The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Well

If you have trouble putting your thoughts down on paper, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Well has everything you need to know to make writing of any kind as easy as thinking or speaking. This guide gives expert advice on making your writing as clear and persuasive as possible, whether it's a thank-you note, a school paper, or an executive briefing. It provides easy-to-follow guidelines on structure, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and style. You will find terrific tips on minimizing the time and energy taken up by tasks like research, note-taking, and proofreading. From the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creative Writing, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Shakespearce comes this primer for adults and students that instructs on the basics of writing. From contemporary, popular methods of communication, such as e-mail to Internet chat rooms, to more serious modes of writing, such as proposals, reports, and papers, this is the guide that can help anyone: formulate ideas, write with clarity and conciseness, focus on a thesis, create and structure a working outline, write a proper introduction and conclusion incorporate a broader vocabulary, construct magnificent sentences, develop smooth transitions and linear development of thought. Along the way, users of the book learn how to impress readers with clean, superlative writing that is free from embarrassing spelling errors, syntax mistakes, and redundancies. Includes ample writing samples, as well as the major dos and don'ts