Product Description
Designed to teach how to gather, write, and edit news stories, The Complete Reporter discusses the techniques that are used every day in the news business. Through a combination of descriptive text, examples, demonstrations, and exercises, this book makes fundamental concepts clear while instilling task-specificnews and feature story writing skills. Along with introducing students to basic discussions about the field of reporting and basic writing, editing, and design skills, this text provides them with key guidelines and tips for writing general and specialty stories (see Parts IV-VII).Practical exercises throughout each chapter give readers experience with realistic writing situations. Based on actual newspaper articles, the exercises present a series of reporter's notes prepared at the scene of a story. Usable facts, libelous and/or unethical statements, and trivial tidbits are lumped together in order to test and help build judgment skillsand abilitities to create tightly woven stories from a jumble of information. For anyone interested in basic news writing and reporting. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A must for anybody wanting to write news.
I've read the fifth edition and found it to not have the number of typos other reviewers found in the 7th Ed., so I presume the typos were intentional as is common among publishers to protect their copyrights.

At any rate, this book is intended for the journalism student. It can get somewhat dry. In such a setting one can't expect cotton candy and Reese Peanut Butter Cups!

The people that can best benefit by reading this text are the people at your local weekly newspaper and the reporters for Fox News Corporation. Objectivity and source attribution are sadly lacking at many community newspapers, at Fox News and at Al Jazeera. Okay, that's a bit harsh. But I digress.

When I was younger I obtained more than two years college credit simply by obtaining business books, reading them, and working each and every exercise at the end of each chapter and then taking College Level Eaxamintions through CLEP. This book is one in which the reader could do likewise and obtain at least sufficient knowledge to earn one year credit.

Then, even if you choose not to enter the workforce as a news gatherer, writer or editor, at least you would have an appreciation for the process.

I highly recommend this book for anyone involved in writing news or features or for those who interface with newspeople.

I have mixed feelings about this book.
This book has plenty of important information and it presents it in a simple way with concrete examples.That's good.HOWEVER, the edition I had was absolutely riddled with typos, misspellings, and incorrect punctuation.It's hard to take this book about newswriting fundamentals seriously, when one of the fundamentals - accuracy - is so obviously not a priority.Also, I'm not sure that a book is the best way to teach writing, at least this kind of writing.I fell way behind in the reading, but I still got an A in the class.I learned much more from On Writing Well by Zinsser than I did from this book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Now I know what I want to be when I grow up...
I heard about Scott Norton's Developmental Editing from a classmate--a colleague of the author--in Berkeley's Professional Sequence in Editing. I had never before heard the term "developmental editing," but immediately ordered the book, which I rarely do without the benefit of supporting reviews (since the book was just coming out, there were none at the time). My first response: This is an extraordinary book, and should be added to any short list of essential resources for editing, publishing, and writing.

As defined by Scott Norton, developmental editing is distinct from copyediting and substantive editing. The copyeditor deals with the nuts and bolts of clarity, cohesion, consistency, and correctness (the "4 Cs" according to Amy Einsohn's The Copyeditor's Handbook), while the substantive editor has license to revise at the word, sentence, and paragraph levels.

The developmental editor (DE) operates at the nexus of art, craft, and the market realities of today's hyper-competitive publishing industry. The DE simultaneously serves three constituencies: as first advocate for the reader; as protector of message and voice for the author; as field operative for the publisher, enhancing its reputation while maximizing the book's market prospects. Ideally the DE is brought on board very early on. More often, the DE will be tasked with improving or even rescuing an existing manuscript by applying Scott's developmental blueprint, which also forms the structure of his book: Assuming the author has provided a manuscript with "good bones," the DE first discovers and draws out the most compelling concept. That concept is then narrowed to a sharp thesis, and supporting content is restructured into a rhythmic balance of engaging narrative in service to a cogent argument. Stylistic intervention ensures the author's voice is expressed with clarity and an appropriate tone, while running text is supported with complementary display elements.

In practice, the boundaries between discrete editing tasks are leaky, and don't lend themselves well to tightly prescribed divisions of labor. Still, I like Scott's definition, which he tempers with the acknowledgment that the DE will frequently dip into the inkwells of copyeditor or substantive editor--or even at times the ghostwriter.

The first book-length treatment devoted exclusively to its eponymous subject, Developmental Editing is close to perfect in accomplishing its stated goals: defining the DE's role, prescribing the DE's methodologies, and making a case for the DE's value proposition in publishing's economic equation. Scott accomplishes these goals by spiking the book with the DNA of its own principles, which are prescriptive without being formulaic. Developmental Editing features a clear concept, a sharp thesis, a logical structure, comprehensive yet balanced content, elegant expression, andinventive storytelling (the book's expository framework is punctuated with supporting fictional narratives). And while the book focuses on developing nonfiction books, its methodologies could be applied in some measure to just about any type of writing.

Scott Norton's Developmental Editing should have a broad audience, since it would profit anyone in the publishing industry. For those hoping to enter the industry or move up its food chain, the book is a best-practices manual. Writers can apply its principles to bring sharper focus to the start of any new writing project, or--when a publisher's developmental budget is strained--to self-diagnose problems in an existing manuscript, pushing the work past the tipping point that favors publication.

A Unique Book on Editing
In teaching courses on editing at UC Berkeley extension, I assigned various books that focused on grammar, usage, proofreading, copyediting, and publishing. I searched for a book on developmental editing. None. "The Chicago Manual of Style fifteenth edition, merely mentions the subject.Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) is unique.

