Writing for the Information Age (Hardcover)

by Bruce Ross-Larson (Author) "The first precept of this book: keep your writing light, especially at the beginning, to engage your readers, not repel them..." (more)
Key Phrases: library leaders, Mother's Day, Wall Street, United States

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
One weekday issue of The New York Times, it has been said, contains more information than was possible to glean in a 16th-century lifetime. With so much information out there, how do you obtain and sustain a reader's attention? Not, it turns out, with Tolstoy-esque meditations on the hay harvest. Instead, says Bruce Ross-Larson in Writing for the Information Age, you should keep your writing "light, layered, and linked." Ross-Larson's book itself is written like a series of linked Web pages. Each two-page spread contains a heading, techniques, examples, and comments. The format is disconcerting at first, but it successfully mirrors the style of the type of writing (business reports, Web sites) it promotes. Ross-Larson is a fan of short paragraphs, bullets, charts, and pull quotes. Write, he says, "as if you are giving directions to a visitor." "Be brief," he insists, "unless you have a reason not to be." Though it may be unpleasant to think of infobytes as writing, it is also a relief to come upon someone like Ross-Larson--someone who is able to uphold the principles of good writing as he makes the adjustments needed to compete in the age of endless information. --Jane Steinberg

Product Description
An Elements of Style for the twenty-first century.

In today's society, a wealth of information can be obtained at the touch of a button. But while information is abundant, time, unfortunately, is not. How do you present your material in a way that grabs—and holds—the attention of your audience?

Whether you are writing a report, drafting email, creating a Power Point presentation, or building a Web site, this book shows how to use language that is easily accessible, never oppressive. It explains how to organize content in progressive, digestible detail, allowing readers to navigate a document's contents and to move quickly to areas of interest. And it describes how to link ideas within a document and across the mediums of print, Internet, and CD-ROM.

Each two-page spread covers one subject and is linked to other subjects for further study. More than one hundred sets of recommendations, backed by concrete examples, cover everything from common grammatical mistakes to the basics of using charts and tables.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; CD-ROM edition (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393047865
• ISBN-13: 978-0393047868
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #401,194 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The right book at the right time, July 27, 2005

By	William Polm "bill197" (Murrieta, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book lives up to its title. It offers sound and insightful advice on how to write and communicate well and compellingly in this information-intense age.

All of us are bombarded constantly with massive amounts of information, advertizements, news clips, and on and on. It's a cute trick to get someone to read your material these days--most of us are experienced "avoiders," easily turned off. So if you want busy-people to read your words, you need to write them right. This book, without wasting words, and with constant helpful examples, tells you exactly how to do that.

If I were a professor of English at a university, I would make this my main textbook for basic composition and also advanced writing classes. It is packed with key writing know-how. It should be required reading (better: required practice too) for everyone seeking to graduate college, graduate school, and maybe even high school as well.