The Art of Writing: Four Principles for Great Writing That Everyone Needs to Know by Peter Yang
published by TCK Publishing
In this very practical and accessible book, Peter Yang argues that there are four principles that can elevate anyone’s writing. They are economy, transparency, variety, and harmony. Yang devotes a chapter to each principle, making his case and providing numerous examples along the way. He ends the book with some thoughts on writing. His advice is solid and his examples are illuminating.
The book is extremely clear, accessible, and enjoyable to read. It’s not a dry tome about grammar rules—as he points out, there are other books for that. This is more about what comes after the grammar. It’s a very useful book which I could relate to. Having spent over a decade in academia, I’d become quite used to the kind of writing that occurs there. Once someone came to me stressed about a paper they were trying to start. ‘How am I going to get 5 pages out of this?’ they wondered. ‘What do you have so far?’ I asked. They read me the two sentences they’d written. ‘There’s your problem,’ I replied, ‘Why use only two sentences when 5 paragraphs will do?’ I proceeded to help them stretch their two sentences into a page and a half. Very few people would consider academic writing to be clear, concise, or scintillating. I could have used this book when I left academia, because it took me a long time to learn to write in a more accessible way for a wider audience.
Whatever kind of writing you do or want to do, this book can provide suggestions for how to make your message clear and your writing enjoyable to read. Whether you write a blog, want to write a novel, or simply want to communicate better via writing, this book can help.
I thank TCK Publishing and the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
5 comments:
Writing is a skill that you can never really stop practicing, isn't it? This sounds like a good book.. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, it can be a useful book for anyone who wants to communicate via writing. And practice definitely is a good thing! 😃✏️🖊️🖋️
Darn it! I wish I had this awhile back.
I have to give "my story" at an ACA meeting this Friday. I have to fill up 45 minutes. I have about 15 minutes written down and now have to find a half and hour of filler.
The book sounds great.
I hope this isn't presumptuous, because you know best how to tell your story, but in terms of filling the time, one or two things came into my head (and you might already have this stuff in the 15 minutes!). I assume that part of what you'll be talking about is stuff that went on in your childhood and how it affected you. So you have examples. Can you extend those examples and show how the same childhood experience impacted you at various points in your life? Maybe talk about how you overcame and what it felt like the first time you handled something differently because of the inner work you've done? What helped you and what didn't? How do you approach certain types of difficult situations now based on what you've learned and what's an example of that?
I'm thinking about what I might ask if I was doing a life story interview with you. What would you ask someone else? Maybe you could sort of interview yourself to get that half hour's worth of material?
Thanks Shari. Food for thought. Thinking from a different angle.
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