Scott Norton defines developmental editing as "a significant structuring or restructuring of a manuscript's discourse" and observes that unlike copyediting it cannot be "demonstrated with brief examples. So I've adopted the strategy of creating extended narrative examples. Although fictitious and intentionally exaggerated, these 'case studies' reflect the range of authors, clients, and developmental assignments."

The artfully constructed case studies Norton presents engage the reader throughout the book -- from the first chapter, "Concept: Shaping the Proposal" to the final chapter, "Display: Dressing Up the Text." Two examples of his creative case-study approach follow.

"Thesis: Finding the Hook" (pp. 48-67) begins with the developmental editor (DE) taking a first look at the book proposal and noting that the two coauthors, an anthropologist and a sociologist, both second generation Mexican Americans "had too much to say on their subject, and many of their theses contradicted each other" (p. 51).

The assigned DE, Bud Zallis, a freelancer, made preliminary lists of topics and the eight theses he found in the manuscript. Two theses appeared strong: "'La casa chica,' the ultimate ambivalence: man wants to have cake and eat it too" and "'Machismo,' the attitude 'problem' most Mexicans name first" (p. 54). The DE's thorough analysis yielded the working thesis "The tradition of 'la casa chica,' which gives 'illegitimate' families a prescribed role in Mexican society even as it affirms their second class citizenship, predisposes undocumented workers to accept uncomplainingly their role as 'illegal' workers in American society" (p. 62).

Next, the DE brainstormed on the working title of the book, finally coming up with "Mexican Values, American Dreams." As a nifty touch, Norton adds: "On National Public Radio, Maria [the anthropologist coauthor] was asked, 'When the madre of la casa chica has been finally welcomed into the big house, will there be peace?' She answered, 'Oh yes, she'll take her place quietly at the table. But she and her children will never forget.'" (p. 67). The creative freedom of fictitious case studies!

The second example focuses on "Display: Dressing Up the Text" (pp. 187-219). The manuscript on the Indian Diaspora came from a new author, Jagreet Raj Kaur, a long-time Indian-American contributor of short articles to the Famous Footsteps Travel Guides. The travel-guide publishers chose the Indian diaspora as the inaugural title in their new series because its median income was substantially above that of their host countries -- more book sales likely. And they were pleased with her ten-year record of delivering sharp articles.

The assigned DE, Hedda Miller, also afreelancer, noted that the manuscript needed work on chapter sequences, tables, choice of epigraphs, and art. Evidently, her success in writing short articles is one thing, writing a book-length manuscript is another. Scott Norton lucidly explains the changes and enhancements Hedda Miller suggested in each of these categories.

I highly recommend this book to all nonfiction writers, editors, and publishers.

-- C J Singh ... Read more

Product Description
This acclaimed book is a master teacher's tested program for turning clumsy prose into clear, powerful, and effective writing. A logical, expert, easy-to-use plan for achieving excellence in expression, Style offers neither simplistic rules nor endless lists of dos and don'ts. Rather, Joseph Williams explains how to be concise, how to be focused, how to be organized. Filled with realistic examples of good, bad, and better writing, and step-by-step strategies for crafting a sentence or organizing a paragraph, Style does much more than teach mechanics: it helps anyone who must write clearly and persuasively transform even the roughest of drafts into a polished work of clarity, coherence, impact, and personality.

A textbook edition with exercises, Style is available from Longman.Amazon.com Review
"Telling me to 'Be clear,' " writes Joseph M. Williams inStyle: Toward Clarity and Grace, "is like telling me to 'Hitthe ball squarely.' I know that. What I don't know is how to do it." If you are ever going to know how to write clearly, it will be afterreading Williams' book, which is a rigorous examination of--and lessonin--the elements of fine writing. With any luck, your clear writingwill turn graceful, as well. Though most of us, says Williams, wouldbe happy just to write "clear, coherent, and appropriately emphaticprose," he is not content to teach us just that. He also attempts, byway of example, to determine what constitutes elegant writing.

Despite the proliferation of books in this genre, rarely does one feelso confident in one's instructor. Williams is meticulous and exacting,yet never pedantic. Though he agrees with most of his grammariancolleagues that, generally speaking, the active voice is better thanthe passive or that the ordinary word is preferable to the fancy,Williams is also quick to assert that there's no sense learning a rule"if all we can do is obey it." And he is most emphatic about theabsurdity of prescriptions concerning usage (such as, "Never begin asentence with a coordinating conjunction"). Such rules, he says, "are'violated' so consistently that, unless we are ready to indict for badgrammar just about every serious writer of modern English, we have toreject as misinformed anyone who would attempt to enforce them." --Jane Steinberg ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

Useful Guide to Writing
This is the most useful guide to writing English I have ever read.It has advice like: put old information first, then follow it up with new information.When you're in the mire of trying to rewrite a paragraph packed with information, it is simple advice like this that helps break down the craft.

Essentially, this book is an instruction on how to *read*.By breaking down the psychology of the reader (how information is processed; what questions are asked) he clarifies the various tasks of the writer.

The other reviews of this book pretty much cover my own views, but I will add that the title itself is brilliant.The only significant criticism I have of the book is that for his writing examples, he mainly uses business letters in which the content is very dry.But perhaps his point was to illustrate techniques of style on dry writing, to show that the techniques work regardless of the content.

