Recommend a great writing guide for me?
I need to get better at writing, especially college papers (usually of the research variety). For the most part, I’ve got grammar down; what I need help with is the more stylistic elements of writing. For example, how do you come up with an introduction? A conclusion that restates the main points, but isn’t bordering on being so similar to the introduction that it borders on repeating the intro verbatim? How do you know when it’s time to switch to a new paragraph when you aren’t clearly switching from one big argument to another? How do you know when passive voice is appropriate?
I need something that really breaks down all of these into step-by-step instructions, not just with overarching statements. I already have the Chicago Manual of Style and Turabian for the technical rules.
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If you want something to start out, I would really recommend Evergreen by Susan Fawcett.
For example, if you wanted to learn about how to write introductions, it has the following suggestions, together with illustrations and examples:
(a) Single sentence thesis statement
(b) General intro to specific thesis statement
(c) Case study or illustration
(d) Surprising idea or fact
(e) Begin with contradiction
(f) Direct quotation
Or for conclusions:
(a) Call to action
(b) End with final point
(c) End with question
(d) End with story / case study / example
Now I personally don’t believe in template essays, but if you’re looking for a starting point, i would go for Evergreen.
If you PM me your e-mail address I can send you sample pages (they don’t seem to be avaliable on amazon) so you can have an idea.
I also use Academic Writing – a handbook for International students
Also worth checking out is the online OWL at Purdue
though I think this site is particulary helpful for addressing very specific stylistic problems that you might have. e.g., Eliminating Wordiness.
This is going to depend somewhat on the field in which you are working – a scientific paper, for example, will have a very specific format which is different from that of a paper in another field, and formats can also differ between scientific fields.
“The Elements of Style” by E.B. White is a classic in the field.
@janbb Elements of Style really isn’t spelling it out the way I need it to. I think it’s more useful as a reminder once you have the principles down, not as help for getting them in the first place.
@Aethelflaed I haven’t looked at it recently but from the details, it looked like the OP was looking for writing advice rather than a style manual per se which he/she already has.
@janbb Oh, well, then that’s my bad for not communicating more clearly.
Oh – you were the OP! My bad for not reading the poster’s name! :-)
On Writing Well by Zinser
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