100 Ways to Improve Your Writing (Mentor) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "It would be a shame to bring an entire writing project to a halt just because you didn't know how to spell gyroscope or schnapps..." (more)
Key Phrases: Sturge Thibedeau, Tom Wolfe, Random House

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A complete course in the art of writing and an essential reference for any working or would-be writer of any kind. Step-by-step it shows how to come up with ideas, get past writer's block, create an irresistible opening, develop an effective style, choose powerful words and master grammar, rewrite, and much, much more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Signet (October 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451627210
• ISBN-13: 978-0451627216
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,055 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars User-friendly, witty, humorous, and practical little book., January 2, 1999

By A Customer

I use Gary Provost's 100 WAYS as the textbook in my Internet writing course (Personal Writing) for Lansing Community College. Students tell me, and I agree, that the organization of the book, its conversational tone, its concrete examples, and its unintimidating size and appearance are all features that make it a book they LOVE to read and will keep. It doesn't feel, look, or read like a textbook.

Gary Provost's honesty about his own dislike for starting a writing assignment is disarming and important for students to see. Provost also makes readers comfortable with him when he admits the enormous risk inherent in writing a book about writing: He knows there must be thousands of readers just waiting to find an error in his work and to take two points off with a sharp red pencil!

Finally, Provost's section on cliches is a delight. The entire section, which warns readers to avoid cliches, is written in a series of -- what else? -- cliches. Nice touch, and funnier than a crutch (oops)!

Gary Provost is an artist, as are all good writers. The artist in Provost succeeds delightfully in this little book. 100 WAYS is Provost's Picasso-like sketch of Don Quixote with the windmill waiting in the distance to be overcome.

Buy this book, use it, enjoy it, learn from it, teach with it, keep it.

Dale M. Herder, Ph.D. Professor of English and Vice President Emeritus Lansing Community College Lansing, Michigan

86 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So small that it's even hard to find! - but TOO helpful -, July 19, 2000

By	Manny Hernandez "Author of Ning For Dummies" (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Not too many times, after you've left school do you sit back and go through your writing critically, in order to improve it. I believe this book to have a quality unlike many others: it takes you by the hand, and if you give it the necessary time, and USE the tips given, you'll soon realise you're writing in ways you never thought possible. It teaches you how to be critical of your own work, how to listen to what you write, how to look at things from a different perspective (put yourself in your reader's shoes, for example). It has so many ways in which it can help yourself, and yet, with Provost's humor, you never grow tired of it.

As of today, I'm past the middle of the book, and I have mixed feelings: on one side I don't want it to be over (I've just learned SO MUCH with it...) on the other I can't help to go through the rest of it to learn all that it has to offer (I guess I'll reread it later on, anyway!)

I have not read such a small but helpful book in a long time. It might easily translate into the best spent 5 bucks ever, if you're into writing.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic - Not just what he tells you, but how , July 12, 2005

By	frankp93 "frankp93" (Danbury, Connecticut United States) - See all my reviews

I've kept my yellowed, dog-eared copy close at hand since I bought it in the eighties. Provost's writing is direct and uncluttered and he quotes authors such as Hemmingway, Bradbury and Fitzgerald as models of effectiveness. His own examples are often hilarious - which means they'll stay with you for years. The 100 Ways are grouped by category to avoid a feeling of randomness. Sure, the book is 20 years old and you won't find a lot of techie pop-culture references in it (though somehow I doubt the author, now sadly passed on, were he writing today, would have veered much from his chosen style.) Buy it, learn from it. Keep it close by.

(Provost's later book "Make Your Words Work" expands on many of the same ideas and includes exercises. Unfortunately, it's out of print and tough to find.)