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The Reader's Brain: How Neuroscience Can Make You a Better Writer

Yellowlees Douglas (Goodreads Author)

really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 62 ratings · 7 reviews

Have you ever found yourself re-reading the same sentence four or five times and thought 'I should get more sleep'? Are you clueless as to why one paragraph just seems to 'flow' while you simply can't recall the contents of another? Guess what: you are not alone. Even the best writers fail to grasp why their writing works. The Reader's Brain is the first science-based guid ...more

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Kindle Edition, 227 pages

Published June 30th 2015 by Cambridge University Press

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Sep 03, 2015 Eustacia Tan rated it really liked it

I requested this book mainly because it held the promise of being able to make my writing better. While I won't have many opportunities to write academic papers in English (for now), there's always the chance I'll need it for my future job.

Basically, The Reader's Brain is supposed to teach you how to use the 5Cs - clarity, continuity, coherence, concision, and cadence, to write more effectively. The book contains a fair amount of research about how reading works, and provides lots of examples. T I requested this book mainly because it held the promise of being able to make my writing better. While I won't have many opportunities to write academic papers in English (for now), there's always the chance I'll need it for my future job.

Basically, The Reader's Brain is supposed to teach you how to use the 5Cs - clarity, continuity, coherence, concision, and cadence, to write more effectively. The book contains a fair amount of research about how reading works, and provides lots of examples. There'll be an example one (normally the horrible writing), and then an example two, so the reader can see what the author means. At the end of the book is a quick grammar guide.

I admit, I skimmed the parts about reading. I'm not sure why, since that was why I got the book, but it turned out that the parts that interested me the most were probably the expert tips, since they were short and basically summarisations of what the author just said, written in a "how to apply it to writing" format.

What I learnt from the book can be summed up as: use active voice, and put what you want people to remember in the front. And make sure you vary your sentence lengths and structure. So, KISS with an addition of "mix it up now and then".

Oh, and how to identify passive voice. Basically, if you can insert the phrase "by zombies" after the verb and the sentence still makes sense, it's passive voice. So, if I'm applying this right,

"After consuming penicillin, Tim was was healed by zombies" - passive.
"The penicillin healed Tim by zombies" - active voice.

All in all, this book is a clearly written guide on how to improve your non-fiction writing. I like that lots of example were raised, and it seems be be backed up by science. It is, however, not a grammar book, despite the brief guide at the end, so think of this as for the middle-to-advanced writer.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile ...more

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Oct 25, 2015 Vince Darcangelo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: academic, nonfiction, reviews

http://ensuingchapters.com/2015/10/25...

Most books on writing have the same fatal flaw: They may be inspiring and informative, but they seldom offer practical advice. Typically, you’ll get some variation of the following: write something every day; write what you know; active voice; character before plot.

Got it.

Yellowlees Douglas wants to change that with The Reader’s Brain. Drawing on science rather than Strunk and White, she offers tips on how to be a more effective writer, whether you’re penn ...more

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Jun 26, 2020 Sergio GRANDE rated it liked it

No spoilers here; nothing could spoil this book any further.

I give it three stars because someone may find it as helpful as I found it useless. So it's fair to settle on the halfway mark. Fair and a little generous, I think.

Other than useless, I also found it disappointing. Wait, let me re-phrase that. I found it useless and very disappointing.

I am not a published writer -though I have written a full motion picture screenplay- but I write. My job has me writing documents that are submitted to a ...more

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Apr 19, 2019 Mizuki rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I just happened to buy this book as a paperback and it was a good idea to make easy to refer whenever I write. I don't think I can follow the principles shown in this book very well yet (even during writing this review..) but I'd like to do my best in the future writings.
I like this book because, as the author mentioned, no other books focuses in the middle of micro and macro level of writing. Especially I like the cadence part!
Also one of the encouraging things for me is, good readers can be ...more

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Jul 23, 2019 Shira rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: writing

Wonderful! Great tips

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Feb 24, 2017 Gio rated it liked it · review of another edition

Although I'm a writer, I rarely read books about writing. I just find they give you the same repetitive (and obvious!) advice, such as write every day and avoid the passive voice like the plague. I made an exception for this book because all the tips are backed by science. By discovering how readers process the writing words, we can create texts that are easier to read, understand and enjoy.

I don't want to give away too much, so I'll just mention that Douglas' advice centres on the use of the 5C ...more

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