Editing Made Easy: Simple Rules for Effective Writing
Bruce Kaplan
Language: English
Pages: 112
ISBN: 0942679369
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
An earlier version of Editing Made Easy, published in Bruce Kaplan's native Australia, has become a best-selling resource for writers in much or the English-speaking world. Because of the different spellings and conventions of American English, it has been unavailable here--until now. The new book is thoroughly revised, updated, expanded, and Americanized. It maintains the attractions of the original--friendly, easy-to-understand rules for improved writing. It's a quick read, and an easy reference for anybody who wants to communicate clearly with American English. The book is non-technical in its approach. It doesn't cover grammatical terms such as present perfect progressive or correlative conjunctions. It boils grammar and style into a few simple rules that will serve you well whether you are a journalist, a student, a novelist, a business executive, a blogger, or anybody else who would like to make effective use of written language.
world—wine, women and song and more wine, women and song. For examples, see how colons and dashes are used throughout this book. Semicolons Be careful how you use semicolons in general text. They can create a sentence that is clumsy and too long. Use a period instead, then write another sentence. The best use for semicolons is to separate a series of items when each item already contains commas. For example, the result of a horse race might show the winner’s name, the jockey’s name and
academic writing, and personal expressions such as e-mail and Facebook. But most of the rules apply across the board. Essentially, this book is about plain English. The advice will help you add punch and clarity to reports, feature articles, press releases, hard news, newsletters, brochures, business communications, short stories, staff bulletins, business proposals, non-fiction books and—yes—even novels. Writing is a demanding, exacting, rewarding and enriching craft. Proficiency in editing is
White) lives in Los Angeles, the latter (Jane Black) lives in New York. If there are three people, the third would be the last, not the latter. Carol White, Jane Black and Jill Green are friends. The former (Carol White) lives in Los Angeles, Jane Black lives in New York and the last (Jill Green) lives in Denver. get to the point how to write a news story The introduction The first paragraph, or introduction, is the most vital part of any piece of writing. This introduction: • must
sum up clearly what you want to say. • must tell the reader what your story is about. • must get to the heart of the matter. • is the bait, or the hook, to grab the reader’s interest. When writing an introduction, remember the who, what, where, when principle. For example: Four students (who) found $1 million (what) on a New York subway car (where) yesterday (when). In many cases, it is a good idea to add the how. For example: Four students found $1 million on a New York subway car
sentence: It is important for a person to know his rights. But this excludes half the population. The same issue arises if we change the sentence to read her rights. Who says the person is a female? But we could write, for example: It is important for a person to know his or her rights. Or: It is important for a person to know his/her rights. Another solution is to use the impersonal one (meaning a male or a female). Then we would have: It is important for one to know one’s rights. But