Effective Writing

Rating:
Summary: Effective Writing - Beyond Editing Yourself
Review: Bruce Ross-Larson has now given us a fitting sequel to his classic Edit Yourself, which I have used since the 1980s to help me cut the fat out of what I write -- and improve clarity. When I worked in the World Bank I had him teach these arts to my staff. This saved me a lot of managerial time which I could devote to strategic pursuits like planning and innovating. Not exercising my red pencil on the prose of my mostly non native English speakers.

Bruce has now outdone himself by giving us three books in one: Effective Writing teaches us how to write "stunning sentences", "powerful paragraphs", and "riviting reports". Still to come, I understand, is "writing for the web". But for now, Bruce has put his wealth of experience as chief editor of some of the most important publications coming out of the World Bank and the United Nations (e.g. the World Development Report and the Human Development Report), just to name two of his clients, at the disposal of the writing public. This book is so good in print that it is being converted into a web-based training service for writers, aimed at corporate intranets. Clearwriter.com is coming soon.

But you can be the first on your block to hone your writing skills and impress your readers, whether they are your bosses, clients, or customers. This book is a must for every writer's bookshelf, whether or not a native English speaker.

Rating:
Summary: For Troglodytes or Bob Woodward
Review: If you're a verb-challenged troglodyte, you should read this book. If you're a budding Bob Woodward, you should own this book. Effective Writing is the book for anyone who wants to learn to write, focus their writing, or sharpen their editing. Using numerous examples, Bruce Ross-Larson demonstrates how to write sentences with variety, construct paragraphs that hang together and assemble all of that into the finished product. Ross-Larson's breezy, non-instructional style makes this 269-page book as easy a read as a romance novel.

This book is a compilation of three of Ross-Larson's more subject-specific books: Stunning Sentences, Powerful Paragraphs, and Riveting Reports. Not surprisingly, those are also the titles of the three sections into which Effective Writing is divided. The table of contents for each section identifies every tip so a deadline-pressured scribe can quickly zero in the advice sought, whether it's for "Interruptive Dashes" or "Make Your Points in Compelling Ways."

Ross-Larson's occupation as a writing coach is a primary reason for the success of this book. President of the American Writing Institute, he has helped improve the writing of executives at the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Census Bureau, among others. His experience in dealing with non-writers shows. No grammar guides here; there's no spelling secrets. Only practical, easy-to-understand advice on how to polish that rough stone of an idea into a sparkling gem.

He takes it for granted that his readers recognize good writing, even if they can't (yet) do it themselves: "So, to move from the common to the stunning," he advises, "begin to look for patterns in good writing that you can emulate." He also assumes some basic knowledge of parts of speech such as prepositional phrases and clauses. Some of his observations seem boringly obvious: "Most sentences should convey one idea - or two closely related ideas." Yet there are plenty of mental prods here for even the veteran pen-dragger, such as his advice on repetition: "Repetition - far too often avoided - can be a powerful rhetorical device. It can bring order and balance to a sentence's parts. And it can rivet a word to the reader's frontal lobe with more impact than elegant variation ever could." Each suggestion is supported by several examples culled from published articles and reports, with the point he's trying to make italicized.

But this isn't a mere primer. Ross-Larson doesn't hesitate to tempt readers to attempt more advanced forms of paragraph structure. For instance, he devotes 4 1/2 pages to "undermining," which he refers to as "a clever way to make your point stand out while taking the claws out of an opposing view." He describes how to "undermine a premise at the end of a paragraph" as well as how to "undermine a premise immediately." Or even to "undermine a premise in the middle of a paragraph." Of course, examples abound.

It is this hefty use of examples that contributes to readability of this book. For experienced writers, the examples can serve to blow away the syntactical cobwebs and refresh prose that may have grown stale. For beginners, the examples are mini case studies on which to linger.

For journalists, the section on report writing may have less relevance. Reporters facing daily deadlines rarely have time to take advantage of Ross-Larson's detailed approach to planning and drafting lengthy reports. However, for the college student writing a term paper or a junior executive trying to impress her boss with that seamless sales analysis, the time spent on these pages will be a great investment.

This book is written in a style light enough to engage even those who hated English in high school. Still, there's enough meat inside that every serious student of language ought to consider adding Effective Writing to that select group of books which occupy a corner of every writer or editor's desk.

Rating:
Summary: An essential writer's reference
Review: This is a collection of books from the Effective Writing series and is a great deal. All the books here, Stunning Sentences, Powerful Paragraphs, and Riveting Reports, are essential for any writer's or student's desk.

The first part, Stunning Sentences, turns from the memorization of sentence forms and gives the readers many examples of ways to model their own sentences. In the examples, Ross-Larson deftly shows the readers how the different sentence styles work and when they could best be used. He also gives the readers an example with exemplary sentences so that readers can see how the sentences work in a larger context.

The second part, Powerful Paragraphs, shows the readers how paragraphs can be formed and used by the writer. Different examples show how the topic sentence of the paragraph can be moved within the paragraph for effect. As with the previous section of this book, the author gives us plenty of examples.

The third part, Riveting Reports, walks the readers through the writing process and shows the readers how they can slowly and steadily build a solid paper. By showing these steps, the readers can eliminate a lot of stress by planning when these steps will be accomplished. There is also a full example of a paper from start to finish.

In all, this is a very handy resource to have available to you. Using this, and not just reading it, will provide you with great ideas in planning and writing. This is a must-have.