Book picks similar to
How to Write a Better Minor Thesis by Paul Gruba
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Write Right!: A Desktop Digest of Punctuation, Grammar, and Style
Jan Venolia - 1979
In this age of electronic correspondence and self-produced documents, we need a useful and reliable writing guide more than ever. Write Right! covers the essentials of good writing in a concise and easy-to-follow format. The new edition of this classic handbook takes you through the entire writing process, from understanding the parts of speech to constructing a correct sentence to fine-tuning the mechanics. And with clever drawings and amusing quotations to illustrate its points, Write Right! shows that language can be fun as well as an effective communication tool. Whether it's used to find a quick answer to a nagging question or to develop stronger writing skills, this handy reference is the ideal resource for writers of all levels.Includes a resource section with a list of helpful websites and a glossary to quickly define difficult terms.
They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing
Gerald Graff - 2006
In addition to explaining the basic moves, this book provides writing templates that show students explicitly how to make these moves in their own writing.
The Lexicon: A Cornucopia of Wonderful Words for the Inquisitive Word Lover
William F. Buckley Jr. - 1998
Introduction by Jesse Sheidlower; illustrations by Arnold Roth.
The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice from Chicago (or, How to Negotiate Good Relationships with Your Writers, Your Colleagues, and Yourself)
Carol Fisher Saller - 2009
Some are arcane, some simply hilarious—and one editor, Carol Fisher Saller, reads every single one of them. All too often she notes a classic author-editor standoff, wherein both parties refuse to compromise on the "rights" and "wrongs" of prose styling: "This author is giving me a fit." "I wish that I could just DEMAND the use of the serial comma at all times." "My author wants his preface to come at the end of the book. This just seems ridiculous to me. I mean, it’s not a post-face."In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller casts aside this adversarial view and suggests new strategies for keeping the peace. Emphasizing habits of carefulness, transparency, and flexibility, she shows copy editors how to build an environment of trust and cooperation. One chapter takes on the difficult author; another speaks to writers themselves. Throughout, the focus is on serving the reader, even if it means breaking "rules" along the way. Saller’s own foibles and misadventures provide ample material: "I mess up all the time," she confesses. "It’s how I know things."Writers, Saller acknowledges, are only half the challenge, as copy editors can also make trouble for themselves. (Does any other book have an index entry that says "terrorists. See copy editors"?) The book includes helpful sections on e-mail etiquette, work-flow management, prioritizing, and organizing computer files. One chapter even addresses the special concerns of freelance editors.Saller’s emphasis on negotiation and flexibility will surprise many copy editors who have absorbed, along with the dos and don’ts of their stylebooks, an attitude that their way is the right way. In encouraging copy editors to banish their ignorance and disorganization, insecurities and compulsions, the Chicago Q&A presents itself as a kind of alter ego to the comparatively staid Manual of Style. In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller continues her mission with audacity and good humor.
Public Speaking Essentials: Six Steps to Sizzle on Stage
Ramakrishna Reddy - 2015
You may be overloaded with too much of information. There are loads of information in form of books and articles out there that can help you. However, would it be nice to have an easy and simple process to follow to handle this area of your life? Discover The Easy Guide To Public Speaking: “Public Speaking Essentials” will reveal 6 steps that’ll help you overcome your fear and speak like a PRO. These are easy to understand and implement solutions coming from someone who was in the trenches and who's now an active and successful public speaker. Since he was a shy kid as he was growing up, Rama ventured into Public Speaking to handle this area of his life. As a result of his learning from mentors, toastmasters and contests, Ramakrishna Reddy has won more than 25 Public Speaking Contests and written 3 books related to Public Speaking. He speaks regularly to people ranging from few dozens to few hundreds. Ramakrishna is dedicated to sharing the lessons he’s learned to help others become confident in public speaking. Public Speaking Revealed in Six Simple Steps: How to overcome Public Speaking Anxiety How to master three pillars of Public Speaking How to Practice for Presentation Day How to Handle the Presentation Day How to create a connection with the audience How to handle glitches during the presentation day Download now to know more about this 'no clutter' guide.
