Cut It Out: 10 Simple Steps for Tight Writing and Better Sentences - Softcover

Swart, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1550597582 ISBN 13: 9781550597585

Publisher: Brush Education, 2018

Synopsis

If your writing needs a pick-me-up, here’s a triple espresso. You don’t have to be a grammar whiz to improve your writing. This quick guide delivers maximum results with minimum pain.

If you’re a student, Cut It Out will help you write better essays and earn higher grades. If you’re a professional, Cut It Out will make you a stronger communicator in every facet of your written work.

Using uniquely Canadian vignettes, professional writing coach Laura Swart teaches you how to avoid the 10 most common writing errors, trim excess words from your sentences, and eliminate telltale signs of weak writing. Say goodbye to meandering prose, and say hello to powerful sentences and paragraphs.

About this title

About the Author

Laura Swart is passionate about writing and teaching. She taught academic writing at the University of Calgary for over twenty years, encouraging students to find and raise their writing voices. She is a published novelist and the Director of I-AM ESL, an English-language school that uses story and song to teach the intricacies of English to refugees. Laura lives in Calgary with her husband and two children.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever slumped over an essay and blurted out one of the following?

• I don’t care what a gerund is! I just want a better mark on my next assignment!
• My writing is abysmal. But I have four classes, a part-time job, and a Bernese mountain dog to care for. I don’t have a lot of time!
• I loathe grammar sites and grammar handbooks. They’re boring and impossible to navigate.
• English is my second language, and I can’t find my mistakes. English verb tenses are crazy!

If so, then read on. You’ll learn how to write powerful, concise sentences without becoming a technician of English grammar. You’ll obliterate excesses, creating openings to delineate your weighty ideas. And most importantly, you’ll humour your professors by submitting intelligible essays and assignments.

How to Use This Book

You’ve probably heard it said that writing is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. I don’t completely agree with that ratio; writing is in many ways a transcendent affair. But certainly, you will not improve with the wave of a hand. You must do the time. You must learn how to see―how to imitate as Hans-Georg Gadamer defines it: understanding essence. You must discover who you are as a writer.

In this book, I’ve outlined ten common sentence errors that perhaps have caused your grades to dip below the surface. I begin each chapter by stating―and violating―one of the rules. Then, I give a sample of deplorable writing that you and I together will repair.

There is no answer key at the end of the book; writing isn’t about right and wrong. There are rules, certainly―but then there is instinct. There are landmarks. And the landmarks, like the inuksuit, will guide you through an often-barren landscape and invite you into a larger narrative that is always evolving, always unfolding.

As you read, you’ll find bolded terms that are defined in the glossary; each term is given both a colloquial and a conventional definition.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brush Education
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1550597582
• ISBN 13: 9781550597585
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80