Revising ProsePearson Longman, 2007 - 166 pages This remarkable little book, intended as a supplement for any course that requires writing, models a clear, step-by-step system for creating straight-forward, concise, intelligible and readable prose. Lanham argues that the bad writing that seems inescapable in college classrooms as well as public communication today results from our attempts to imitate what he calls Official Style-the almost incomprehensible language laden with passive voice, prepositions, impersonal pronouns, and jargon born of the bureaucracy. This brief guide shows writers how to "translate" Official Style into plain, understandable English through the application of a series of simple rules. With wit and clarity, Lanham shows writers how to slice away as much as two-thirds of the excess verbiage with which they too often burden their sentences. Everyone who is willing to listen will come away from this book a better writer. |
Common terms and phrases
academic active verb actor and action anapest Asyndeton attention economy Aug Cog bank's business basic become behavior blah Buffett bureaucratic buzzwords central action chiasmus clauses communication create Diagnosis electronic word environmental scan example express Find the action fishscale Here's human Hypertext Hypotaxis infrastructure interest rates interrelated topics isocolon Jim kicks Bill kind language lard factor look maturity and duration means noun Official Style Open societies open-access societies Paramedic Method Parataxis pattern periodic sentence pinpoint our advertising plain English Polysyndeton prepositional phrases prepositional-phrase string problem prose style quasi-legal documents question reader relationship Revising Prose rhythm rhythmic units sense shape skotison social string of prepositional structure stylistic talking tence term translation tricolon typographical UC Lone Pine understand UXXX voice Warren Buffett Western psychological thought Where's the action who's kicking Winston Churchill written discipline