Rating: 
Summary: Infinitely Helpful
Review: A must-have for any aspiring new authors. The book will give you insights into what you may have been doing wrong--it includes an entire section dealing with grammar--and what you can do to improve your writing (e.g. arguing that readers will be more interested if the author uses the aggressive voice as opposed to the passive, but like a good teacher Provost also demonstrates a few exceptions that prove the rule).Provost approaches the work with a familiar style, allowing the reader to identify with him and spacing this book far apart from a detached textbook.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book For The New Writer
Review: A very practical and fast reading book that gives useful advice on a variety of areas of writing. Can be beneficial to anyone who wants to enhance the readability and interest of any type of writing.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book For The New Writer
Review: A very practical and fast reading book that gives useful advice on a variety of areas of writing. Can be beneficial to anyone who wants to enhance the readability and interest of any type of writing.
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous work
Review: Briefly put: Provost's 100 Ways To Improve Your Writing is meat and potatoes for novice and experienced writer alike. I didn't have it by my side when I wrote my first book, but have it now and use it often.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent tips, would be better if updated
Review: Gary Provost gives writers of all kinds lots of useful tips on how to improve writing of all kinds. I especially liked his use of amusing anecdotes and examples of how to and how NOT to write in certain ways. Most such tips, of course, are timeless, but the fact this book came out in the mid-1980s shows. His information on how to format a manuscript for submission assumes the use of a typewriter, not a computer with sophisticated word processing programs. Also, the book says nothing in its section on research on how to navigate the Internet to find needed information. Why bother the nice woman at your local library with questions about annual tomato yields in Florida when a few clicks of the mosue will give you the same information? If Mr. Provost had issued an updated edition of this book, I'd have given it five stars. You might want to consider it, Mr. Provost. If you for whatever reason can't take on such a project, email me, and I'll be happy to help you out...
Rating:
Summary: Plentiful New Ideas in this Compact Volume
Review: I am always pleased to find new ideas to compliment my writing. I am a forever student, knowing I can always improve on my craft - this book delivers in some surprising ways.
As I was reading along I thought to myself, "What if a committed writer took each technique and spread it over one day at a time?" I realized any writer would see a dramatic increase in writing effectiveness.
I especially enjoyed the section on Making Yourself a LIKEABLE writer. I had never considered that before - although in some writers tone and style I don't like them at all. Its companion section "12 Ways to Avoid Making Your Reader Hate You" is equally excellent and includes such tips as avoid jargon, clichés, parenthesis - which Provost's distinction of parathesis "annoying interruption" will stick with me forever.
Also included is a helpful and simple grammar/punctuation primer.
Rating:
Summary: Helped me to dramatically improve my writing
Review: I only write reviews for books that I love or books that disgust me. This one I loved. I've written two books (The Journey To Teams and The Kaizen Revolution) that have sold (so far) a total of 6,500 copies. "100 Ways" helped me become a much better writer. I carefully applied each "tip" as I wrote and edited the first, second, and final drafts of each of my books. I felt great as my writing became dramatically more clear and lively. I'm not a great writer (yet), but I've gone from "awful" to "pretty darn decent." I'm starting on a third book now, and I will read "100 Ways" again. You can't be too good at the basics. By the way, at least two other reviewers said this book would be better if it was updated. Pure bunk. Good writing is good writing - it hasn't changed in 50 years and it won't change in the next 50. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Rating:
Summary: User-friendly, witty, humorous, and practical little book.
Review: I use Gary Provost's 100 WAYS as the textbook in my Internet writing course (Personal Writing) for Lansing Community College. Students tell me, and I agree, that the organization of the book, its conversational tone, its concrete examples, and its unintimidating size and appearance are all features that make it a book they LOVE to read and will keep. It doesn't feel, look, or read like a textbook. Gary Provost's honesty about his own dislike for starting a writing assignment is disarming and important for students to see. Provost also makes readers comfortable with him when he admits the enormous risk inherent in writing a book about writing: He knows there must be thousands of readers just waiting to find an error in his work and to take two points off with a sharp red pencil! Finally, Provost's section on cliches is a delight. The entire section, which warns readers to avoid cliches, is written in a series of -- what else? -- cliches. Nice touch, and funnier than a crutch (oops)! Gary Provost is an artist, as are all good writers. The artist in Provost succeeds delightfully in this little book. 100 WAYS is Provost's Picasso-like sketch of Don Quixote with the windmill waiting in the distance to be overcome. Buy this book, use it, enjoy it, learn from it, teach with it, keep it. Dale M. Herder, Ph.D. Professor of English and Vice President Emeritus Lansing Community College Lansing, Michigan
Rating:
Summary: Great Reference Material
Review: I'm a bit tired of all the "100 Ways to Improve Your....." books. The information they contain may be valuable but can you ever remember what you've read? In my case the answer is a big fat no! I can remember maybe 5% of the advice but the rest just seems to be forgotten although it seemed interesting and valuable at the time of reading. Now you might ask yourself: "Why on Earth did he give it 4 stars then?". The answer is simple. 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing is a great reference book. Whenever your stuck, suffering from writer's block or having trouble with the lead of your copy, simply check the book. In many cases it can help you overcome whatever problem you might have with your copy. I read the book from cover to cover. And I found it rather interesting. But as I said, I can never remember all the advice. So if you'r low on time, don't bother reading the book thoroughly. Skim it and get an overall idea of what it's about. Maybe just read the index.. And then use it largely when writing.
Rating:
Summary: Great Reference Material
Review: I'm a bit tired of all the "100 Ways to Improve Your....." books. The information they contain may be valuable but can you ever remember what you've read? In my case the answer is a big fat no! I can remember maybe 5% of the advice but the rest just seems to be forgotten although it seemed interesting and valuable at the time of reading. Now you might ask yourself: "Why on Earth did he give it 4 stars then?". The answer is simple. 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing is a great reference book. Whenever your stuck, suffering from writer's block or having trouble with the lead of your copy, simply check the book. In many cases it can help you overcome whatever problem you might have with your copy. I read the book from cover to cover. And I found it rather interesting. But as I said, I can never remember all the advice. So if you'r low on time, don't bother reading the book thoroughly. Skim it and get an overall idea of what it's about. Maybe just read the index.. And then use it largely when writing.
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