books on writing

A Handbook for Scholars
by Mary-Claire van Leunen
Oxford Univ Press, 1992, Rev Ed. pp 348
PN146 .V360 1992. Regenstein Library.

Despite an unattractive title, this book is original. Arranged as topic items half page to several pages long, none of the items is copied directly from a wholesale manual. Attention is paid to some things not attended to elsewhere. Some topics may appear small, but always relevant, and the suggestions to the point.

In the two-page-strong item devoted to "let's", the author argues that "let's" is not a contraction of "let us" and shouldn't be spelled out that way. Yet I saw many occurrences of "let us" in technical papers, which have the convention of not using contractions. I'm not sure what to follow.

Today I read the appendix on vita and found many good suggestions on specifics ignored in other books. For example, Some schools need place designations, the example being Trinity College, Burlington, Vermont, while Some do not, the example being Johns Hopkins University.

The author puts a lot of weight on the relevance of the information. For example, in teaching experiences, the topics taught need emphasis, whereas the term (year, semester, etc.) of the experience do not.

She briefly touches on the mechanics and alerts the reader to be on your guard against flashy typesetting, lest you look like a professional job applicant. The effect to aim for is sobriety, even severity, and extreme understatement.

There are two points I'm not sure I want to follow. The first is the suggestion that, in an academic vita, plain chronological order is better than the reversed chronological order, which is usually recommended for business vitas. The second is her recommended format for publications. I tend to simply pick one journal bibliographic format that looks good.

The author stresses that there should be no omission or censorship whatsoever in the list of professional publications. This reminds me that some people have a list of "selected publication," which I suspect is actually a complete list.

The author is strongly against the idea of an "impressive coverletter." She says, It would in fact be more rational just to mail your vita off by itself, but for some reason that's not done. There's no such thing as a good coverletter, only one that avoids being bad. Here are a few things to avoid . . . . . . What's left. Very little. . . . Sincerely yours, the end. . . . Let your vita, over which you've labored long and hard, speak for itself. I tried to write impressive coverletters for the several applications I did. Now I think they likely got trashed pretty fast.

Communicating in Science: Writing and Speaking
by Vernon Booth
Cambridge Univ Press, 1985. pp 68.
Q223 .B66. Crerar Library.

the revision has a longer title:
Communicating in Science : Writing a Scientific Paper and Speaking at Scientific Meetings
by Vernon Booth
Cambridge Univ Press, 1993. 2nd ed. pp 94

This is a classic. Short. Direct. Practical.

Elements of Style
by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White
Longman, 2000. 4th ed. pp 105.

This small book has, according to my guess, never been out of print since its debut in 1959. From time to time the publishers would do it a moderate rewrapping in order to attract new students, which is unnecessary since both authors are long dead. Just reprint. Presumably every American between the ages of seventeen and seventy knows this book.

I didn't remember the book as magnetic. Actually, short as it is, I didn't finish it. Now I have a copy from a book clearance sale. So, will re-read sometime.

The very first version of this classic is now online at http://www.bartleby.com/141/.

White was a world federalist and once said (copied from Wikipedia)

Government is the thing. Law is the thing. Not brotherhood, not international cooperation, not security councils that can stop war only by waging it...Where does security lie, anyway - security against the thief, the murderer? In brotherly love? Not at all. It lies in government.

Primer of Mathematical Writing
by Steven G. Krantz
American Mathematical Society, 1997; 223 pp.
QA 42 .K73 1997 Eck

The writing style is informal, easy to read. It follows no formula. The author is opinionated, and many of the opinions appear to be out of personal experience in a long career.

How to Write & Publish a Scientific Paper"
by Robert A. Day
Oryx Press, 1994. 4th ed.
T11.D330 1994. Crerar Lib.

(There is a 5th edition, which is not allowed to be taken out of the John Crerar Library.) The author is a professor of English but is a veteran in scientific publishing and education of scientific writing. See a previous post

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
by William K. Zinsser
HarperResource 2001. 25th Annv ed. pp. 320.

This is a classic and required text for varopis writing classes.

Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing
by John R. Trimble
Printice Hall 2000. 2nd ed. pp 198.

Easy Writer: A Pocket Guide
by Andrea A. Lunsford and Gerald J. Alred
Bedford Books 2002, 2nd ed., pp 310.

Mainly about mechanics and citation formats.

Pocket Style Manual: Updated With Apas 2001 Guidelines
by Diana Hacker
Bedford/St. Martin's 2001. 3rd ed.

The Little English Handbook: Choices and Conventions, with MLA Update
by Edward P. J. Corbett, Sheryl L. Finlke
Longman 1998. 8th ed. pp 273.

I liked this small pocket reference. As I remember, it's mainly on mechanics and formats.

The Gregg Reference Manual
by William A. Sabin
McGraw-Hill/Inwin 2000. 9th ed

This is an authoritative, complete reference for minutes in grammar and formats, things like: how to write numbers in text (when to spell out, when to use arabic?), format of letters (margins, components, etc.), to hyphenate or not to hyphenate, blah, blah.

It's been awhile since I turned to my copy for help last time. I'm confident the answer is in there whenever I need it. I hate its spiral binding.

Comes in handy at a much more friendly scale than the Chicago Manual of Style.

Words into Type
by Marjorie E. Skillin, Robert Malcolm Gay
Prentice Hall, 3rd ed. 1974, 585 pp, ISBN 0139642625

The Writer's Presence: A Pool of Readings
Donald McQuade and Robert Atwan, eds
Bedford/St. Martin's; 4th ed., 2003; 944 p.
Short essays on a broad ranges of topics.