About this product: Short and snappy as it is, Stephen King's On Writing really contains two books: a fondly sardonic autobiography and a tough-love lesson for aspiring novelists. The memoir is terrific stuff, a vivid description of how a writer grew out of a misbehaving kid. You're right there with the young author as he's tormented by poison ivy, gas-passing babysitters, uptight schoolmarms, and a laundry job nastier than Jack London's. It's a ripping yarn that casts a sharp light on his fiction. This was a child who dug Yvette Vickers from Attack of the Giant Leeches, not Sandra Dee. "I wanted monsters that ate whole cities, radioactive corpses that came out of the ocean and ate surfers, and girls in black bras who looked like trailer trash." But massive reading on all literary levels was a craving just as crucial, and soon King was the published author of "I Was a Teen-Age Graverobber." As a young adult raising a family in a trailer, King started a story inspired by his stint as a janitor cleaning a high-school girls locker room. He crumpled it up, but his writer wife retrieved it from the trash, and using her advice about the girl milieu and his own memories of two reviled teenage classmates who died young, he came up with Carrie. King gives us lots of revelations about his life and work. The kidnapper character in Misery, the mind-possessing monsters in The Tommyknockers, and the haunting of the blocked writer in The Shining symbolized his cocaine and booze addiction (overcome thanks to his wife's intervention, which he describes). "There's one novel, Cujo, that I barely remember writing."
King also evokes his college days and his recovery from the van crash that nearly killed him, but the focus is always on what it all means to the craft. He gives you a whole writer's "tool kit": a reading list, writing assignments, a corrected story, and nuts-and-bolts advice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic building block of the paragraph, and literary models. He shows what you can learn from H.P. Lovecraft's arcane vocabulary, Hemingway's leanness, Grisham's authenticity, Richard Dooling's artful obscenity, Jonathan Kellerman's sentence fragments. He explains why Hart's War is a great story marred by a tin ear for dialogue, and how Elmore Leonard's Be Cool could be the antidote.
King isn't just a writer, he's a true teacher. --Tim Appelo
About this product: Whether you write an occasional professional letter or a daily newspaper column, William Zinsser's On Writing Well should be required reading. Simplicity is Zinsser's mantra: he preaches a stripped-down writing style, strong and clear. He has no patience for excess (most use of adjectives and adverbs, he writes, just adds clutter) or tired phraseology (for instance, he'd like to outlaw all leads involving those "future archaeologists" most often found "stumbl[ing] upon the remains of our civilization"). He recommends that all writers of nonfiction read their work aloud (don't commit something to paper that you wouldn't actually say) and write under the assumption that "the reader knows nothing" (not to be confused with assuming the reader's an idiot). In addition to the chapters on the expected--usage, audience, interviews, leads--Zinsser also focuses on such trouble spots as science and technical writing, business writing, sports, and humor.
About this product: A complete course in the art of writing and an essential reference for any working or would-be writer of any kind. Step-by-step it shows how to come up with ideas, get past writer's block, create an irresistible opening, develop an effective style, choose powerful words and master grammar, rewrite, and much, much more.
About this product: Grant Writing For Dummies, 3rd Edition serves as a one-stop reference for readers who are new to the grant writing process or who have applied for grants in the past but had difficulties. It offers 25 percent new and revised material covering the latest changes to the grant writing process as well as a listing of where to apply for grants. Grant writers will find:
The latest language, terms, and phrases to use on the job or in proposals.
Ways to target the best websites to upload and download the latest and user-friendly application forms and writing guidelines.
Major expansion on the peer review process and how it helps improve one's grant writing skills and successes.
One-stop funding websites, and state agencies that publish grant funding opportunity announcements for seekers who struggle to find opportunities. New to third edition.
About this product: One of America's most influential writing teachers offers a toolbox from which writers of all kinds can draw practical inspiration.
"Writing is a craft you can learn," says Roy Peter Clark. "You need tools, not rules." His book distills decades of experience into 50 tools that will help any writer become more fluent and effective.
WRITING TOOLS covers everything from the most basic ("Tool 5: Watch those adverbs") to the more complex ("Tool 34: Turn your notebook into a camera") and provides more than 200 examples from literature and journalism to illustrate the concepts. For students, aspiring novelists, and writers of memos, e-mails, PowerPoint presentations, and love letters, here are 50 indispensable, memorable, and usable tools.
"Pull out a favorite novel or short story, and read it with the guidance of Clark's ideas. . . . Readers will find new worlds in familiar places. And writers will be inspired to pick up their pens." -Boston Globe
"For all the aspiring writers out there-whether you're writing a novel or a technical report-a respected scholar pulls back the curtain on the art." -Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"This is a useful tool for writers at all levels of experience, and it's entertainingly written, with plenty of helpful examples." -Booklist
The best up-to-date advice on getting funding from governments, corporations, and foundations Whether you're a first-time grant writer or a veteran fundraiser, putting together a grant proposal can be a daunting task. Thankfully, this up-to-date insider's guide shows you step-by-step how to research your options, deal with application forms, give prospective funding sources the specifics they're looking for—and get the money you need.
About this product: The totally restructured SAT college entrance exam that became effective in 2005 includes an entirely new and very important Writing Test, which consists of two main parts. First is a 25-minute period during which students must write an essay on a given topic. Later, students must answer multiple-choice questions that test their skill in correcting poorly-written sentences, finding mistakes in grammar and usage, and correcting mistakes in the first-draft version of a student essay. This manual familiarizes students with all aspects of the SAT Writing Test and presents review chapters and questions with answers that are designed to hone test-takers' skills. Also included is a helpful overview of the Writing Test and details on how student essays are scored. This manual presents five writing tests. The first introduces students to the test's format and the following four are similar to the actual SAT writing test in length and question types. All tests have answers and explanations, and come with instructions on how students can convert their practice test score to the familiar SAT scale of 200-800.
Written by authors who have won millions of dollars in grants—and revised to include vital new information about how to seek grants in today’s economic climate—this new edition of the classic book on grant seeking provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide for grant writers. It demystifies the process while revealing indispensable advice from funders and grant recipients. The Only Grant-Writing Book You’ll Ever Need will continue to be essential reading for grant seekers everywhere.
About this product: Wherein we discover that many of the "rules" for good writing and good sex are the same: Keep your hand moving, lose control, and don't think. Goldberg brings a touch of both Zen and well... *eroticism* to her writing practice, the latter in exercises and anecdotes designed to ease you into your body, your whole spirit, while you create, the former in being where you are, working with what you have, and writing from the moment.
About this product: Engagingly written and illustrated with scores of telling examples, this plainspoken how-to book for college writers identifies those qualities that most typically distinguish good writing from bad and provides practical measures for avoiding pitfalls.
Included are do's and don'ts for achieving concision, clarity, and flow, as well as pointers on using punctuation, writing gracefully, citing sources, and structuring persuasive writing.
Championing "the plain style" with a keen appreciation for the uses to which language can be put—including abuses to which it is prone—The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing is a guide that never fails to remind readers why good writing matters so much in the first place, in college and beyond.
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