A fter a lifetime of writing and editing prose, Jacques Barzun has set down his view of the best ways to improve one's style. His discussions of diction, syntax, tone, meaning, composition, and revision guide the reader through the technique of making the written word clear and agreeable to read. Exercises, model passages both literary and casual, and hundreds of amusing examples of usage gone wrong show how to choose the right path to self-expression in forceful and distinctive words.

`Review from previous edition deserves a garland . . . the most concise and exhaustive study of the English language' Spectator
`such a pleasure to read and so straightforward in its explanations that one concedes all one's errors and aberrations with good grace' Keith Waterhouse, Good Book Guide --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A must-have for any student or aspiring writer, this book reviews the fundamentals of good sentence structure: Conventions of writing style change in subtle ways with passing years--a fact that prompts the need for periodic revisions of books like this one. The authors review the fundamentals of good sentence structure and then go on to describe twenty basic sentence patterns that encompass virtually every effective way of writing sentences in English. They also draw on passages by current prominent writers, using these examples to show how varying rhythm and sentence patterns can result in elegant writing styles that keep their readers interested. Exercises with answers and explanations appear throughout the text. Overflowing with practical and useful advice, this little gem will change the way people write.

"On Writing Well" has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet.
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 fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.

This classic reference is a must-have for any student or writer. In this brief handbook, Strunk identifies the principal requirements of proper American English style and concentrates on the most often violated rules of composition. Authoritative and engagingly written, this is simply the greatest book of its kind.

《如何撰写与发表社会科学论文:国际刊物指南》围绕“如何成功地写作社会科学研究论文并获得国际期刊发表”这一核心主题，结合作者多年来在国际学术期刊发表的成功经验，以深入浅出、轻松活泼的笔调，系统阐述了社会科学论文写作及投稿社会科学国际期刊的丰富策略，全面传授了国际期刊投稿与发表方面的实用技巧。
同时，《如何撰写与发表社会科学论文:国际刊物指南》还详细介绍了社会科学领域18个学科的近100种SSCI期刊，内容包括各个期刊的影响因子、录用论文的取材范围、论文审查期限、论文长度要求等，对于国际期刊投稿具有实务性的帮助。
《如何撰写与发表社会科学论文:国际刊物指南》立论精辟，经验适切，适于作为高等院校人文、社会科学各专业本科生、研究生的学术论文写作教材，也是资深的社会科学研究者在国际期刊论文写作及发表方面不可或缺的成功指南。

The Careful Writer is a concise yet thorough handbook, covering in more than 2,000 alphabetized entries the problems that give (or should give) writers pause before they set words to paper. It is perhaps the liveliest and most entertaining reference work for writers of our time—delighting while it instructs and amusing even as it scolds and cajoles the reader into skillful, persuasive, and vivid writing. The Careful Writer, Mr. Bernstein’s major work on usage, is an indispensible desk reference, and a perennial source of continuing reading pleasure.

《作文三书3:文学种籽》是一本带领你由教室到文坛，由学生向作家过渡的书。由学生到作家，由教堂到文坛，那是怎样的一段路？《作文三书3:文学种籽》从文心、文路、文境、文运告诉青少年，如何从欣赏到创作。全书引述详尽，启发多多，确为初学文者不错之引路。每个人都有文学潜能。当你碰到一件不顺心的事情，郁闷得影响了学习的时候，如果选择文学的方式加以发泄，在排解了郁闷的同时，或许还得到了一首诗或一篇散文。这就是文学潜能的释放。当然，这是无意识的释放。如果你读了《文学种籽》，由无意提升到有意，境界就不同了，你不仅提高了人生，也提高了文学。

本书是作者于20年代在清华大学等院校为学生授课时的讲义。今天看来，仍不失为一本提高作文水平的好书。作者以浅显、通俗的文字，全面阐述了作文所应遵循的规则，以及提高作文水平的具体方法。作者还结合对经典作品的精彩点评，教会读者鉴赏文章，懂得如何开阔自己的视野，培养高雅的格调和情趣，从而使作文水准更上层楼。

《文章作法》由开明书店初版于1922年。其原型是夏丐尊先生在长沙第一师范和白马湖春晖中学的讲义稿，后经教育家刘薰宇先生结合自己的教学实践修改编辑而最后成书。本书为2007年最新版。
书中总结了记叙文、说明文、议论文等类文章的具体写作方法，解答了如何通过写作篇幅短小形式多样的小品文等方法迅速提高写作能力等实际问题，并通过对鲁迅、冰心等名家名作的简明评点，对写作中常遇到的问题给予了精辟独到的意见。