I have bought at least five copies of this book for other people or when I've lost my own copy.

Instead of buying this
I think a faster way to get the most important lessons from this book is to go straight to the source--that is, (download or buy) then read George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language."

By accident or on purpose, Williams has done in 200 plus what Orwell did in 20 or less.

If you don't like Orwell's English bias (especially towards interminable Dickensonian sentences), a bias shared by Prof. WIlliams, then after reading Orwell, take the pleasant stroll of reading anything and all of Twain, Melville, and Hemingway. But, out of all things to read about writing well, I cannot recommend this book.

Just what I was looking for to improve my writing
I want my writing to be clear, cohesive, coherent, concise and elegant. This book is showing me how.

Helpful
Although a little hard to read at first, it definitely gets to the point about good writing.A great read for those who need help writing!

A Must-Have for Academic Writers
For students, scholars, or everyday writers, this is a must-have book. This is a great book for learning how to hone your writing skills to get thoughts on the paper in a way that is still understandable to the reader. He goes over how to effectively construct sentences, link those sentences into paragraphs, and then shape those units so that they are concise, elegant, and coherent. Williams provides multiple examples of what good and bad writing looks like and the keys on how to transform bad writing into good writing.

The best part of the book is the connection that Williams makes between thinking and writing. Bad writing often masks incomplete thinking, so this book is also a guide indirectly of how to read more effectively and deeply. For any student who wants to take their writing to the next level and beyond the strong Strunk and White foundational grammar, this is a book for you. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Very useful and understandable
This is a clear and concise guide for writing about topics like social research and I am very glad to have it on my reference shelf.

The Chicago Guide to Writing
This is a required text for a graduate course I have enrolled in for fall term.So far, I have found the book makes understanding numbers easier for those (like me) who did not partake in any major mathematical studies prior to a statistics based course.

dry numbers
of course useful and informative, but just a little too dry, heavy and complicated for non-experts.

Competent guide for the quantitative writer.
This is a non-nonsense, practical guide to writing with numbers - something that lots of people do without even realizing it, and often do badly.

This book is aimed at a variety of different audiences. It will help anyone writing at the level of a newspaper story. Miller suggests a variety of ways to avoid basic blunders and gaffes. Avoiding errors isn't enough, though, so Miller suggests a variety of ways to bring the meaning and importance of the values to life for a reader - and that's what the exercise was really about. One of her strongest techniques is "GEE", for Generalizations, Examples, and Exceptions. She presents a number of cases that show the general rule expressed by the numbers, specific and representative cases, then the "truth in advertising," the gotchas and caveats that refine any broad-brush generality. Come to think of it, that's not a bad technique for other kinds of descriptive writing, either.

Miller extends GEE and her other suggestions to the most rigorous kinds of scientific writing, as well. If anything, bad writing about numbers may be even easier when numbers are so much more critical and have such subtle relationships. It's a bit annoying that Miller refers repeatedly to her other, as yet unwritten book for more advanced statistical topics; I keep getting the feeling that I'm reading only half of something.

That leads me to a few other weaknesses I found in this book. The sections on charts, tables, and presentations are competent enough, but could have been a lot stronger. The charting section is especially weak, and should be supplemented by another text about charting specifically. If this is meant as a reference, to be grabbed when a writer hits a snag, it could have been organized a bit more tightly, in more of handbook style. Still there are a few good tables describing common kinds of numbers (fractions, percentages, ratios, absolute differences, etc) and how to handle them, good for a writer's quick fix.

The one real weakness comes from one of the book's strengths. Miller really does address number users of many levels of sophistication. She does realize that some people need to make sense of milage comparisons and slanted percentages in the news and in ads, but others deal in z-scores, p-values, and wilder exotica. The problem is that the numerical novice and sophisticate are usually addressed in the same sentence, or at least paragraph. This may be a turn-off for people struggling with the basics, i.e. the people most in need of advice.

This is a valued addition to the reference shelf of anyone who presents quantitive information. That's just about every writer, sooner or later. It may help technical illustrators, too, because image and word serve many of the same purposes in presenting information. This should not be your only guide to presenting numbers, but it should be among your tools.

//wiredweird

A nice set of ideas and recommendations
This book is a short primer on statistical literacy combined with a style guide on discussing numbers in prose, and through charts and tables.The focus is on numbers that represent data obtained from polls or experiments.The style guide portions are quite basic, are best suited for students, and do not present many different options for presenting data.The parts on statistical literacy, particularly those on presenting data in an intellectually honest manner, are worth reading and rereading for most anyone.

Overall, this guide is a decent addition to the reference collection of anyone who writes about data. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

A GREAT resource for social scientists and curious students
This is one of the best compact resources for understanding how to think about data, and how to communicate meaning derived from data to a non-scientific audience. While not a data presentation tool exactly (I recommend Walgren et al, "Graphing Statistics and Data") it does suggest the importance of critical thinking about data. A must!

A good tool
The book is very useful. The only problem is partial overlapping with The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, by the same author. If you don't own the other one, buy just this one.

