story. It hurts, but it is the most valuable part of the writing process, because it allows the writer to leave out anything that is not ultimately crucial to the overall meaning of the story. Anything extra is not only extra, and a waste of the reader's time, no matter how beautifully written, but it is also a distraction from the clear and continuous meaning we, as writers, are trying to create. As a new "re-writer", I have a WordPerfect file just to hold all the lovely bits I take out of my pieces. I can't quite part with them (yet), but I can set them aside to make my meaning clearer.
Structure helps our readers the way signposts help the hiker. It is perhaps an unnatural addition to the landscape of our writing, but a useful one to help our reader stay on track.
Writers have enormous power. We can take another human being on any journey we choose (assuming they choose to read the story). It is up to us, as the ones with the power, to be absolutely certain that we are true to the essence of the story, to the forces moving our characters, to the interactions between characters, their dialogue, their actions, their inactions. This does not mean we must measure our truth-telling against an objective arm. Yet we must measure it against itself. The story must be true unto itself.
The process of creation is incredibly powerful. Yet it is just that: creation. In fiction-writing, we must engage the reader in a reality that is simply false. It is contrived. That's the nature of fiction. In nonfiction, or creative nonfiction, we have the added responsibility to remain true to the facts, or to signpost areas where we stray from the truth. Writing ethically means to be fully aware of where you are taking the reader, and to be responsible for that journey. And all of this means that the creation is just the first step in the process; we really ought to call ourselves rewrite artists.
Rating:
Summary: How to write on complex subjects -- the best book out there
Review: It's not easy to write about or explain complex subjects. To do so requires being able to focus, write concisely, and make the text flow for the reader. Not a trivial task. I know, I am a technical magazine editor and work with about 10 contributed technical articles a month. I just wish contributing writers would read this book. It lays out how to clearly write about very complex topics. And it does so in a very logical and structured manner. It even provides block diagrams to show how to put things together (for you engineers out there). Dr Williams did a fine job. This is not a simple book, nor a quick read. But it is the best book out there for serious non-fiction writers. It works.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book on Writing I've Found
Review: Most guides to writing speak in maxims and platitudes - "Be succinct" or "Write clearly". Williams accomplishes a unique feat in actually demonstrating techniques that allow writers to write succinctly and clearly. Unlike most writing guides, this book cannot be consumed in a single sitting. It requires the reader to work at the techniques, not simply to read Williams' ideas and magically hope that they will appear in the reader's future written works. If you spend the time with it, you will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book on Writing I've Found
Review: Most guides to writing speak in maxims and platitudes - "Be succinct" or "Write clearly". Williams accomplishes a unique feat in actually demonstrating techniques that allow writers to write succinctly and clearly. Unlike most writing guides, this book cannot be consumed in a single sitting. It requires the reader to work at the techniques, not simply to read Williams' ideas and magically hope that they will appear in the reader's future written works. If you spend the time with it, you will not be disappointed.
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