Customer Reviews

The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well

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Over the years, I have relied on various works to instruct and guide my efforts to write more effectively. For example, Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, Zinnser's On Writing Well, and Hacker's Rules for Writers. To them I now add this book. The Book on Writing is widely adopted (or recommended) by school, college, and university instructors. I think it will also be of great value to just about anyone else who needs to improve reasoning and reading as well as writing skills. LaRocque divides her 22 chapters within two parts, "A Dozen Guidelines to Good Writing" and "Language and Mechanics." The chapter titles suggest several key points, all of which are evident in the non-fiction of masters such as George Orwell and E.B. White. For example:

Chapter 1: Keep Sentences Short, and Keep to One Main Idea Per Sentence
Chapter 5: Use the Right Word
Chapter 7: Prefer Active Verbs and the Active Voice
Chapter 8: Cut Wordiness
Chapter 12: Get Right to the Point. And Stay There

Although these and other of LaRocque's guidelines may seem obvious, my own experience as a classroom teacher suggests that few students seem to be aware of them...and even fewer follow them. (FYI, I taught English for 13 years in two New England boarding schools -- Kent and St. George's -- and for the past 10 years have been an adjunct professor of English at a local community college in the Dallas area.) What sets LaRocque's book apart from almost all others which cover much of the same material is that her personal, indeed conversational style establishes and then sustains a tutorial relationship with her reader; also, throughout her book, she includes hundreds of real-world examples of writing which is correct or incorrect, appropriate or inappropriate, effective or ineffective.

In Chapter 23, LaRocque includes "A Brief (But Not Necessarily Easy) Quiz" which I encourage everyone to take before reading anything else in the book. The quiz consists of 20 sentences. LaRocque then identifies "common grammar and punctuation problems that trouble many people," followed by "A Pronoun primer" because she asserts (and I agree) that proper use of pronouns will solve most of the most common grammar problems. By first taking the quiz and then reviewing the explanations and pronoun primer which follow, most readers will have a strong motivation to absorb and digest the material provided in the other 24 chapters.

I anticipate that many of them will then purchase copies of The Book on Writing to be given to family members, friends, and associates. It would be an especially appropriate birthday, holiday, or graduation gift to students as well as to those recently embarked on their career, perhaps accompanied by a copy of Orwell's A Collection of Essays and/or Essays of E. B. White (Perennial Classics). Both are also available in an inexpensive paperbound edition.

Paula LaRocque, well-done!

This author has impeccable credentials, having worked in journalism all her professional life. She has been a newspaper editor, corporate seminar leader (in writing and communication), college professor, and author of many books. She puts a lifetime of writing, editing, and the teaching of writing into this book. No wonder it is so good.

She divides it into three parts:

Part I - a dozen guidelines in 80 pages: Keep sentences short, and keep to one main idea per sentence; avoid pretensions, gobbledygook, and euphemisms; change long and difficult words to short and simple words; be wary of jargon, fad, and cliche; use the right word; avoid beginning with long dependent phrases; prefer active verbs and the active voice; cut wordiness; avoid vague qualifiers; prune prepositions; limit number and symbol; get right to the point. And stay there.

Part II - Chapters 13 - 22, 10 points in 80 pages: This part is the meat, is the hardest to achieve, and is about telling your story. She fills it with examples from famous and not-so-famous authors, good writing and bad:

LaRocque: Creative writers can strengthen their work with allusions or quotations without explaining or attributing them. This is especially true of quotations, if they're well known. Sometimes both writer and characters can have fun with allusions or quotations, or otherwise find them useful in clarifying the action.

In Ruth Rendel's "Shake Hands Forever," her sleuth Inspector Wexford says on the phone to one of his investigators: "Howard, you are my only ally." Howard responds: "Well, you know what Chesterton said about that. I'll be at that bus stop from five-thirty onwards tonight and then we'll see."
Wexford put on his dressing gown and went downstairs to find what Chesterton had said. "There are no word to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one...." He felt considerably cheered. Maybe he had no force of men at his disposal but he had Howard, the resolute, the infinitely reliable, the invincible, and together they were two thousand.

Pertinent as Chesterfield's words are to Wexford's situation, it would be awkward for Rendel herself to use them. By giving the allusion to a character instead, she maintains her invisibility as a narrator while telling the reader something about the characters, their interests, and relationships as well. The allusion, and Wexford's reaction, also help the reader understand Wexford's state of mind.

Part III - Language and writing mechanics in 35 pages. Dispelling the myths, the middle chapter of three, tells you that: You can and should split infinitives or verb phrases when the results flow better; you can end a sentence with a preposition if it is not clumsy; starting sentences with "and" or "but" is frequently attractive; you can use contractions in formal writing when the result sounds better; you should retain the serial comma in all cases; you shouldn't hesitate to use "that" when it makes the sentence more clear; finally, you should use the article "a" rather than "an" before "historic" because it sounds better.

LaRocque suggests there is literary and grammatical agreement amongst the authorities and graciously names about 10 competing books that any professional would recognize. That must mean that when looking for the right book - they're all going to give you the same advice - you should choose one readable enough and comprehensive enough to suit your taste. This is definitely one to consider - a top notch choice.

For anyone who wants to improve his/her writing, be it a novel, report, or personal correspondence, there is no better guide than Paula LaRocque's The Book on Writing.

She defines and illustrates such divers topics as wordiness, jargon, vague qualifiers, archetype, and many more. Writing in which the narrative is elegant, concise, and easy for the reader to follow is decidedly not easy. After reading LaRocque, the verity of Mark Twain's admission that, "I would have written you a shorter note if I had had the time," will be more fully appreciated.

This is not a dry, pedantic `how to' book on writing. It is an entertainingly easy to follow guide on not only what to do, but just as importantly, what not to do. Building interest and suspense, creating word pictures, use of appropriate metaphor, and other writing techniques are explained and illustrated in this superb book.

It seems there are a lot of people who think they can write an authoritative book on the art of writing. It is always a wonderful surprise to find one that actually knows what they are talking about and can convey their expertise is a clear and concise manner. Author Paula LaRocque is one of those few and shares her knowledge in her book "The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well". She divides the book up into three sections - A Dozen Guidelines to Good Writing, Storytelling, and Language and Writing Mechanics. Through the use of illustrative texts both before revision and afterwards she clearly illustrates each item as she discusses it. This is one of the best books on writing and should be read by anyone wanting to move their writing up to the next level.

There are many books that tell you how to write, but read with the verve of a chemistry text. Ms. LaRocque shows you how to write well, but with the ease of sipping a good cup of coffee. This book is well-organized, cleanly written, and keenly insightful. It embraces the whole of writing -- whether of great novelists or office managers. She's as comfortable with the structure of sports stories and office memos as the clever sonance in the names of Faulkner's Snopses. There is no hint of the literary snob. In the clear voice of your favorite teacher, she identifies the practices that separate pointless prose from enduring literature and effective memos from bulletin board trash. This is really good and useful stuff.

The book may have great content (as all the 5 star reviews would indicate), but the formatting for the Amazon kindle makes it very tough to comprehend. The book needs a good technician to go through and make sure that all of the example text is indented, bolded, or otherwise set out from the normal (author's) text of the book. As it is, you'll be reading along and suddenly it seems the author is talking about something totally non-sequitur. It then takes a moment to realize that oh, this is some other example text she will be analyzing. It is quite jarring. When the author starts quoting sections of the example text, things get particularly mystifying as it appears that sections of text are just randomly repeating themselves.

If you are interested in the Kindle version, be sure to download the sample first to make sure you know what you are getting into. I hate to give only a 3 star review to something that would appear to be pretty good, but the product I obtained was the kindle edition, and that is what I am reviewing. Amazon really needs to segregate reviews by edition in some cases.

Professional writing coach, consultant, award-winning journalist and assistant managing editor at "The Dallas Morning News" from 1981 to 2001, Paula LaRocque offers her impressive expertise in The Book On Writing: The Ultimate Guide To Writing Well. Individual chapters informatively detail just how to make prose more accessible by eliminating pretensions, unneeded euphemisms, and overly long dependent phrases, as well as strengthening storytelling skills, debunking the myths of writing mechanics, and more, The Book On Writing is an excellent and highly recommended guide to clarity of thought and printed word.

The Book on Writing by Paula LaRocque is a very good primer on how to write well. It is easy to follow and easy to digest, both are important to aspiring writers. The examples provided are mostly by name authors (Elizabeth George, P.D James, and the Mighty Elmore Leonard to name a few)or newspapermen at the Dallas Morning News (perhaps a few too many of these but that's understandable with her backgrou).


The advice is almost entirely useful. Chapter 25, the Style Guide alone makes this book worth having. In a few short pages, Paula LaRocque counters some of the most frequently encountered writing shenanigans. She provides excellent examples and definitions of writing concepts, including some that have tripped up big name writers. Her pages on irony are particularly excellent.

There are only two criticisms I would make.

First, the writing advice is a bit too general. This book seems to be aimed at everyone from fiction writers to business writers. So there are chapters that are almost useless to me and many chapters that are almost useless to business writers. Specialization and narrowing her focus would have made this a five star book. But the chapter that don't apply to me are easily skimmed or skipped on re-read. But if there is any room for improvement, I'd say she should have written this as two volumes, one for fiction writers and one for non-fiction.

Second, Paula LaRocque provides many positive examples of what to do. She also provides several examples of what not to do. For me, personally, the negative examples are counter-productive. They get lodged in my head and threaten to creep out when I write. That's just how I learn. It's very possible that other writers will benefit greatly from the negative examples.

Finally, this was a very good work but it wasn't transcendent. There is lots of good advice but 90% I already knew. At this point, I'm increasingly looking for something new to learn. I did pick up a few tips, the aforementioned 10%, so I'm glad I got this and read it. I think this book is ideal for inexperienced writers. I plan on buying a copy and giving it to my niece.

Reccomended.

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read this book, and I only wish I had read it before starting college - it would have made things go much more smoothly, I'm sure!

Part 1: A Dozen Guidelines to Good Writing
I learned so much from just the first twelve chapters that I stopped reading for a while and started going through my blog posts to see where I could make them more readable and concise. My favorite passage in this section comes from chapter 2, which is entitled "Avoid Pretensions, Gobbledygook, and Euphemisms."
"The fact is that there isn't anything very intelligent about pretentious and abstract writing. To the contrary, one hallmark of intellect is the ability to simplify, to make the complex easy to understand. Anyone can be unclear."

Part 2: Storytelling
The middle chapters in this book concern themselves with the deeper issues of what makes up a compelling story. LaRocque gives clear, helpful explanations of archetypes and major story types, as well as discussing how to create word pictures using a variety of tools, including metaphors, similes and irony.

I was especially interested in her advice on writing versus editing, since I often fall into the trap of jumping into a blog post without much planning and then editing as I go instead of getting everything out on paper first. How much easier would it be following this advice:

"Before laying hand to keyboard, you write a sentence that captures the essence of the whole piece of section or chapter....Then you make a brief, informal outline that includes beginning, middle, and end....
Sit down and write like mad, allowing no distraction, answering no phone, checking no fact.... Stifle the impulse to edit as you write. You'll lose momentum if you do."

She also recommends reading your work aloud when you are ready to edit, as this makes it easier to find the bumpy parts that need a bit of polishing.

Part 3: Language and Writing Mechanics
As someone who has always enjoyed the details of grammar and punctuation, I had a lot of fun reading these last few chapters of the book. And I even learned a number of things that I either didn't know or had wondered about.
I greatly appreciate LaRocque dispelling some common myths, specifically those about not splitting an infinitive or a verb phrase and not ending a sentence with a preposition. She also answered some questions I had about the use of the serial comma, which has been quite helpful already!

Whether you write for publication or for pleasure, I would highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to improve their writing style.

(I received a review copy of this book for free, and all opinions and comments are my own.)

I have to admit when I was approached to read and write a review of The Book of Writing by Paula LaRocque for my blog, I was a touch apprehensive. I was eager to read the book and hopefully learn tips to improve my writing. But I wasn't sure I'd have the motivation to actually finish it and write a review. After all, most writing books tend to be a bit boring.

Between college, grad school and teaching both college and high school writing courses, I have read my fair share of writing books. Most of them tend to stick to purely grammatical issues, and it seems like they all cover basically the same problems.

This is why I was pleasantly surprised by LaRocque's book. First off, her writing style is so easy and enjoyable to read. Her examples are surprisingly fun; she gives wonderfully overwritten and verbose examples of what not to do and then follows them with a cleaned up version.

Secondly, I love LaRocque's take on good writing, which is to be as clear and concise as possible. The fewer words you can use to get your point across, the better. She proves that using fewer words can often be much more powerful than flowery descriptions, but she also admits that different situations call for different styles, an admission not all writing experts make. For example, though an advocate of the active voice, LaRocque admits that the passive voice is preferable in some cases.

Another great thing about this book is it is not dedicated to grammar, and while mechanics are discussed, they do not monopolize the text. Instead she focuses on more advanced writing issues, like avoiding wordiness, using metaphors well, and building suspense.

As I read this book, I found myself analyzing what I was reading and writing and looking for ways to make it tighter and more vivid. I know I have a long way to go, but I'm excited to have a book that is so easily accessible to guide the way.

If you are looking for a book that can help you improve your writing, check out The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well. When I go back to teaching, if I am given the opportunity to choose the course text, I will definitely opt for The Book on Writing.