Writing Tools
Ratings5
Average rating4.6
15
Ratings5
Average rating4.6
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
Reviews with the most likes.
Most books on writing I've read either lean too heavily into dry academic text or into dramatic life story. This does neither and instead is written based on the tools it describes and most importantly, provides constant examples from other writers showing how these tools work. ⠀
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I've never been hooked on a non-fiction skills-based book like this one. This book singlehandedly ended my lifelong hatred of commas and got me on board with subheads (which I often leave out). It also provides easy and fun activities at the end of each chapter to help you better understand the material. This book is superb and I'm both excited and scared to apply its teachings to my own writing
This book works best for writers of fiction and short journalistic pieces, but as a PhD student about to begin writing up his dissertation, I found plenty of “tools” worth keeping in mind as I write.
Each section is short, and each part organized well under the type of “tool” for writing the author has described. There are great examples, from a wide range of source texts, and nice check sheet at the back to refer back to as one writes.