Book Contents
The "search inside this book" feature was not available when this review was posted. Hope it helps.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Part I - Principles
Seven basic principles
Causality, statistical significance, and substantive significance
Five more technical principles

Part II - Tools
Creating effective tables
Creating effective charts
Choosing effective examples and analogies
Basic types of quantitative comparisons
Quantitative comparisons for multivariate models
Choosing how to present statistical test results

Part III - Pulling it all together
Writing introductions, conclusions, and abstracts
Writing about data and methods
Writing about distributions and associations
Writing about multivariate models
Speaking about multivariate analyses
Writing for applied audiences

Appendix A - Implementing "generalization, example, exceptions" (GEE)
Appendix B - Translating statistical output into table and text
Appendix C - Terminology for ordinary least squares (OLS) at logistic models
Appendix D - Using a spreadsheet for calculations

This following website makes available in PDF format a study guide for the book: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/miller/multivariate/
... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Demonstrates how to sell writing and editing services to companies that require brochures, speeches, manuals, articles, reports, lectures and various forms of advertising. The text explains how to deal with composition and production through desktop publishing and word processing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Outdated, yet very useful.
This book is at least a decade behind the times, unless you really need advice on how to professionally organize your WordStar folders in MS-DOS, or download textfiles from CompuServe.

With that said: if you are prepared to ignore half the book, the rest is certainly worth the trip. Oh, well, no, you're not going to be able to read the book & instantly be transformed into a freelance editor & contract writer. But it has excellent advice on how to present yourself to potential clients, what to consider as far as your target market, and even hints as to when you want to "fire" (or avoid) a client.

Not an ending point, but a good place from which to start. There are very few books on editing & writing as a business.

Now if only someone would rewrite this book for the Internet age.... ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (10)

Also for fiction writers
I don't understand why this book was targeted specifically to playwrights and screenwriters, as the excellent and thought-provoking "exercises" (not really the right word) in this book are just as relevant to fiction writers.

What I appreciated most is that the author has you applying these exercises to your own work, rather than giving you abstract situations or characters to write about.

Each exercise also tells you when it will be most helpful to you: "Any time you need to know a character better", "when you want to heighten conflict in a scene", "during scene revision", and the like.

In fact, that's all the book is: over 300 pages of exercises. No "how-to" here (yay!).

Huge praise for this very useful book.
I'm currently working my way through the exercises in this book. While it's geared toward playwrights and screenwriters rather than musical writers, I've found it very
valuable in helping me through places in my project where I've felt snagged- or where I feared I'd written myself into a brick wall. I've done 9 of the 66 exercises so far, and each one opened up new character insights and ideas for dramatic action for me. I feel like my story is alive again, and I've made some discoveries about it that are surprising to me. The exercises are simple, and most of them can be done in about 15 minutes. Amazing that 15 minutes following a few targeted questions can shift my perception about what I'm working on. I highlight a lot, and flag pages that I find helpful, and my copy of this book has a lot of color and fringe.

Clearly, the book to beat!
The product description here on Amazon, plus the preview I saw in Google Books, convinced me that Will Dunne's book could be worth something in the sea of oh-so-many fiction writing books. Boy, was I wrong. "The Dramatic Writer's Companion" is not just worth something--it's simply the most comprehensive set of brainstorming exercises any storyteller needs to thoroughly flesh out a story.

It doesn't teach you writing per se. What it does is encourage you to explore the potential of your idea. Do you have a concept but hard-pressed to create a story for it? "The Dramatic Writer's Companion" can help.

Every step of the story development process is covered, whether you just have a core idea, or if you already have a glitch-laden draft that needs ironing out. Through questions and straightforward commentary, author Will Dunne encourages you to THINK and DIG DEEP. If you're serious about coming up with a well-rounded dramatic story, then this is the book to beat. Avoid this book if you're looking for shortcuts.

In other words, this book wants to make sure that you know your story like the proverbial back of your hand--inside and out, up and down, side to... you get the picture.

The book starts with a character, with the objective of making this character as three-dimensional as possible, as well as exploring the aspects of this character that could inspire dramatic action. The book then brings in the other characters and helps you establish the kind of character relationships that fuel a dramatic story.

Moving forward, the book then provides exercises for scene building, defining what a scene is and what it's supposed to do, and how characters influence scenes. There are exercises to help establish the tone of a scene, heighten conflict and tension, and connect scenes with the overall story objective. Threshing out dialogue is also covered.

As you go further, the book goes for the big picture. Point of view, dramatic arcs, inciting event, setups and payoffs... they're all here.

And then some. It doesn't matter if you're writing plays, or screenplays, or fiction, or graphic novels. Long overdue, "The Dramatic Writer's Companion" is a must for every serious storyteller's bookshelf.

Not just for plays and film!
Buy this book even if you're writing a novel!

Especially, buy it if you're a bit sick of books thatendlessly go on about structuring "their" way, or include endless forms to fill out hoping that you'll have enough data to forge into a novel at the end of it. This book is not a "program" or a "method", or a step-by-step process. What it is is a series of extremely insightful and thought-provoking exercises that are innovative, fun, sometimes unexpected,and that really get you to understand "what precisely is the story that I want to tell?" and how you can improve your telling of it. Because it doesn't go step by step, you can pick and choose what you feel you need - if you're not sure, there's a "troubleshooting" guide in the back to steer you towards exercises that are most likely to help.

This is not one of those books that presents the author's take on myth, either. You can of course use any other book you like along with this, or none at all. What it does is get you to go much deeper into your characters and themes and explore connections between them, what works and doesn't work, how you can make things better. I experienced it as causing an almost "intuitive-feeling" process of understanding how to craft a story better. Though I think this will stay with me to some extent (in other words, it's been a genuine learning experience), I am anticipating with pleasure and excitement using it in other projects.

