Writing A Wrong

Writer for Hire Veronica Blackstone’s latest client is found dead and police suspect a burglary gone wrong, but Veronica isn’t convinced in this intriguingly plotted mystery. As a writer for hire, Veronica Blackstone puts her keyboard to use to help others. That includes writing advertising copy for local businesses, and love letters for those needing romantic help. Tony Richards needs the latter. Debonair, charismatic, handsome, Tony seems like the last person who’d need help with love letters, but help him Veronica does . . . only, Tony owes her money and won’t tell her anything about the woman she’s writing the love letters for. That’s not how Veronica normally works. When Tony is found dead, his real name is revealed as Ted Roberts. The police think his death was part of a burglary gone wrong, but Veronica isn’t convinced. Why did he lie about his name? Who were the love letters for? And could they hold the key to his death?

Ben Yagoda's How to Not Write Bad illustrates how we can all write better, more clearly, and for a wider readership. He offers advice on what he calls "not-writing-badly," which consists of the ability, first, to craft sentences that are correct in terms of spelling, diction (word choice), punctuation, and grammar, and that also display clarity, precision, and grace. Then he focuses on crafting whole paragraphs—with attention to cadence, consistency of tone, sentence transitions, and paragraph length. In a fun, comprehensive guide, Yagoda lays out the simple steps we can all take to make our writing more effective, more interesting—and just plain better.

"What do you think of my fiction book writing?" the aspiring novelist extorted. "Darn," the editor hectored, in turn. "I can not publish your novel! It is full of what we in the business call 'really awful writing.'" "But how shall I absolve this dilemma? I have already read every tome available on how to write well and get published!" The writer tossed his head about, wildly. "It might help," opined the blonde editor, helpfully, "to ponder how NOT to write a novel, so you might avoid the very thing!" Many writing books offer sound advice on how to write well. This is not one of those books. On the contrary, this is a collection of terrible, awkward, and laughably unreadable excerpts that will teach you what to avoid—at all costs—if you ever want your novel published. In How Not to Write a Novel, authors Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman distill their 30 years combined experience in teaching, editing, writing, and reviewing fiction to bring you real advice from the other side of the query letter. Rather than telling you how or what to write, they identify the 200 most common mistakes unconsciously made by writers and teach you to recognize, avoid, and amend them. With hilarious "mis-examples" to demonstrate each manuscript-mangling error, they'll help you troubleshoot your beginnings and endings, bad guys, love interests, style, jokes, perspective, voice, and more. As funny as it is useful, this essential how-NOT-to guide will help you get your manuscript out of the slush pile and into the bookstore.

On Writing Well, which grew out of a course that William Zinsser taught at Yale, has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity, and for the warmth of its style. It is a book for anybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts, or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you both fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished practitioner. How to Write a Memoir tells you how to write the story of your life. Everyone has a story - whether you're a professional writer or just want to validate your personal and family reminiscences, William Zinsser explains how to do it, and do it well.

"This workbook is designed specifically to help criminal justice students improve their research and writing skills. It can be used as a class text and as a reference guide for students to use outside class"--P. xi.

A comprehensive workbook that guides students through the entire process of writing an academic paper, by teaching them how to conduct library research, how to take notes without plagiarizing, how to cite in proper APA style, and how to complete a final draft of a paper--Cover.

This is a book of general information, inspirational quotes, and references to helpful sources for writers and would-be writers.

From the Errors of Others is a collection of crisp, witty, and slyly informative essays for grownups with a sense of humor. The subject is communication--good, bad, and patently bizarre. The author is Rebecca Lyles, an experienced editor but not a wrist-slapping schoolmarm. Neither giggly nor ponderous, she eagerly tells tales out of school. There are boneheads and blowhards in our midst, she says, but we dont have to take them seriously. And we certainly dont have to imitate them. From the Errors of Others is a refreshing alternative to those heavy handbooks we never opened in school. Its not only far more entertaining than those dreary tomes, in the end, perhaps surprisingly, its also much more enlightening. Imagine that: a smart book about writing and speaking effectively that people will actually enjoy reading. -- Richard Nordquist, PhD. About.com Grammar and Composition Expert In this comprehensive collection, Lyles teaches how to: keep a professional tone; avoid awkward speech habits; communicate clearly without being pretentious; detect deception; and use a writing comfort zone. A seasoned editor and business manager offers concise essays that humorously explore communication stumbling blocks, reveal common errors, and provide time-tested advice on how to write and speak effectively.