Mixing creative inspiration with practical advice about craft, the book includes chapters on:- Accessing raw voice- Listening to voices of childhood, public and private voices, and colloquial voices- Working in first and third person: discovering a narrative persona- Using voice to create characters- Shaping one's voice into the form of a story- Reigniting the energy of voice during revision

    Now in its third edition, this completely updated classic has been expanded to included all new advice on e-mail and the e-writing world, plus a fresh point of view on political correctness. With dozens of examples, many of them new, and useful tips for writing as well as faster on a computer, Writing That Works will show you how to improve anything you write:Presentations that move ideas and actionMemos and letters that get things donePlans and reports that make things happenFund-raising and sales letters that produce resultsResumes and letters that lead to interviewsSpeeches that make a point

    As the always clear and direct Stein explains here, This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions--how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place. With examples from bestsellers as well as from students' drafts, Stein offers detailed sections on characterization, dialogue, pacing, flashbacks, trimming away flabby wording, the so-called triage method of revision, using the techniques of fiction to enliven nonfiction, and more.

    Martin7;s Guide has an unparalleled record of proven success. From the beginning, Axelrod and Cooper have taken the best of classic and contemporary theory, filtered it through their own and their colleagues7; classroom experience, and then blended the result into a flexible classroom tool. Their step-by-step guides to writing specific kinds of essays were a groundbreaking concept and changed the way writing is taught in American colleges. The course continues to change, and Axelrod and Cooper continue to innovate: source-based writing, analysis of argument, online teaching, and visual rhetoric are some of the focuses of this latest revision. By seamlessly incorporating practical, class-tested solutions to these new challenges, Axelrod and Cooper have once again provided the best foundation for college writing.

    Once students have understood the terms and concepts in their own language, it is easier for them to understand their textbook. With simple explanations and numerous examples, this brief handbook compares English and Spanish grammar and points out the similarities and differences.

    Collected here for the first time are those pieces illuminating the tricks of the authorial trade, from creating vibrant characters and generating seamless plots, to conquering writer's block and experimenting with self-publishing.Filled with wit and insight, The Liar's Bible is a must-read for experts, amateurs, and anyone interested in learning to craft great fiction from one of the field's modern masters.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection."Block is one of the best " -The Washington PostLawrence Block (b. 1938) is a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and an internationally acclaimed New York Times bestselling author. His awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers' Association (UK). Although he is best known for his four main mystery series, Block explored a variety of genres, including thrillers and erotica, and developed an early following as a pulp-fiction writer under a number of pseudonyms. Born in Buffalo, New York, Block has three daughters and currently lives with his wife in New York City.

    Although most of the currently popular guides contain useful ideas, they all suffer from the same problems: poor organization; quirky, idiosyncratic advice; and abstract theorizing on the nature of art. As a result, they fail to offer any concrete information or useful guidelines on how to construct a well-written play. Out of frustration, Spencer wrote his own. The result, The Playwright's Guidebook, is a concise and engaging handbook full of the kind of wisdom that comes naturally with experience. Spencer presents a coherent way of thinking about playwriting that addresses the important principles of structure, includes invaluable writing exercises that build upon one another, explores the creative process, and troubleshoots recurrent problems that many playwrights face.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    The techniques he presents in "How to Learn Any Language" will have you speaking, reading, writing and enjoying any foreign language you want to learn - or have to learn - in a surprisingly short time.Without beating your head against verb conjugations or noun declensions, you can follow Farber's principles and glide toward proficiency in your chosen language. His method consist of four ground-breaking but simple concepts hailed by language-teaching professionals:

    just want to be?When is heaven capitalized?Do you stand in line or on line?For anyone who writes—short stories or business plans, book reports or news articles—knotty choices of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and meaning lurk in every line: Lay or lie? Who or whom? None is or none are? Is Touch-Tone a trademark? How about Day-Glo? It’s enough to send you in search of a Martini. (Or is that a martini?) Now everyone can find answers to these and thousands of other questions in the handy alphabetical guide used by the writers and editors of the world’s most authoritative newspaper. The guidelines to hyphenation, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling are crisp and compact, created for instant reference in the rush of daily deadlines. This revised and expanded edition is updated with solutions to the tantalizing problems that plague writers in the new century:* How to express the equality of the sexes without using self-conscious devices like “he or she.” * How to choose thoughtfully between African-American and black; Hispanic and Latino; American Indian and Native American. * How to translate the vocabulary of e-mail and cyberspace and cope with the eccentricities of Internet company names and website addresses. With wry wit, the authors, who have more than seventy-five years of combined newsroom experience at the New York Times, have created an essential and entertaining reference tool.

    Its nine chapters provide principles and strategies for working with diverse writers and assignments in a variety of contexts: college or high school, online or face-to-face, in the writing center and beyond. Visit the companion Web site for The Bedford Handbook, Eighth Edition (hackerhandbooks.com/bedhandbook) to find additional tools for tutors and writers including handouts on common writing, grammar, and punctuation problems; documentation help; links to tutoring resources; and an annotated bibliography.

    Now at last here's a feast for them and other verbivores. Eat up!-Barbara WallraffSenior Editor at The Atlantic Monthly and author of Word CourtPraise for A Word a Day"AWADies will be familiar with Anu Garg's refreshing approach to words: words are fun and they have fascinating histories. The people who use them have curious stories to tell too, and this collection incorporates some of the correspondence received by the editors at the AWAD site, from advice on how to outsmart your opponent in a duel (or even a truel) to a cluster of your favorite mondegreens."-John Simpson, Chief Editor, Oxford English Dictionary"A banquet of words! Feast and be nourished!"-Richard Lederer, author of The Miracle of LanguageWritten by the founder of the wildly popular A Word A Day Web site (www.wordsmith.org), this collection of unusual, obscure, and exotic English words will delight writers, scholars, crossword puzzlers, and word buffs of every ilk. The words are grouped in intriguing categories that range from "Portmanteaux" to "Words That Make the Spell-Checker Ineffective." each entry includes a concise definition, etymology, and usage example-and many feature fascinating and hilarious commentaries by A Word A Day subscribers and the authors.

    But think about writing something and panic sets in. Overcome this crippling response by learning how to "talk" on paper. Joel Saltzman tells it like it is--with compassion, humor, and the "uncommon wisdom" of famous writers, artists, and musicians. Based on his popular workshop for the UCLA Writers' Program, this is a program with proven results.

    Peter Trudgill examines the close link between language and society and the many factors that influence the way we speak. These range from gender, environment, age, race, class, region and politics. Trudgill's book surveys languages and societies from all over the world drawing on examples from Afrikaans to Yiddish. He has added a fascinating chapter on the development of a language as a result of a non-native speaker's use of it. Compelling and authoritative, this new edition of a bestselling book is set to redraw the boundaries of the study of sociolinguistics.

    Dangling modifiers, gerunds, punctuation marks--it's enough to make you want to drop out of high school. Swearing and sex on the other hand, well, these time-honored pastimes warm the cockles of our hearts. Now, The Elements of F*cking Style drags English grammar out of the ivory tower and into the gutter, injecting a dull subject with a much-needed dose of color.This book addresses everything from common questions ("What the hell is a pronoun?") to philosophical conundrums ("Does not using paragraphs or periods make my thesis read like it was written by a mental patient?"). Other valuable sections include:•All I've got in this world are my sentences and my balls, and I don't break 'em for nobody•A colon is more than an organ that gets cancer•Words your bound to f*ck upOne glance at your friend's blog should tell you everything you need to know about the sorry state of the English language. This book gives you the tools you need to stop looking like an idiot on message boards and in interoffice memos. Grammar has never before been so much f*cking fun.