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Rating: 
Summary: Fine Book on Expository Writing
Review: A good audience for this book would be any college graduate who has to write (and that's most college graduates). The book tries to undo the damage colleges have done to our students in the writing classrooms. Some key principles: 1. Don't write to impress; write to express. If we write to express, and if we do this well, we will impress our readers with the clean language we use, that is, the clean way we express ourselves. 2. "Prefer Clear, Familiar Words." This advice echoes the Fowler brothers' Rule 1 in 1908, "Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched." Far-fetched words in these times are often officialese. 3. "Keep Most Sentences Short and Simple." Albert Joseph advises us to keep one major idea in a sentence (Bernstein gave the same advice in the 1950s). This is better than advising us to average 15-20 words per sentence. 4. Use first-choice words and repeat them or use pronouns. This is contrary to what most English teachers advise us. They normally say never to use the same word soon after its previous use. Albert is right; English teachers are wrong. (The first to come up with the writing principle, as far as I know, is Fowler. In 1926 he called this principle "Eloquent Variation.") I suggest another audience for this book besides college graduates: Writing Instructors. This book will keep them focused (perhaps give them a focus) on what's important in expository writing. The only bad criticism I have of the book is its failure to give credit to people like Bernstein and Fowler. Frank E. Keyes, Jr. Senior Editor TRW, Arizona
Rating:
Summary: Fine Book on Expository Writing
Review: A good audience for this book would be any college graduate who has to write (and that's most college graduates). The book tries to undo the damage colleges have done to our students in the writing classrooms. Some key principles: 1. Don't write to impress; write to express. If we write to express, and if we do this well, we will impress our readers with the clean language we use, that is, the clean way we express ourselves. 2. "Prefer Clear, Familiar Words." This advice echoes the Fowler brothers' Rule 1 in 1908, "Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched." Far-fetched words in these times are often officialese. 3. "Keep Most Sentences Short and Simple." Albert Joseph advises us to keep one major idea in a sentence (Bernstein gave the same advice in the 1950s). This is better than advising us to average 15-20 words per sentence. 4. Use first-choice words and repeat them or use pronouns. This is contrary to what most English teachers advise us. They normally say never to use the same word soon after its previous use. Albert is right; English teachers are wrong. (The first to come up with the writing principle, as far as I know, is Fowler. In 1926 he called this principle "Eloquent Variation.") I suggest another audience for this book besides college graduates: Writing Instructors. This book will keep them focused (perhaps give them a focus) on what's important in expository writing. The only bad criticism I have of the book is its failure to give credit to people like Bernstein and Fowler. Frank E. Keyes, Jr. Senior Editor TRW, Arizona
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