It would be impossible for me to recommend this book more highly..

Attention Writers Everywhere!You need this book!
Whether you're writing novels, plays, or short stories, this book contains marvelous tools to help build dramatic action, develop characters and refine your story.You'll discover many ways to explore and analyze your work through examination of conflict, objectives, action, and characters.Not the usual how-to book that talks at you with boring narrative, this makes you look at your work like you've never done before.With new discoveries in every chapter, you'll do well to keep this book by your side! ... Read more

Product Description
WRITING POETRY is intended to be an all-purpose poetry writing textbook, a fount of inspiration and informtion on the writing process, a solid first step for beginners, and a source of ideas for writers and teachers at all levels. Taken from the Greek word meaning making something up, poetry gos beyond the simple act of creation to inspire. In this textbook, the core structure of the genre is dissected so the intangible may be a little more understood. WRITING POETRY is an appreciative study of an allusive art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Barbara Drake Teaches Writers and Readers.
I have used Barbara Drake's Writing Poetry with my writing classes. Many of my students keep and reuse their copies for years. Drake knows how to encourage imagination, imagery and layered depth in a poet's thoughts on what it means to be alive.

Well worth it for any aspiring poets
I am currently using this book as a textbook for a poetry class, and I am very satisfied with it. It utilizes plenty of examples to illustrate the concepts in the book, and has dozens of ideas for getting started writing poetry.

Terrific aid for aspiring poet
This book is well done with many writing ideas to keep you generating poems for the rest of your life. The discussions of the sample poems are excellent and clear.Another good book to add to my stash of books for teaching writing classes.

~Joan Mazza, author of six books including DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF.

good but not $47 good
This forty-seven dollar paperback is an adequate introduction into poetry writing.In fact, it's quite compreensive in its approach.

But it won't make you a good poet.You need other things, like a dictionary, a dictionary of synonyms, a brain, and a heart.Now to get all of these things after paying $47 for a paperback is tough.A good dictionary is tough to find these days.So is a good brain, and even harder to find after you got the brain is the heart.Who has all five things?

I'm holding the book in my hand and it seems small.It's helped my poetry skills (but, of course, I'm only writing for myself)but, I don't think it was worth the whole $47.Maybe $20.But it's worth having.

Bible for Aspiring Poets
This book is full of examples and ideas to jumpstart a struggling writer into many rich hours of poetic bliss. ... Read more

Product Description
As a main text, a supplement to writing and grammar classes, or as a reference guide, Eye on Editing provides explanations and practice for the most frequent errors in intermediate and high-intermediate student writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good editing guide
This is a good, simple to use, book on editing.I am appalled at the language and grammar skills of our students and feel this book should be mandatory! ... Read more

Product Description
This is aimed at all those writers interested in the area of historical fiction and who are keen to know more about it. The many different kinds of historical fiction are covered in detail - the family saga, the romance, the nostalgia novel, the adventure story, the 'straight' historical. The particular requirements of this genre are that the novel must be believable. Painstaking, but enjoyable research needs to be carried out to establish convincing background and characters. Observations from a number of leading historical novelists, including Rosemary Sutcliff, Winston Graham and Jean Plaidy are included in the book. Rhona Martin won the Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Award for "Gallows Wedding". Other novels include "The Unicorn Summer", "Mango Walk" and "Goodbye Sally". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Writing Historical Fiction
Writing Historical Fiction is a good book for those of us who are beginning to write historical fiction.It is an overview of the topics one needs to do the job correctly.It has given me insight on areas I need to address in the writing of a work involving history.I would recommend it to a beginner in the field.

Short but all you need to get started
Quick thoughts:
-Short (Little over 100 pages)
-Well organized
-Easy to follow
-Not as modern as I was hoping
-Enough to get you started
-No clutter; fluff is edited out

Short, to the point. Informative!
As an aspiring historical romance writer, I found this guide to be:short, sweet & to the point.It's short in comparison to other "guides" out there.The characterization andand Language & Dialogue chapters were particularly insightful. ... Read more

Product Description
Direct from the trenches, here's the practical guidance technical editors can use to apply editing principles under absurdly tight deadlines and constantly changing product specs, tips and tricks for editing common constructs in technical writing, and when to bend the rules to avoid technical ambiguity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Textbook for TWC431-TWC531 online class at ASU
This book was used for the TECHNICAL EDITING online class for Arizona State University. I would call it an obsolete textbook. From 1992, it has no real usable technology information, only information about basic editing techniques. But that's what they chose for teaching this course, so if you're taking this class, you're stuck with it. Enjoy! :-)

Excellent Book - Highly Recommend
This book is the best book I have ever read on Technical editing. I use it frequently as a resource.I am very particular about the books I use and I give this my highest rating.

Excellent Resource on Technical Editing
For several years of my technical writing career, I had the pleasure of having Judy Tarutz edit my manuals. At that time, Judy was a supremely gifted editor, but her wonderful book did not yet exist. Her excellent book is the culmination of many years of experience and has become the standard reference on technical editing. I totally disagree with the previous reviewer in giving this book two stars (and leaving typos in the review to boot). Judy's book is a five-star book found on the bookshelves of many professional writers and editors in the computer field.