Writing to Persuade: How to Bring People Over to Your Side
Trish Hall - 2019
As the person in charge of the Op-Ed page for the New York Times, Hall spent years immersed in argument, passion, and trendsetting ideas—but also in tangled sentences, migraine-inducing jargon, and dull-as-dishwater writing. Drawing on her vast experience editing everyone from Nobel Prize winners and global strongmen (Putin) to first-time pundits (Angelina Jolie), Hall presents the ultimate guide to writing persuasively for students, job applicants, and rookie authors looking to get published. She sets out the core principles for connecting with readers—laid out in illuminating chapters such as “Cultivate Empathy,” “Abandon Jargon,” and “Prune Ruthlessly.” Combining boisterous anecdotes with practical advice (relayed in “tracked changes” bubbles), Hall offers an infinitely accessible primer on the art of effectively communicating above the digital noise of the twenty-first century.
La profe de español: Learn Spanish by Reading
Juan Fernández - 2016
Reading is one of the most effective and pleasant ways to learn a Foreign Language. By reading, students can learn vocabulary and grammar structures as part of a story, in context, without memorising lists of isolated words or studying endless grammar rules. However, La profe de español is not just a book to learn Spanish. It is also a good story. It is a funny, witty, enjoyable and engaging story. A story that will capture your attention from the beginning and, hopefully, will make you smile. It tells the story of María, a Spanish teacher who works in a really peculiar language school, where bizarre things happen. If you have ever been to a Spanish class, you will enjoy reading this book.
Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Robert McKee - 1997
Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience. In Story, McKee expands on the concepts he teaches in his $450 seminars (considered a must by industry insiders), providing readers with the most comprehensive, integrated explanation of the craft of writing for the screen. No one better understands how all the elements of a screenplay fit together, and no one is better qualified to explain the "magic" of story construction and the relationship between structure and character than Robert McKee.
Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction
Jack R. Hart - 2011
Yet writers looking for guidance on reporting and writing true stories have had few places to turn for advice. Now in Storycraft, Jack Hart, a former managing editor of the Oregonian who guided several Pulitzer Prize–winning narratives to publication, delivers what will certainly become the definitive guide to the methods and mechanics of crafting narrative nonfiction.Hart covers what writers in this genre need to know, from understanding story theory and structure, to mastering point of view and such basic elements as scene, action, and character, to drafting, revising, and editing work for publication. Revealing the stories behind the stories, Hart brings readers into the process of developing nonfiction narratives by sharing tips, anecdotes, and recommendations he forged during his decades-long career in journalism. From there, he expands the discussion to other well-known writers to show the broad range of texts, styles, genres, and media to which his advice applies. With examples that draw from magazine essays, book-length nonfiction narratives, documentaries, and radio programs, Storycraft will be an indispensable resource for years to come.
Writing For A Good Cause: The Complete Guide To Crafting Proposals And Other Persuasive Pieces For Nonprof
Joseph Barbato - 2000
Whether you work for a storefront social action agency or a leading university, the authors' knowledgeable, practical advice will help you: Write the perfect proposal—from the initial research and interviews to the final product Draft, revise, and polish a "beguiling, exciting, can't-put-it-down and surely can't-turn-it-down" request for funds Create case statements and other big money materials—also write, design, and print newsletters, and use the World Wide Web effectively Survive last-minute proposals and other crises—with the Down-and-Dirty Proposal Kit! Writing for a Good Cause provides everything fund raisers, volunteers, staff writers, freelancers, and program directors need to know to win funds from individual, foundation, and corporate donors.
Language in Thought and Action
S.I. Hayakawa - 1939
Senator S. I. Hayakawa discusses the role of language in human life, the many functions of language, and how language—sometimes without our knowing—shapes our thinking in this engaging and highly respected book. Provocative and erudite, it examines the relationship between language and racial and religious prejudice; the nature and dangers of advertising from a linguistic point of view; and, in an additional chapter called “The Empty Eye,” the content, form, and hidden message of television, from situation comedies to news coverage to political advertising.
Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence
Lisa Cron - 2012
Wired for Story reveals these cognitive secrets--and it's a game-changer for anyone who has ever set pen to paper. The vast majority of writing advice focuses on writing well as if it were the same as telling a great story. This is exactly where many aspiring writers fail--they strive for beautiful metaphors, authentic dialogue, and interesting characters, losing sight of the one thing that every engaging story must do: ignite the brain's hardwired desire to learn what happens next. When writers tap into the evolutionary purpose of story and electrify our curiosity, it triggers a delicious dopamine rush that tells us to pay attention. Without it, even the most perfect prose won't hold anyone's interest. Backed by recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as well as examples from novels, screenplays, and short stories, Wired for Story offers a revolutionary look at story as the brain experiences it. Each chapter zeroes in on an aspect of the brain, its corresponding revelation about story, and the way to apply it to your storytelling right now.
