The Writer's Diet: A Guide to Fit Prose (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

Do your sentences sag? Could your paragraphs use a pick-me-up? If so, __The Writer’s Diet__ is for you! It’s a short, sharp introduction to great writing that will help you energize your prose and boost your verbal fitness. Helen Sword dispenses with excessive explanations and overwrought analysis. Instead, she offers an easy-to-follow set of writing principles: use active verbs whenever possible; favor concrete language over vague abstractions; avoid long strings of prepositional phrases; employ adjectives and adverbs only when they contribute something new to the meaning of a sentence; and reduce your dependence on four pernicious “waste words”: it, this, that, and there. Sword then shows the rules in action through examples from William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Martin Luther King Jr., John McPhee, A. S. Byatt, Richard Dawkins, Alison Gopnik, and many more. A writing fitness test encourages you to assess your own writing and get immediate advice on addressing problem areas. While __The Writer’s Diet__ is as sleek and concise as the writing ideals contained within, this slim volume packs a powerful punch. With Sword’s coaching writers of all levels can strengthen and tone their sentences with the stroke of a pen or the click of a mouse. As with any fitness routine, adhering to the rules requires energy and vigilance. The results, however, will speak for themselves. "Sword aims to lead us to 'fit and trim' prose via an assault course covering horrors such as 'Prepositional pudge,' 'Ad-dictions' and 'Waste words.'" — Times Higher Education Do your sentences sag? Could your paragraphs use a pick-me-up? If so, The Writer's Diet is for you! It's a short, sharp introduction to great writing that will help you energize your prose and boost your verbal fitness. Helen Sword dispenses with excessive explanations and overwrought analysis. Instead, she offers an easy-to-follow set of writing principles: use active verbs whenever possible; favor concrete language over vague abstractions; avoid long strings of prepositional phrases; employ adjectives and adverbs only when they contribute something new to the meaning of a sentence; and reduce your dependence on four pernicious "waste words": it, this, that, and there. Sword then shows the rules in action through examples from William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Martin Luther King Jr., John McPhee, A. S. Byatt, Richard Dawkins, Alison Gopnik, and many more. A writing fitness test encourages you to assess your own writing and get immediate advice on addressing problem areas. While The Writer's Diet is as sleek and concise as the writing ideals contained within, this slim volume packs a powerful punch. With Sword's coaching writers of all levels can strengthen and tone their sentences with the stroke of a pen or the click of a mouse. As with any fitness routine, adhering to the rules requires energy and vigilance. The results, however, will speak for themselves. "Who says nutritious material must be bland? This short book is packed with excellent advice on writing, offered with charm and good cheer." —Steven Pinker, author of The Sense of Style Is your writing flabby or fit? The Writer's Diet will help you energise your writing, boost your verbal fitness levels and strip unnecessary padding from your prose. In contrast to most other writing and editing guides, The Writer’s Diet offers no ‘big picture’ advice on argument or audience, no instruction on composition or paragraph structure, no primer on grammar and punctuation. Instead, this book zeroes in on five common problems that frequently plague unfit sentences - weakness and excess in verbs, nouns, prepositions, adjectives/adverbs, and ‘waste words’. Writers at every level, from students to professionals, will benefit from The Writer’s Diet workout and enjoy the experience. Before long, you will find yourself producing stylish, energetic prose every time you put pen to paper. This book offers an easy-to-follow set of writing principles. For example, use active verbs whenever possible, favour concrete language over vague abstractions, avoid long strings of prepositional phrases, employ adjectives and adverbs only when they contribute something new to the meaning of a sentence and reduce your dependence on the "waste words": 'it', 'this', 'that' and 'there'. The author also shows these rules in action through examples from famous authors such as Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson. The book includes a test to help you assess your own writing and get advice on problem areas