Would not recommend
Hard to reference simple grammer rules, e.g., how to use quotaion marks.Too much information on how to document computer language.Not what I expected and not what I want...can I return this book?

Now I understand editing
This book is excellent explaining every thign related to editing, proofreading and reviewing documents.

I am a technical writer by profession, and editing was not my piece of cake but now is lways in my list...;)

Good one...have a try to this book ... Read more

Product Description
Updated to conform to current standards and computerized research sources, this succinct, easy-to-follow guide gives students clear directions for writing papers in virtually all academic subjects. The authors describe how to determine a subject, formulate and outline a provisional thesis, prepare a bibliography, take notes from sources, write a draft, then revise and edit the paper, bringing it to its final form. Added advice includes avoiding plagiarism and making the most of library resources. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Very good buy
I would purchase from this seller again and recommend. The item was delivered promptly and in the condition promised.

Useless in the modern age
I am a teaching assistant in a Social Science research methods class at the University level and am published author in my discipline. In 1995 I took a class taught by Dr. Markman in which she tried to teach Honors undergraduates how to write a research paper.She failed.The methods provided in this text, unchanged since 1994 reflect that the authors learned to write research papers in the era of card files and typewriters. Even advanced high school students have probably written enough by the time they encounter this book that they'll have to unlearn a lot of valuable skills to employ the method contained here. In 1995 it was a little dated for the average student, and very dated for the tech savvy (me).In 2009, it is potentially harmful.

Good
The title was what made me purchase this book.The title was interesting since I need to write so many papers.

Roberta H. Markman, Ph. D.: good writer, bad teacher.
Markman is a much better writer than teacher. I'm taking an Advanced Composition class for high school and we're using this book as a guide. Markman gets off to a great start, in fact, the first few pages are simply inspirational. But after that, it's all downhill. The section on bib cards is just confusing. Instead of providing an outline of how to set them up and examples (like the MLA Guide to Writing a Research Paper), she provides only examples (and many of those examples contain an unbelievable amount of Spanish text). The example on how to reference a casebook were so confused, I ended up just going to looking at the MLA's Reference. The section on taking notes is also unorganized and hard to follow. While I believe she could do an excellent job of guiding us through this procedure, she makes it much more complex than it needs to be. Also, I was reading her sixth edition, published recently. In my opinion, she should have revised the notecard section to show how easy it is to use a computer to take notes. My final complaint about this book is the section on plaigerism. Basically, it teaches a student the best way to plaigerise a book, especially at the high school level. If you're really interested in writing a good research paper, seek another book.

Hideous book
Written by a woman who believes that the size of the index card you use to takes notes matters more than what you write on it. ... Read more

Product Description
As all good writers know, a first draft needs to be cleaned up, trimmed down, and organized. Proofreading, Revising, and Editing Skills Success is designed to help you do just that—in twenty short lessons of 20 minutes a day. Lessons in this book begin with the most common writing problems, address the mechanics that make up a well-written work, and end by evaluating the paper's effectiveness and purpose. Practice with proofreading, revising, and editing skills helps improve written ability and raises scores on high stakes tests. Ultimately, you will accomplish what you set out to do. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Proofreading, Revising, and Editing
Proofreading, Revising, and Editing is a good, solid book of bite sized lessons/review for the anyone interested in improving their writing skills.

Skip it
I bought this thinking it would give me some guidelines on editing and proofreading (as in, what I should know to create a polished piece of writing before submitting it). Instead, I got lists which reminded me of when I studied for the SATs years ago. I understand that grammar and punctuation are important, however if that is the main thrust of this book, it should be mentioned in the title, so that potential buyers realize it is all they will be getting.

Excellent book for technical writers and proofreaders
I bought this book in conjunction with "Writing Skills in 20 minutes a day". By far, these have been the best two books I could have bought. These books will help you understand the basic of proofreading your work, avoiding common pitfalls and overall improving your writing. This book is well developed, comes with medium-difficulty exercises and "to-the-point explanations". I would highly recommend this book for any writer, business communicator or ESL student. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Very useful for anyone interested in publishing his or her work
This is a great end-to-end book on the publishing business for scholars and trade publication authors.It gives an excellent overview of the business, talks about the ins and outs of contracts and provides a lot of useful inside information.

This book is relatively short, but it is organized well and packed with useful "to the point" tips.It also introduces the vocabulary one needs to understand and negotiate publishing a book or other work.

As the title suggests, this is a serious book, but it is an easy an enjoyable read.The author is very credible and you can trust the information contained within.

I learned about this book from a fairly well known author and editor.He thought it was the single best resource on the topic.I own at least 5-6 other books on this subject and this is probably my favorite too.

Useful for scholars and trade authors alike!
Having read a number of books on publishing in the past several months, I was delighted to stumble upon "Getting It Published."Although it isn't directly related to my current career path - presently, I'm self-publishing a general trade nonfiction book, as opposed to a scholarly tome - I found Germano's advice to be helpful, thoughtful, and eloquent nonetheless.

In welcome contrast to the many publishing books that are aimed at more general audiences, "Getting It Published" does not dumb itself down for the lowest common denominator.Germano's writing is witty, enjoyable, and informed - it's as though you're receiving guidance from your academic advisor rather than reading a how-to book written by some faceless, self-proclaimed publishing "guru."It should come as no surprise that Germano is the VP and publishing director at Routledge.His wealth of insight is remarkable - he covers the process of publishing scholarly work from beginning to end.From writing the manuscript, to crafting a successful proposal, signing a contract, and seeing the work through to publication, Germano doesn't miss a beat.He even covers the not-so-little details, like copyrights, permissions, quotations, artwork, and cover design.His discussion of the various publishing houses and their tasks ("What do publishers do?") was most informative.