本书汇集了叶圣陶先生传授写作经验和技巧的文章二十一篇。回答了写好文章需要做哪些准备、该怎样组织安排文章的结构、如何开头如何结尾、如何议论如何抒情、什么样的文章算是好文章、文章该如何修改等问题。此外，还从生活需要而非应试教育的角度，对老师怎样教、学生怎样学等问题，给予了精辟的建议。相信不仅是学生，只要是想写点什么的人都可以从中受益。

"The Oxford Guide to Effective Writing and Speaking" is the essential guide for everyone who needs to communicate in clear and effective English, both written and spoken. In the first section on communicating in everyday life, chapters cover everything from writing email to giving presentations and preparing reports. John Seely also offers guidance on understanding the demands of particular audiences, subjects, and situations. With guidelines and exercises, this book will help you to tailor your message and language accordingly. The second section on the English language gives authoritative advice on grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation to ensure that communication is accurate as well as appropriate. A final section examines the process of writing itself, including planning and research, drafting, and using technology. New to this edition are chapters on writing email and help on writing for the internet. "The Oxford Guide to Effective Writing and Speaking" is designed to be practical and user-friendly, with boxed exercises, guidelines, and examples. A glossary and index make the volume easy to use and simple to navigate. This is the most comprehensive guide to using English for effective communication available; it covers an unrivalled range of situations and requirements. Perfect for use at work, at college, or at home.

Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Do the kids today even care about good writing? Why should any of us care?
In The Sense of Style, the bestselling linguist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker answers these questions and more. Rethinking the usage guide for the twenty-first century, Pinker doesn’t carp about the decline of language or recycle pet peeves from the rulebooks of a century ago. Instead, he applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the challenge of crafting clear, coherent, and stylish prose.
In this short, cheerful, and eminently practical book, Pinker shows how writing depends on imagination, empathy, coherence, grammatical knowhow, and an ability to savor and reverse engineer the good prose of others. He replaces dogma about usage with reason and evidence, allowing writers and editors to apply the guidelines judiciously, rather than robotically, being mindful of what they are designed to accomplish.
Filled with examples of great and gruesome prose, Pinker shows us how the art of writing can be a form of pleasurable mastery and a fascinating intellectual topic in its own right.

A collection of short essays by George Orwell:
Politics And The English Language
Politics Vs. Literature: An Examination Of Gulliver's Travels
The Prevention Of Literature
Why I Write
Writers And Leviathan
Poetry And The Microphone

This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling. But this is only the prelude to an investigation into how and why we are 'programmed' to imagine stories in these ways, and how they relate to the inmost patterns of human psychology.

Drawing on a vast array of examples, from Proust to detective stories, from the Marquis de Sade to E.T., Christopher Booker then leads us through the extraordinary changes in the nature of storytelling over the past 200 years, and why so many stories have 'lost the plot' by losing touch with their underlying archetypal purpose. Booker analyses why evolution has given us the need to tell stories and illustrates how storytelling has provided a uniquely revealing mirror to mankind's psychological development over the past 5000 years.

This seminal book opens up in an entirely new way our understanding of the real purpose storytelling plays in our lives, and will be a talking point for years to come.

Book Description
"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write."
In 1999, Stephen King began to write about his craft -- and his life. By midyear, a widely reported accident jeopardized the survival of both. And in his months of recovery, the link between writing and living became more crucial than ever.
Rarely has a book on writing been so clear, so useful, and so revealing. On Writing begins with a mesmerizing account of King's childhood and his uncannily early focus on writing to tell a story. A series of vivid memories from adolescence, college, and the struggling years that led up to his first novel, Carrie, will afford readers a fresh and often very funny perspective on the formation of a writer. King next turns to the basic tools of his trade -- how to sharpen and multiply them through use, and how the writer must always have them close at hand. He takes the reader through crucial aspects of the writer's art and life, offering practical and inspiring advice on everything from plot and character development to work habits and rejection.
Serialized in the New Yorker to vivid acclaim, On Writing culminates with a profoundly moving account of how King's overwhelming need to write spurred him toward recovery, and brought him back to his life.
Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower -- and entertain -- everyone who reads it.
Amazon.com
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