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Style and Composition |
  
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Style and Composition |
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We recommend two superb style manuals. Both are models of clear, concise, colorful writing.
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Strunk, William, Jr., and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York: Macmillan. 1999.
Order a copy here: Elements of Style. |
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Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction. 5th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.
Order a copy here: On Writing Well. |
In addition to the counsel found in these books, we sometimes offer the following writing tips:
1. Make good use of subheadings. Subheadings within chapters serve several purposes: They divide the text into manageable portions. They show the organization of a chapter and thereby guide readers along. They perk interest, especially if they are well crafted. And they assist review. One, two, or three levels of subheadings are most common, depending on the complexity of the work. Aim for parity of length, tone, and content among each level.
2. Watch your paragraph lengths. Paragraphs will likely run to more lines on a book page than they do on your computer file or printout. Think in terms of fewer lines per paragraph on screen than you would expect to see in a published book, especially if you are writing a popular work.
3. Check paragraph unity. You can check the integrity of your paragraphs by seeing if each can be summarized in one sentence. Read your paragraph summaries in succession to see if each paragraph is a clear and distinct step in a progression of thought. You may find that you need to divide a paragraph that has more than one main thought, combine two that say much the same thing, or rearrange the sequence of paragraphs.
4. Write about people doing things. Jesus demonstrated that even abstract principles can often be taught in stories. Seek to make your writing personal (get people into the act), active (use strong verbs that express doing, as well as thinking and feeling), and concrete (write about things that engage the five senses).
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