Books about Ross larson from Amazon.com

Whether you are composing a Web page on the Internet or agonizing over an annual budget report, these books are the key to clarity, accuracy, and economy in any writing task. Offers more than 100 model sentence types in a catalog format, giving writers many interesting and provocative ways to say what they mean. Writers looking for a more striking way to open a sentence will find these options: the announcement, the editorial opening, the opening appositive, the opening absolute, and the conjunction opening, among others. Examples of each sentence type ensure the reader's understanding of the concepts..
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In the first part of this useful book, the author shows how to solve common problems of writing The reader will learn how to recognize common problems of writing The reader will learn how to recognize words and phrases that should be cut; how to shorten cumbersome sentences; how to arrange the elements of pairs, series, and compound subjects and predicates; how to recognize and rectify mismanaged participles; and how to be on the lookout for the better word. The second part of the book consists of more than 1500 recommendations for cuts, changes, and comparisons that editors make to produce writing that is concise and effective..
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Bruce Ross-Larson's Effective Writing wraps three of his little books about writing--Stunning Sentences, Powerful Paragraphs, and Riveting Reports--into one volume. With these three little jewels, the author aims to eradicate sloppy writing from Web pages, office memos, budget reports, and the like. For Stunning Sentences, Ross-Larson inspects and categorizes well-wrought sentences of all shapes and sizes by the likes of Vladimir Nabokov, Henry Luce, and Mary Lee Settle. He isolates every type of sentence imaginable, from imperatives and fragments to "cascades" (sentences that, well, cascade), in an attempt to identify just what effect choice of sentence structure has on the reader. What does adding an extra conjunction to a series do to a sentence? What does dropping a conjunction do? A terrific tool for making a writer conscious of the impact of his or her writing at the sentence level.

Once you've got sentences down, it's time to move on to paragraphs. Surprise: A paragraph is more than "a collection of sentences framed by an indent and a carriage return." It also has to be "unified, coherent, and well developed." Ross-Larson starts with the opening paragraph, which needs to "grab your readers' attention, rivet them to your message, and propel them through your argument." From there, he elucidates the many ways to organize a paragraph, and then the many ways to link each of your well-toned paragraphs to one another. He provides many fantastic examples from The Economist and other sources.

Finally, it's time to put it all together. The significant word in the "Riveting Reports" section of the book is plan. Define your message, define your audience, define your purpose. Then figure out, paragraph by paragraph, how to present your message to your audience to achieve your purpose. Use examples, Ross-Larson insists; "an ounce of example," he says, "is worth a ton of abstract generalization." And try taping your completed draft up on the wall. It's an ideal way to see it all at once, and excellent for slash-and-burn editing. --Jane Steinberg.
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Whether you are composing a Web page on the Internet or agonizing over an annual budget report, these books are the key to clarity, accuracy, and economy in any writing task. Covers everything from the first spark of inspiration to the final draft. Writers will see how a series of careful questions will lead them to the messages of their reports, and will learn how to let those messages drive the structure of the piece. From this foundation they will be able to create a paragraph-by-paragraph plan of their entire report. A final chapter explains the author's techniques for editing reports of any length..
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From the Publisher Think you have a way with words? Whether you're a student or a teacher, an assistant or a business executive, even a writer or an an editor, most likely your writing can be enhanced and improved. Enter Edit Yourself, Bruce Ross-Larson's clear-cut, concise guide to grammar and the written word. In Part I, he puts you at the editor's desk, revealing the most common cuts, changes, and comparisons made for clearer, crisper, and more effective sentences. Train your eye to spot errors: be on the look for the better word, and more. Part II ties it all together with more than 1.500 alphabetized recommendations, providing simple and straightforward ways to improve your writing. Edit Yourself is an invaluable manual that belongs on the reference shelf of any one who writes, whether it's once a day or once a year..
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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.
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