Description:
Bruce Ross-Larson's Effective Writing wraps three of his little books about writing--Stunning Sentences, Powerful Paragraphs, and Riveting Reports--into one volume. With these three little jewels, the author aims to eradicate sloppy writing from Web pages, office memos, budget reports, and the like. For Stunning Sentences, Ross-Larson inspects and categorizes well-wrought sentences of all shapes and sizes by the likes of Vladimir Nabokov, Henry Luce, and Mary Lee Settle. He isolates every type of sentence imaginable, from imperatives and fragments to "cascades" (sentences that, well, cascade), in an attempt to identify just what effect choice of sentence structure has on the reader. What does adding an extra conjunction to a series do to a sentence? What does dropping a conjunction do? A terrific tool for making a writer conscious of the impact of his or her writing at the sentence level. Once you've got sentences down, it's time to move on to paragraphs. Surprise: A paragraph is more than "a collection of sentences framed by an indent and a carriage return." It also has to be "unified, coherent, and well developed." Ross-Larson starts with the opening paragraph, which needs to "grab your readers' attention, rivet them to your message, and propel them through your argument." From there, he elucidates the many ways to organize a paragraph, and then the many ways to link each of your well-toned paragraphs to one another. He provides many fantastic examples from The Economist and other sources. Finally, it's time to put it all together. The significant word in the "Riveting Reports" section of the book is plan. Define your message, define your audience, define your purpose. Then figure out, paragraph by paragraph, how to present your message to your audience to achieve your purpose. Use examples, Ross-Larson insists; "an ounce of example," he says, "is worth a ton of abstract generalization." And try taping your completed draft up on the wall. It's an ideal way to see it all at once, and excellent for slash-and-burn editing. --Jane Steinberg
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