Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The clear prose and abundant examples improved my writing. That was worth the price right there.

Particularly fine is the final chapter, in which he argues compellingly, using observations from the previous chapters, that Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address was craftier than it seemed. He examines the choices Lincoln made and the reasons behind the choices. Riveting!

Chapters: Understanding Style, Correctness, Actions, Characters, Cohesion and Coherence, Emphasis, Concision, Shape, Elegance, The Ethics of Prose.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The clear prose and abundant examples improved my writing. That was worth the price right there.

Particularly fine is the final chapter, in which he argues compellingly, using observations from the previous chapters, that Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address was craftier than it seemed. He examines the choices Lincoln made and the reasons behind the choices. Riveting!

Chapters: Understanding Style, Correctness, Actions, Characters, Cohesion and Coherence, Emphasis, Concision, Shape, Elegance, The Ethics of Prose.

Rating:
Summary: Truly great, smaller but updated version of his bigger book
Review: This smallish book summarizes and updates "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (7th Edition)." I rank both books at least a "5 out of 5" ranking. I bought the "Style: Ten Lessons" book first and after reading his previous book, I wanted more from this author. This new book is a fitting treat; it is destined to be a classic in the field of writing.

This smaller 150 page book presents many easy-to-apply principles and, for me, were easier to understand.

The principles that I liked most were:

+ How nominalizations can be very good or very bad, depending on their purpose, or lack of it.
+ How to re-arrange sentences putting the new and most important ideas on the end; thus sometimes flipping the sentence around and making good use of the passive tense.
+ The importance of aligning the characters of your story with the subjects of your sentences, and using active verbs to make "interesting subjects do interesting things."
+ Why and how to keep the distance between subject, verb and object short.

There are many, many other writing principles that you will find very useful. Although this book is written for someone with writing experience, a beginner will also find it MOST helpful.

I recommend any budding writer to buy both books. The bigger, older book has more discussion. But I found this smaller, newer book easier to read and understand. I'm now reading his Craft of Research book, and it looks like a winner too.

This is an author whose books you should collect. He has become a highly recommended expert in the field of writing. Look at the reviews of the bigger book to see what others are saying. I am so happy that I found his books.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

Rating:
Summary: Truly great, smaller but updated version of his bigger book
Review: This smallish book summarizes and updates "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (7th Edition)." I rank both books at least a "5 out of 5" ranking. I bought the "Style: Ten Lessons" book first and after reading his previous book, I wanted more from this author. This new book is a fitting treat; it is destined to be a classic in the field of writing.

This smaller 150 page book presents many easy-to-apply principles and, for me, were easier to understand.

The principles that I liked most were:

+ How nominalizations can be very good or very bad, depending on their purpose, or lack of it.
+ How to re-arrange sentences putting the new and most important ideas on the end; thus sometimes flipping the sentence around and making good use of the passive tense.
+ The importance of aligning the characters of your story with the subjects of your sentences, and using active verbs to make "interesting subjects do interesting things."
+ Why and how to keep the distance between subject, verb and object short.

There are many, many other writing principles that you will find very useful. Although this book is written for someone with writing experience, a beginner will also find it MOST helpful.

I recommend any budding writer to buy both books. The bigger, older book has more discussion. But I found this smaller, newer book easier to read and understand. I'm now reading his Craft of Research book, and it looks like a winner too.

This is an author whose books you should collect. He has become a highly recommended expert in the field of writing. Look at the reviews of the bigger book to see what others are saying. I am so happy that I found his books.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX