Customer Reviews

The Dictionary of Concise Writing: More Than 10,000 Alternatives to Wordy Phrases

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Use this book before you use an editor. No one will be as capable as you of initially editing your writing for wordiness, IF you have the "The Dictionary of Concise Writing" at your side.

It's easy to use and durable. It has 400 pages in two parts. Part One is "Words and People," with concise advice about concision, and Part Two, beginning on page 45, is "The Dictionary of Concise Writing." The dictionary alphabetically lists wordy phrases with "alternative expressions and real-world examples."

This book is an excellent tool. If you are not an experienced writer or editor, it is easy to write a prolix sentence. This book should be used by everyone who has to write anything. If your writing is concise, it will save you time and help your reader understand what you mean.

The Dictionary of Concise Writing is a book to be read from cover to cover by every wordsmith in any discipline or profession if for no other reason than to gain the realization of just how "shoddy" much of our writing is. -- Nancy Berger

This is brilliant! This is exactly what I have been looking for. As a translator, I often have to convert wordy dreck into readable English -- it is too easy to be influenced by the wordiness of the original, and pass it through the filter of translation. For quite some time, I have been collecting as many books as I could find to help me edit and revise, but this is undoubtedly the best. -- Kirk McElhearn

I keep three books on my desk next to my monitor: a dictionary, the AP Stylebook, and Robert Fiske's The Dictionary of Concise Writing. I use it frequently. -- Gary B. Larson, Garbl's Writing Resources Bookshelf

The Dictionary of Concise Writing is a great book. -- Professor Charles Lave, University of California

Your book The Dictionary of Concise Writing is worth its weight in gold. ... Your book has been invaluable to me in ridding sentences of useless words. -- William G. Penner, Russian-to-English translator

I am forcing my associate to read Concise Writing because lawyers are schooled in its antithesis and I am learning a great deal myself despite having had the illusion that I was a competent butcher who wielded a terrible swift sword of fat-trimming from the legal garbage I face daily. -- Bill Martin, lawyer