Writing With Style

by Sue Young

Explores such points as subject-verb agreement, when slang is appropriate, why computer programs cannot replace proofreading, and more, in a guide that explains how to plan, produce, polish, and present a written work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

144 pages, Library Binding

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[Laura Verret]

Writing with Style is divided into four sections.

Planning. In this section, Ms. Young emphasizes the helpfulness of purposeful planning. She encourages aspiring authors to carefully craft their writing experience from the surrounding elements to the subject matter. Do you work better indoors or outdoors? On paper or a computer? Surrounded by distractions or in a clean, sterile environment? If you don’t already know the answers to these questions, then try experimenting with different scenarios to see which one is best for you.

When it comes to your actual project, don’t mistreat it. Pick your topic ahead of time and spend some time thinking through it. Next, write an outline: this will help you to further categorize your thoughts and will make the actual writing much easier.

Producing. In this section, by far the longest of the book, Ms. Young provides helpful hints and tips for the writing process as well as solid grammatical advice. She encourages writers to have a clear understanding of the style of their genre, to maintain clarity of meaning and precision at all costs, to preserve an active rather than passive tone, and to avoid droning. This is a very, very practical section.

Polishing. This section emphasizes the importance of fine-tuning your work – rewriting boring or unclear sections, revising sentences to maintain parallel verb usage, including a variety of sentence structures, and expanding the vocabulary used.

Presenting. Once you’ve gone through the intense steps of Planning, Producing, and Polishing, you still have one step left – Presenting. The presentation of a paper – its formatting, neatness, and uniformity – may push your writing from good to great.

Conclusion. An excellent resource.

[LJ]

This is a very basic, direct, to-the-point grammar and punctuation manual, for those who love that sort of thing (like I do!) Some of the rules may be outdated, but those can be checked easily in "Chicago 16" or online.

[Brajadulal Patnaik]

This is an excellent resource for any young writer. I absolutely loved this book and would recommend you to read this if you want to be a professional in the field of writing. You can read the full review here:

https://brajadulal.blogspot.in/2016/1...

[Belle]

I didn't really like this book. I was expecting something more along the lines of writing exercises and ideas, rather than a book full of grammar.

[Selah Bell]

I didn't really like this book. I was expecting something more along the lines of writing exercises and ideas, rather than a book full of grammar.