"Getting It Published" is a must-have for those new to scholarly publishing.Newbies to the world of publishing who aren't looking to publish scholarly work won't be disappointed, either - there's plenty of useful information in here for everyone.It also serves as a much-needed break from all those awful "For Dummies" books and "Idiot's Guides" that seem to saturate the publishing market!

useful handbook
Gives consistent and straight-forward advice, with a few bits of practical inspiration.There are no real trade secrets here, and Germano makes some points that are certainly arguable, but these qualities may be why this guide will remain current and useful for some time.

Tremendous
The former editorial director of the Columbia University Press lays it all out for aspiring non-fiction authors. From finding a publishing house to choosing a title for your work Germano provides solid advice which the would-be writer should ignore at his or her peril. His advice certainly made me re-think the working title "Get Over the Schmuck: Bereavement for Dummies" when submitting my motivational guide to coping with loss, and it paid dividends. An indispensible guide.

An expert publishing guide for scholars
William Germano became an expert in scholarly book publishing as editor in chief of Columbia University Press. Today, he is vice president and publishing director of Routledge. This book summarizes the most important lessons of a life in editorial development.

Germano explains book development from two perspectives. As an editor and publisher, he explains what a book must do for the press that releases it. He helps aspiring authors - and editors - to understand their role in the process of creating and developing the book a publisher will produce.

Germano's easygoing, informative style reminds me of the old-fashioned editors and publishers I have known. This is an overview of working with books intended for a scholarly or scientific audience. It is a systematic guidebook to the publishing process. It explains what publishers do, how a manuscript must be prepared, how to select a publisher, and how to propose a book. Then it explains how to work with publisher or editor from proposal to finished product.

First-time authors and editors will find this a valuable resource that helps beginners to avoid common mistakes. Seasoned authors will find value in the concise, well structured tour of the publishing process.

Book review published in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 7, Jul 2001 ISSN 1473-3862. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

This is a great place to begin!
With the internet, lots of people are beginning to design web pages... with no sense of art or style at all. Likewise for some people who use computers for illustrations.This handbook is indeed where everyone shouldbegin if they're going to illustrate. It doesn't say much about computers,but it does show how to make professional illustrations using pre-computertools -- which still set the standards.It's a most enjoyable book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Somewhat Dubious
How can someone trust an author who admits to cheating. Van Maanen writes, "In the academy, I helped cover for tardy classmates by concocting what I thought to be reasonable tales to tell superior officers. Several times I cheated on exams by passing my answer sheet around the back of the room (as I looked at others' answers sheets). These mostly mundane matters would hardly be worth mentioning were it not for the fact that they point to the difficulty, if not impossibility, of maintaining a clear cut and recognizable observational or participatory research role."

Having openly admitted to cheating in this instance, how could anything he writes be accepted as authentic? To me this is not a mundane matter, it goes to the heart of ethics. Van Maanen can write and tell a story, but how do we know his cheating isn't part of the plot.

Perfect Companion To Goodall's The New Ethnography
Van Maanen's Tales is an excellent and succinct primer on the various ways we write ethnographic research. Giving a rich history of the 'armchair ethnographer' of the early 20th century, he procedds to show how our conceptualizations of this great practice has evolved.

This is a great book to determine not necessarily what kind of ethnography you want to write, but is a great exploration on how ethnography can write you. Are you a modern classisist ethnographer? Are you a interpretive ethnographer? Are you a critical ethnographer? Reading this book opened my eyes to the different techniques and questions we ethnographers can ask. Better yet, by delving into the various questions and ideas posed, I found where my ethnographic 'being' is.

I rate this with the highest rating possible.

Writing Culture/Writing Ethnography
I utilized Van Maanen's short, but essential text on writing ethnography throughout my dissertation ethnography research (now a book: Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography, Carolinas Press, 2000). Unlike most "how to" texts on Ethnography, Tales of the Field focuses on writing as methodology. Van Maanen's writing is clear and concise. The reader is given several writing styles in ethnography, with ample examples from the author's, and other's, ethnographic writings. A great little book for fieldworkers, novice and veteran, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in research methods courses. ... Read more

Product Description
The Craft of Scientific Writing is designed to help scientists and engineers--both professionals already active in the disciplines as well as students preparing to enter the professions--write about their work clearly and effectively.The author, who is both a writer and an applied physicist, approaches the subject in a fresh way. Using scores of examples from a wide variety of authors and disciplines (including such well-known figures as Einstein, Bohr, and Freud), the book demonstrates the difference between strong scientific writing and weak scientific writing. In essence, this book shows you how to bring your ideas across to your intended audience. In addition, it contains advice on how to start writing, and how to revise your drafts. Written for use as a text in courses on scientific writing, the book includes many useful suggestions about approaching a wide variety of writing tasks--from laboratory reports to grant proposals, from internal communications to press releases--as well as a concise guide to style and usage appropriate for scientific writing. The book will also be useful for self-study and it will be an important reference for all scientists and engineers who need to write about their work.Topics covered include:- Deciding Where to Begin- Structure: Organizing Your Documents; Providing Depth, Transitions, and Emphasis- Language: Being Precise, Clear, and Concise; Being Forthright, Familiar, and Fluid- Illustration: Making the Right Choices; Creating the Best Designs - Handling Special Situations- Actually Sitting Down to Write: Drafting; Revising; Finishing

