Write It Right: Being A Little Blacklist of Select Literary Faults - Softcover

Bierce, Ambrose

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1495280780 ISBN 13: 9781495280788

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014

Synopsis

“This volume should be in the waist coat pocket of every professional writer. The book is in daily use by the employees of the more important newspapers, some having purchased more than 100 copies each.” -The Dial

Entertaining and thought-provoking, this A-to-Z compendium maps out common oral and written blunders, improprieties and general indiscretions.. Ambrose Bierce, a celebrated literary wit, assembled his informative compilation in 1909 from many years of observations and notes. He advocates precision in language, offering alternatives to grammatical lapses and inaccurate or poorly thought out word choices.

Moneyed for Wealthy: "The moneyed men of New York." One might as sensibly say, "The cattled men of Texas," or, "The lobstered men of the fish market."

Name for Title and Name: "His name was Mr. Smith." Surely no babe was ever christened Mister.

Juncture means a joining, a junction; its use to signify a time, however critical, is absurd. "At this juncture the woman screamed." In reading that account of it, we scream, too. Times and usages have changed considerably in the past century. Bierce's strict rules remain, however, a timeless source of interest for wordsmiths and lovers of language.

Times and usages have changed considerably in the past century. Bierce's strict rules remain, however, a timeless source of interest for wordsmiths and lovers of language.

“The author’s main purpose in this book is to teach precision in writing; and of good writing (which, essentially, is clear thinking made visible) precision is the point of capital concern. It is attained by choice of the word that accurately and adequately expresses what the writer has in mind, and by exclusion of that which either denotes or connotes something else. As Quintilian puts it, the writer should so write that his reader not only may, but must, understand.Few words have more than one literal and serviceable meaning, however many metaphorical, derivative, related, or even unrelated, meanings lexicographers may think it worth while to gather from all sorts and conditions of men, with which to bloat their absurd and misleading dictionaries. This actual and serviceable meaning—not always determined by derivation, and seldom by popular usage—is the one affirmed, according to his light, by the author of this little manual of solecisms.” -Ambrose Bierce

About this title

About the Author:

Celebrated American satirist, critic, short story writer, and an editor; Bierce's realistic and unsentimental writings earned him the nickname Bitter Bierce. His short stories are among the finest of the 19th century. He successfully experimented with several literary genres and was the first to employ Western settings in Gothic fiction. He joined the Union Army and actively fought in the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. After resigning from the army, he wrote and edited various local journals including The San Francisco News Letter, The Argonaut, and The Wasp. He became West Coast's leading writer and critic. Bierce is renowned for his ghost and war stories, the latter being based on his own experiences. He also wrote poetry but his most famous work is The Devil's Dictionary. Originally a newspaper serial, it was published in book form in 1906 under the title The Cynic's Word Book. His other well-known writings include An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, A Little of Chickamauga, On a Mountain, Three and One are One, Two Military Executions, My Favourite Murder, and A Watcher by the Dead. Bierce's end is as intriguing as his books. In 1913, he went on a tour of old Civil War battlegrounds and after a letter to a friend written in December of the same year, vanished without a trace. His disappearance remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1495280780
• ISBN 13: 9781495280788
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 62