Understanding Human Communication
Ronald B. Adler - 1982
Maintaining the quality of presentation and student-focused pedagogy that have characterized previous editions, Understanding Human Communication, Ninth Edition, incorporates updated examples and coverage of current communication theory. It continues to equip students with effective communication skills that will make a difference in their everyday lives.New to the Ninth Edition: * New material on mediated communication, personal listening styles, deceptive communication, and informative speaking * A revised section on the Cumulative Effects Theory and more applications of communication in the workplace, within the family, and at school * Updated research and examples on negative/positive language and gender influences on communication * Improved design and pedagogy: case studies at the opening of each part, highlights at the beginning of each chapter, and completely annotated full speech outlines with accompanying sample speeches * Additional teaching and learning resources: Student Success Manual, Student Resources Disc, expanded Instructor's Manual and Test Bank, Instructor's Disc, and an extensive web site
Scrivener Essentials: A Quick Start Visual Guide For Windows Users
Karen Prince - 2014
Imagine if you could use Scrivener for Windows like a seasoned professional, knowing the keyboard shortcuts, what the tools on the toolbar do; flying through the application and creating an amazing story without being distracted by having to look up how to use a feature every time you want to use it. In the back of your mind you know that the Scrivener software you bought is going to simplify your writing process and help you become more productive. You have heard about the cool split screen views, virtual cork boards and the collections feature where you can process all instances of a document at once even though you have it in several different collections. But best of all you’ve heard that you can export your content to multiple platforms without having to change the original draft document! Imagine the time you are going to save. Not to mention that if you can format your own work for export you will no longer be held hostage to the whims and schedules of anyone else. The problem is, before you can do all that, you have to learn how to use the Scrivener software. This can be time consuming if you try to learn from the Scrivener users manual which is highly technical and includes every conceivable function and feature of the software. Don’t get me wrong. The Scrivener users manual has every bit of information you will ever need regarding Scrivener because it is supposed to be like that, but it sure is difficult to weed out the bits that pertain to the project you want to write. I know because that is the way I had to learn it. What I would have liked was a Scrivener essentials guide with:
Plenty of pictures, so that you can instantly recognize the regions of the user interface.
Arrows pointing right at the buttons mentioned in the instructions, making them easy to find.
Instructions embedded into the images they refer to so that they don’t drift onto the next page because of the personal settings on your Kindle.
No distracting instructions for Macintosh users that send you on a wild goose chase after functions that are not supported by Scrivener for Windows.
So I wrote a guide just like that. In it you will learn to:
Open a project and customize your workspaces.
Toggle between normal Text Editing Mode, Cork Board Mode and Outlining Mode and how to use each of them as well as how to use the distraction free Full Screen Mode.
Split your screen to have two documents or two versions of the same document open at once.
Manage your files and folders, whether you are starting from scratch in Scrivener or want to import your content from another writing application pre-sorted into chapters or sections.
Make use of Scrivener’s editing tools like collections and snapshots (which takes a snap shot of the current state of a document so that you can revert to it if you don’t like your subsequent edits.)
Compile your work for export to your agent, as a paperback or as an eBook.
How to download some tools so that you can preview your content before you send it out.
If you are ready to improve your writing process, scroll up, click the buy button and start making the most of your Scrivener Software today!
Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University
Mark Kramer - 2007
Telling True Stories presents their best advice—covering everything from finding a good topic, to structuring narrative stories, to writing and selling your first book. More than fifty well-known writers offer their most powerful tips, including: • Tom Wolfe on the emotional core of the story • Gay Talese on writing about private lives • Malcolm Gladwell on the limits of profiles • Nora Ephron on narrative writing and screenwriters • Alma Guillermoprieto on telling the story and telling the truth • Dozens of Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists from the Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and more . . .The essays contain important counsel for new and career journalists, as well as for freelance writers, radio producers, and memoirists. Packed with refreshingly candid and insightful recommendations, Telling True Stories will show anyone fascinated by the art of writing nonfiction how to bring people, scenes, and ideas to life on the page.