SOME PRAISE FOR MICHAEL ALLEY'S "THE CRAFT OF SCIENTIFIC WRITING":

"A refreshing addition to a genre dominated by English teacher-style textbooks. Instead of listing rules that constrain writers, the book uses examples to lay out the path to successful communication . . . Especially helpful (and entertaining) is the chapter on the writing process. Anyone who has spent more time avoiding a writing task than actually doing it will appreciate Alley's tips."-DR. ELLEN OCHOA, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FLIGHT CREW OPERATIONS, JOHNSON SPACE CENTER

"This book offers effective methods for improving writing efficiency and overcoming difficulties during the preparation of technical information."-ROBERT L. SCHMITT, DOCTORAL CANDIDATE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

FROM THE REVIEWS:

TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION"THE CRAFT OF SCIENTIFIC WRITING is worthwhile reading for technical writers and writers of generic prose as well as scientific writers...Although most of its examples come from science and engineering, most of the content applies to all domains of technical and professional writing. I'd hate to see the book overlooked by technical writers because of the word 'scientific' in its title. The book is straightforward, clear, thoroughly accessible, and easily read, with a simple style...It is extremely well organized...lots of fascinating examples, many drawn from recent events of general interest...The book presents a basic no-nonsense approach to technical, professional, and scientific writing...It gives sound advice...it's quickly and easily read and well worth the time. If you want something less than a full-blown textbook, I recommend [this book]."

IEEE ELECTRICAL INSULATION MAGAZINE"...a well-written book that uses examples from actual documents to illustrate the differences between strong and weak scientific writing...This book can make you a critical reader of scientific writing to allow you to craft your own style for various writing situations...Anyone who writes scientific papers, articles, proposals, books and other written communication will find this book an invaluable asset and learning tool. Even experienced scientific writers can polish their writing style and some may even be enlightened."

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION"Alley offers advice for all kinds of scientific writing, from technical proposals and papers to more popular items intended for more general nonspecialist audiences...Those who do a variety of writing for various types of audiences will benefit more from Alley's book..."ZEITSCHRIFT FUR PHYSIKALISHE CHEMIE"This book gives a comprehensive and lively presentation of (nearly) any problems of scientific writing, enriched by many examples form numerous disciplines and famous authors...Certainly it offers a lot of advice and a lot of useful suggestions for both professionals and students, in particular those whose native language is not English. It can be strongly recommended."

COMPUTING REVIEWS"...I recommend the book to scientists and engineers of all ages who know how hard it is to write and want help."

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PROGRESS"In total, the book is a good read and presents thoughtful, useful lessons for those who want to improve their scientific writing." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Very good and to the point
Brief, concise and to the point, that's how I would describe this book. It has tips, examples and useful advice. However, From time to time it may be too general and personally I would like more examples and details (other than the ones they have), but its enough to give you simple and useful rules so you can write and don't look like you're six years old!

Don't buy this book it's a waste of money.
I can really not recommend this book. It is boring and I didn't learn anything important about scientific writing. In particular, I am annoyed by the examples, which show an unbelievable lack of political correctness. (e.g. page 25 f: "For instance, assume that after a long study you have decided to allow a company to mine zinc in an environmentally sensitive area. In the report that announces this decision to the public, you would withhold your decision until the latter part of the report so that you can first present your arguments for that decision.")
To buy it, was a waste of money, to read it is a waste of time.
There are much better books about scientific writing out there, for instance Jean-Luc Lebrun's "Scientific Writing".

Excellent
Really I love it!!! This book have a lot of examples. Very useful for both not English speakers or the native ones.

The Craft of Scientific Writing
Arrived in excellent condition. Works well as a resources for the College course that I teach.

Funny yet complete and structurated
This is a good book to start with. The book gives an outline of the structure and rules of scientific writing. The tone is always funny yet always complete and usefull. It is full with practical examples that complement the text. The only drawback is that most examples -not all- are taken from engeneering and similar sciences and thay may sound extrange to biologist or scientists from other areas. I would recomend this books to young scientists and students that are looking to improve their writing skills. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (26)

So far so good.
To be honest, I haven't cracked the book open yet.Don't tell my prof.It came in good condition and looks good sitting on my desk, essentially leading 'teach to think I know what's going on.Great price too!

Recommend to all doctoral students
This book breaks each step of the dissertation process down into manageable bites. I would recommend it to anyone working on their doctroal degree.

Definitely a Craft
Research is most definitely a craft and as with all research books, there is a great deal written about scientific research and medical research.Generic research guides do little to offer help to Musicological research.Yet this is a helpful resource tool if taken generically.

Required Textbook
This book arrived in excellent condition within a timely manner.Also it is an easy read (even though it is required).

Any edition of this book is money well spent.
I came across this book when I was talking a research writing class at University and it is one of my most treasured resources. Whether you are a high school student, undergrad, or published graduate this book will help you formulate solid arguments and lead your reader down a path that is logical and cohesive. Your reader might not agree with all your conclusions but they will see the elegance of your arguments.



... Read more